Roger Daltrey explains the continued popularity of The Who
With the 60-year anniversary of The Who approaching next year, frontman Roger Daltrey has been reflecting on the continued popularity of the rock ‘n’ roll band ahead of a forthcoming Teenage Cancer Trust concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
The 79-year-old musician mused: “We’ve been very lucky because Who music is very much on its own as an acquired taste.”
He continued: “It’s never the most popular rock or the most popular anything really but it sits in a very unusual place.” In their history they have had two number two singles, but have never reached the number one spot.
He further explained to the PA News Agency (via the Belfast Telegraph): “It doesn’t sit in a pocket that dates, you play some of our records today and they sound as modern as they did the day they were released.”
He concluded: “I think it’s the style that (Pete) Townshend writes in and the position of his psychology that you wrote from, this is so different than anything else that’s out there.”
As Townshend has said himself regarding this: “[Music] has a function which is to help us understand what is going on in the world and to help us understand what is going on inside us, so the purpose and the duty of somebody who makes music is very different to the way it used to be. […] And I think I was the first to articulate that and try to explain it.”
The forthcoming Teenage Cancer Trust concerts at the Royal Albert Hall are set to take place between March 20th and 26th.
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