John Crowley's LJ (RSS Feed)
11-15-2007, 07:38 PM
Just caught up with a Rick Moody essay in Conjunctions:46, Bard literary journal (thick book, actually). I was considering it for the Discard pile (L and I are weeding our libraries for the first time since marriage almost) till I realized it was an issue that had an essay of my own in it, and then Moody on The Who: his most favored group as it was mine, though he is (at least) fifteen years my junior, maybe more, and was first introduced to the group via the Ken Russell movie of "Tommy", which I did not deign to see.
So a lot of people like The Who, and many who do were alarmed and saddened about Pete Townshend's involvement with child pornography, which he made an account of convincing to the British authorities, who didn't charge him. Moody's essay turns on the question of what if anything we can learn about Townshend and child sex abuse, and child sexual feeling, from the music. But a long part of it deals with his feelings about "A Quick One While He's Away." This was The Who's first "rock opera" and came about as a result of a challenge from someone to write an opera in rock. (Moody tells the whole story somewhat desultorily.) He analyzes it with great feeling and insight, though (missing what to my ears is an obvious homage to Dylan in the "This town" section. And about the transcendent last three minutes ("You are forgiven") he says: "In all honesty it's hard for me to listen to this section of "A Quick One" without weeping."
Well me neither.
In addition to its manifest beauty and power, it was an astonishing thing to come upon in 1967, pre "Sergeant Pepper". You knew then that a new musical form had been invented, which was unlimited, which could make conscious reference to its forebears and history (as the "Soon be Home" section makes reference to Ferde Grofe and other Western cliches).
I had tickets to hear The Who perform "A Quick One" and other things at Fillmore East in April 1968. I made up buttons that said "You are Forgiven" and planned to give them away (no, not sell them). Martin Luther King was assassinated on the day before the concert and it was cancelled.
(Original Post) (http://crowleycrow.livejournal.com/70155.html)
So a lot of people like The Who, and many who do were alarmed and saddened about Pete Townshend's involvement with child pornography, which he made an account of convincing to the British authorities, who didn't charge him. Moody's essay turns on the question of what if anything we can learn about Townshend and child sex abuse, and child sexual feeling, from the music. But a long part of it deals with his feelings about "A Quick One While He's Away." This was The Who's first "rock opera" and came about as a result of a challenge from someone to write an opera in rock. (Moody tells the whole story somewhat desultorily.) He analyzes it with great feeling and insight, though (missing what to my ears is an obvious homage to Dylan in the "This town" section. And about the transcendent last three minutes ("You are forgiven") he says: "In all honesty it's hard for me to listen to this section of "A Quick One" without weeping."
Well me neither.
In addition to its manifest beauty and power, it was an astonishing thing to come upon in 1967, pre "Sergeant Pepper". You knew then that a new musical form had been invented, which was unlimited, which could make conscious reference to its forebears and history (as the "Soon be Home" section makes reference to Ferde Grofe and other Western cliches).
I had tickets to hear The Who perform "A Quick One" and other things at Fillmore East in April 1968. I made up buttons that said "You are Forgiven" and planned to give them away (no, not sell them). Martin Luther King was assassinated on the day before the concert and it was cancelled.
(Original Post) (http://crowleycrow.livejournal.com/70155.html)