On his way home from the festival, Pete popped a new
psychedelic, STP, that provoked a lengthy trip he would later describe
as "painful." Pete swore off drugs and began to look for other paths
to higher consciousness. It was then he found Meher Baba ("Baba O'Riley" from the
track more often called "Teenage Wasteland"). Baba, like the Maharishi for The
Beatles, would become Townshend's spiritual guru.
A month after Monterey, The Who were
back in the U.S. to begin their first real tour of North America, opening for Herman's
Hermits (only slightly less absurd than Hendrix opening for The Monkees). The production cost more than it made, the instrument-smashing
conclusion to their act only part of the reason. More often the costs incurred were from the destruction offstage, as Moon honed his alter ego wild man. He may not
have actually driven a car into a swimming pool at a Holiday Inn (Daltrey says yes, everyone else says no), but
he did more than enough damage along the route, blowing up
toilets and ransacking hotel rooms like a marauder.
 |
| "See Me, Feel Me," Woodstock |
One of his wildest moments of
mayhem came after performing "I Can See For Miles" on The Smothers
Brothers Comedy Hour on September 15, 1967. Following "My
Generation," the TV performance ended when Keith blew his drum kit apart
with explosives. The publicity propelled "I Can See For Miles" to No. 9 on the Billboard chart, their highest position for a
single in the U.S. In the U.K., however, the band had been dubbed old hat and the iconic single barely squeaked
into the Top Ten. The single's disappointing sales in the U.K. created a lack of
confidence in Townshend. Feeling he could no longer write hit singles for The
Who, he turned his full attention to completing a "rock opera," the first of
its kind (don’t confuse the rock opera with a concept LP).
The Who Sell Out from late 1967 didn't boost his confidence with regard to sales, but has of course over the years become a critical darling. Troubles and tribulations marred 1968, beginning with
The Who's Australia tour in January. The Who were targets for Australia's
right-wing press who derided them as drunken louts. Pete vowed never to return (it took 36 years for him to do so).
Finding spirituality through
Meher Baba was a catalyst for the "Amazing Journey" of a young boy
who finds his calling after being rendered "deaf, dumb and blind" by
a childhood trauma. Several Who singles tanked in the interim, including "Magic Bus," which
only inspired Townshend to remain focused. (It's interesting that despite The
Who's overall virtuosity, history mostly extols Townshend with disregard for what
many argue are the greatest rock vocalist, bassist and drummer – and Mooney
indeed has this writer's vote).
During the summer '68 tour, Pete
gave a long interview to the fledgling magazine Rolling Stone, discussing in depth his plans for a rock opera, the intellectual meaning of the medium, and his next project, Lifehouse. The full Lifehouse project would never come to fruition, and many felt it hindered Pete's finishing
Tommy. Indeed, disputes with Kit Lambert, The Who's manager, led him to a nervous breakdown early in 1969. Tommy
was finally released in May to great critical acclaim, leading in to
The Who's performance in July at Woodstock. The band would release Live at Leeds
the following year and in 1971 release what many/most regard as The Who's
masterpiece, Who's Next (a honed down version of Lifehouse) in August. Pete's
next project, originally a musical history of the band, turned into the
story of a troubled Mod, Jimmy who Idolized The Who. The recording of Quadrophenia (this writer's favorite Who LP) began
in May 1973 in a brand-new, half-completed quadrophonic studio built for
the band. The album was release in October of that year.
Despite
the critical acclaim and the LP’s success, there was a new antagonism growing
within the band. Since MCA's quadraphonic format was poor, Quadrophenia poor, was
reduced to stereo with Roger hating the result and feeling that Pete had buried his voice
under thick layers of synthesizers. Rehearsals for the tour turned violent as a
drunken Pete (hmm, what happened to Meher Baba?) got into a fight with Roger,
who subsequently knocked him out. The new material, performed onstage with elaborate backing
tapes, proved unwieldy and the show was whittled down with almost every performance. Then,
on the first show of the U.S. tour (November 20, 1973), Keith OD'd on PCP. (Incredibly, a substitute from the audience, Scott Halpin,
was brought up to play drums for the rest of the show.) To top off the tour, the
entire band was thrown into jail in Montreal after Keith and Pete destroyed a
hotel room.
