The only good song on The Who’s ‘It’s Hard’, according to Roger Daltrey
Starting out creating beautifully defiant mod rock anthems, before moving into a deluge of artistically innovative album releases, The Who were among the most diverse and exciting groups of the 1960s and beyond.
Every Who album seemed to offer something different, building upon the songwriting mastery of Pete Townshend in new, interesting ways, and establishing the band among the greatest rock outfits to ever grace the airwaves. The only problem was that the band never knew when to call it a day.
Unlike many of their mod rock contemporaries, The Who were able to adapt and develop the youthful sounds of their early material into something much more profound and mature, as signalled by iconic albums like Tommy or Quadrophenia. While these albums did afford The Who a greater degree of longevity, they might also have caused the band to carry on for longer than was strictly necessary.
Shortly after the release of the band’s 1978 album Who Are You, which once again saw the band adopt a different direction from their previous work, drummer Keith Moon tragically died at the age of only 32. It should absolutely go without saying that the controlled chaos of Moon’s adrenaline-fueled drumming was essential to the sound and appeal of The Who, right from the very beginning of the band. So, when he died, there was an expectation that The Who would split up. After all, how could they continue without that essential part of their sound?
Nevertheless, The Who were back out on tour within a year of the drummer’s passing, carrying on in a purported attempt to honour their fallen comrade. Inevitably, this period in The Who’s history was inarguably their lowest point, with the band struggling to adapt to its new line-up, including former Small Faces drummer Kenney Jones in place of Keith Moon. On top of that, both Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey began to work more often on solo projects around that time, too.
Instead of bowing out gracefully, The Who made the questionable decision to head back into the studio, producing two universally-panned albums in the form of Face Dances and It’s Hard, both of which the band have since largely disowned. In hindsight, the albums aren’t offensively bad, but they are a long way away from the high standards set by The Who up to that point. Still, there is one glimmering highlight of that best-forgotten period, at least according to vocalist Roger Daltrey.
Despite Daltrey’s open animosity towards It’s Hard, he has highlighted the song ‘Cry If You Want’ as a definite highlight of the band’s early 1980s output. “I think the statement, the song that most captures what The Who feel at the moment is a song called ‘Cry If You Want,’” he once shared, per Ultimate Classic Rock. “I think it should have been the single… I think that really does state how it feels to be 38 years old and singing in a rock band called The Who!”
It’s Hard produced three singles in the form of ‘Athena’, ‘Eminence Front’, and ‘It’s Hard’, none of which boasted the same quality as ‘Cry If You Want’. Perhaps the only saving grace of the band’s material at that time is that it was roundly ignored, for the most part. ‘Athena’ was the only single from the album to chart, and even then it only reached number 40, a far cry from the all-encompassing success of their earlier work.
‘Cry If You Want’ might be a favourite of Daltrey’s, but, in reality, it is the best of a bad bunch when it comes to that 1982 album. The glory days were most certainly in the past; it is no wonder that the band embarked upon a ‘farewell’ tour that same year.
