“It’s just not good enough”: the Pete Townshend songwriting attempt The Who hated
As one of the longest-running British invasion acts, The Who now operates with just two original members, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey. The pair first met in the early 1960s with a common goal of bringing an innovative edge to London’s burgeoning rock ‘n’ roll scene. Townshend and his school friend, John Entwistle, joined from a background in jazz, while Daltrey had influences in skiffle and blues music.
This formative trio initially played with Doug Sandom as the fourth member and drummer. Sandom was a bricklayer by day, and with a 15-year age gap between him and his bandmates, a chasm began to form. Townshend, as the de facto leader of the band, eventually ousted the drummer in favour of a younger replacement who was more consistent with the “hope I die before I get old” mantra. After playing with a temporary session drummer for a while, the band stumbled upon Keith Moon at an early gig.
Outward appearances showed a group of fashionable mods with fraternal chemistry that rivalled the harmony exhibited during their riotous stage shows. However, from the very beginning, the band disguised discord behind closed doors. Throughout the 1960s, tension simmered between the foursome, with several violent confrontations and a close shave to total dissolution in 1970 as they grappled with Townshend’s ambitious Life House rock opera.
The Who’s success with My Generation and later Who’s Next and conceptual works like Tommy and Quadrophenia ultimately held them together. No matter how much Daltrey’s knockout blow to Townshend’s chin in 1973 stung, Townshend knew he had one of the finest rock vocalists and the irreplaceable voice of The Who on his side. Meanwhile, Entwistle and Moon are regarded as two of the finest rock musicians in their respective fields.
In return, Townshend was the dynamic visionary responsible for most of The Who’s creative output, with competitive rhythm guitar skills to boot. Throughout the band’s first 15 years together, Moon, Entwistle, and Daltrey could rely on Townshend to devise compelling rock operas and innovative pop songs like ‘Baba O’Riley’. However, the group lost a degree of creative urgency and performative chemistry following Keith Moon’s tragic death in 1978.
Records released with Moon’s replacement, Kenney Jones, certainly had their moments, but something was clearly missing. It would be unfair to blame Jones for any decline in quality. Instead, the band seemed out of sync without a crucial cog with whom they had gelled for many years. “I actually got on very well with Kenney, I just didn’t feel ever that he was the right drummer,” Daltrey once told Flashback. “And people didn’t ever seem to listen to what I was saying. They’d say, ‘Well, Kenny’s a great drummer!’ And I’d say, ‘Yes, I know Kenney’s a great drummer, but he’s not the right drummer!'”
During this precarious period, Townshend became less creatively engaged with The Who and made a breakthrough in his solo career with 1980’s Empty Glass. Following this success, The Who regrouped for one final studio album, It’s Hard, before their supposed “farewell” tour and a lengthy hiatus.
Speaking to Mojo in a 2024 interview, Townshend remembered tensions riding high at the time because his bandmates felt he was sequestering the best material for his concurrent solo record, All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes. At the time, Townshend had just come out of rehab after a life-threatening fling with heroin. “I turned up, and they were in Glyn Johns’ studio in Surrey making a record, and Andy Fairweather Low was in my chair,” Townshend recalled. “I love Andy, so I didn’t mind, but God knows what they were recording.”
Townshend joined the sessions, offering his newly written material, but encountered a bitter reaction. “I don’t know what I’d given them. But I won’t accept what Kenney Jones said: ‘You’ve taken the best songs for your solo album and left us with this dross,'” he continued. “That was insulting. But I probably needed time to come up with a few more tailor-made songs for the record.”
Daltrey concurred with Jones’ critique of the substandard material. “Roger came in and said, ‘I’m not agreeing to this album going out. It’s just not good enough,'” Townshend recalled. The guitarist was aware that the album wasn’t up to the band’s usual standards, but they were obligated by contractual terms and the squandered budget to release the album. “We had to put it out. It should have been more diverse, or maybe it was too diverse. I don’t know,” Townshend finally reflected. “I’ve listened to it recently, and it’s not half bad. Really, what The Who needed at the time was a fucking psychotherapist.”
It’s Hard was The Who’s final studio album, recorded with John Entwistle, who passed away in 2002. Although the band steered clear of the studio before 2006’s Endless Wire, they returned for a one-off Live Aid performance in 1985 before touring profusely through the 1990s and into the 21st century. Uneven as It’s Hard might be, it is difficult to fault the enduring single ‘Eminence Front’.
