“Should never have been released”: The Who album Roger Daltrey always regretted
No artist can be playing one genre for the rest of their lives. While a band like The Beatles have gone down as one of the greatest rock bands of all time, it’s hard to think of tunes like ‘Eleanor Rigby’, ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, and ‘Come Together’ all under the context of one genre. Everyone wants to explore, but Roger Daltrey had his limits regarding what he wanted to sing with The Who.
Granted, whatever the Mod powerhouses were playing all came down to what was going through Pete Townshend’s head at the time. The whole point behind their music was to reach further than what typical rock and roll was supposed to be, and while ‘My Generation’ was certainly great, it couldn’t hold a candle to what they would eventually do when they started making records like Tommy and Quadrophenia. After the operatic years, though, things started to take a different turn.
The Who By Numbers and Who Are You were fantastic records in their own way, but the issues with Keith Moon had grown far too big to ignore. ‘Moonie’ was fun to have around whenever they were partying, but it was clear that he was fighting a losing battle with alcoholism, and once he passed away, the band would forever be a shell of what they once were.
Realistically, no one would have faulted the band for wanting to retire The Who brand after Moon passed away. After all, Led Zeppelin did the same thing when they lost John Bonham, and both Daltrey, Townshend, and John Entwistle all had great solo careers to go back to, but it wasn’t like the idea of them continuing on wasn’t entirely without merit, either. Face Dances had ‘You Better You Bet’ on it, but the minute that It’s Hard happened, Daltrey realised something was wrong.
“I said, ‘Pete, this is just a complete piece of shit and it should never come out!'”
Roger Daltrey
From front to end, this feels more like a Townshend side project that happens to feature the rest of The Who on it. Outside of the fact that the guitarist sings on one of the only singles from the record, ‘Eminence Front’, the keyboards sound like the antithesis of what they were shooting for on Who’s Next, almost sounding like a cheap way for them to get on the radio.
And for Daltrey, this was one of the final straws for him working with Townshend for a while, saying, “It’s Hard should never have been released. I had huge rows with Pete. I said, ‘Pete, this is just a complete piece of shit and it should never come out!’” Then again, it’s not like Townshend wasn’t aware that the dream was over in many respects before the album had time to grow.
If you listen to the lyrics to ‘Eminence Front’, the whole thing serves as a warning for anyone who dares to listen to the rest of the record. Townshend is admitting to everyone that the whole thing is a put-on for the audience and that they don’t want to continue on anymore, so getting one final hit out of the deal was their equivalent of them going out with a whimper instead of a bang.
And despite the band wanting to keep the Who spirit alive on their albums like Endless Wire, it’s hard to look at It’s Hard without feeling a little bit dirty inside. Because while there are some great tracks on the record and Townshend hasn’t lost any of his songwriting chops, all of the passion that they once had seemed to be sucked dry.
