NARRATOR: On the last gig of the trip, they smashed up their gear
for the first time on American television.
Keith bribed that sloppy stagehand to overstuff his drum
with a dangerous amount of explosives.
ENTWISTLE: Moon managed to fulfill the outrageous part of the band
and we just let him get on with it and he was outrageous.
(KEITH MOCK CRYING)
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
(CYMBALS CRASHING)
Good, guys.
(HAPPY JACK PLAYING)
(SINGING) Happy Jack wasn't old, but he was a man
BARNES: I think obviously Pete wanted a bigger challenge
than just a three-minute single, you know.
And he wanted to write something much more complex and detailed and layered.
(SINGING) The kids couldn't hurt Jack...
NARRATOR: In four years, The Who had released eight singles in the UK,
all of them top-10 hits.
Singles drove the market. Once the single happened,
you immediately went to an album.
As much as we loved the three-minute single,
the value was more than just a three-minute single.
And it could add up to a lot more.
NARRATOR: In December, 1967, The Who produced a piece of pop art.
TOWNSHEND: The only time that I'd even approached my art-school training
was in Who Sell Out.
Doing commercials, writing songs about products,
and all of that kind of stuff.
(SINGING) Coca-Cola Things go better with Coke
Tell us a little about it, because it's a very unusual concept.
We want the album to run very smoothly
and perhaps have the atmosphere of a pirate radio station,
so we've done a commercial for Jaguar cars, Heinz baked beans.
And each one, funnily enough, has opened up
a fairly unique opportunity musically,
which we wouldn't have got just through our normal numbers.
Keith, play what we did yesterday. Oh, you done, then?
PEEL: Could you do that? It'd be very bold of you.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
Pete realized he was onto something.
We knew the album was gonna be the new art form.
NARRATOR: Rock music changed the business in 1968.
That year, for the first time, people bought more albums than singles.
BARNES: I used to say the '60s was like a renaissance, almost.
But the one art form or means of communication
that was more important than all the others was popular music.
RADIO JINGLE: More music, more music, more music, more music...
(I CAN SEE FOR MILES PLAYING)
NARRATOR: The Who toured the UK, Europe, Australia,
they went coast-to-coast across North America twice.
(SINGING) I know you've deceived me
Now here's a surprise
I know that you have
'Cause there's magic in my eyes
I can see for miles and miles
And miles and miles
And miles
Oh, yeah
We put out I Can See For Miles,
and it quite clearly wasn't gonna change the world,
and it was the best possible thing I could ever write.
So, I just thought, "Well, what do we do now? We're fucked."
(SINGING) Here's a poke at you You're gonna choke on it, too
You're gonna lose that smile
Because all the while
I can see for miles and miles
TOWNSHEND: I went away and I thought, "I have to save this band.
"I have to do it.
"Kit can't do it. Keith can't do it. Roger can't do it.
"I have to do it."
STAMP: Pete comes up with this idea
of this deaf, dumb and blind boy.
The only way he connects with life
is he feels the vibes, right?
The vibes are music, right?
That was it. That was like...
You know the screenplay written on the back of a cigarette packet?
That's what Pete's idea was.
Well, it's a bit like an opera, but in actual fact, it's a rock opera.
It's modern music as such.
It's the story of Tommy, the deaf, dumb and blind boy,
and his journey through to extreme high levels of consciousness,
despite the fact that he's deaf, dumb and blind.
(PLAYING I'M FREE)
(SINGING) I'm free
I'm free
And freedom tastes of reality
It's all part of reincarnation and levels of consciousness and stuff like this.
Meher Baba stuff.
Baba might have provided spiritual glue
which made sense of the travails
this character was going through,
and the symbolism, if you like.
If you think about the wound of all the working-class war kids, right,
it's that we didn't have a voice.
You know, we couldn't see.
We all had exactly the same experience.
You know, when you went to Grandad and you said,
"What do you think made the fucking Germans do that?"
He'd go, "I don't want to talk about it!
"I don't want to fucking talk about it!"
You know, kind of, "Fuck off!"
(1921 PLAYING)
(SINGING) You didn't hear it You didn't see it
You won't say nothing to no one ever in your life
You never heard it
Oh, how absurd it All seems without any proof
TOWNSHEND: We had all these fucking lies we grew up with.
Tommy was so much rooted in my childhood story.
NARRATOR: Recording began in the fall of '68
and lasted six months.
Pete, at the time, was writing a song a week, and literally...
Or even a song the same evening
as we'd been in the studio in the afternoon.
And he'd come in the next day and say, "Here's the next one, and here's the next one."
TOWNSHEND: That was when the ideas from the other guys in the band
started to come in.
(SINGING) I'm your wicked Uncle Ernie
I'm glad you can't see or hear me
As I fiddle about
Fiddle about Fiddle about
John Entwistle came up with two really very, very powerful songs
about abuse and bullying that I couldn't write myself
because of my own childhood tenderness on the subject.
(SINGING) Down with the bedclothes Up with your nightshirt
Fiddle about Fiddle about Fiddle about
DALTREY: His input shouldn't be underestimated.
I mean, the antagonists,
like Uncle Ernie, or initially he is, and Cousin Kevin,
are just as important as the hero.
It gave the whole thing a balance.
Good morning, campers!
(SINGING) I'm your Uncle Ernie
And I'll welcome you to Tommy's Holiday Camp
TOWNSHEND: Keith Moon came up with the idea
that the temple, the bizarre church that I created,
should actually be a British holiday camp.
(SINGING) The holiday's forever
Ha, ha!
In that moment, all of the elements of it come together.
And instead of talking about the trouble
that we'd created a couple of years ago,
we were talking about the project,
we were talking about what we could do with it.
(SINGING) You don't answer my call
With even a nod or a wink
But you gaze at your own reflection, all right
You don't seem to see me
But I think you can see yourself
How can the mirror affect you?
INTERVIEWER: Can you explain, in any kind of way,
what satisfaction you get from it?
Yeah. Sexual.
I've always loved balls.
And to see big, shiny silver balls
running around a playground like this,
I can get a certain amount of satisfaction
building up a score that's gonna knock everybody else into oblivion,
which, you know, which I do often.
(PLAYING PINBALL WIZARD)
They came up with this idea of introducing pinball
into this bizarre, strange story.
It was going all over the place.
(SINGING) Ever since I was a young boy
I've played the silver ball
From Soho down to Brighton
I must have played them all
But I ain't seen nothing like him
In any amusement hall
That deaf, dumb and blind kid
Sure plays a mean pinball
BARNES: Pete said, "I thought it was rubbish."
He said, "I didn't know whether I should bother finishing it."
And he played it and everyone went quiet
until someone said, "That's the number one."
And he went (GROANS). You know.
He couldn't see that it was good.
(SINGING) He's a pinball wizard
There has to be a twist
A pinball wizard
He's got such a supple wrist
TOWNSHEND: Roger suddenly decided that he would be Tommy.
I was supposed to sing Tommy.
He said, "Can I be Tommy?"
And I remember thinking,
"Yeah!"
(SINGING) See me
Feel me
Touch me
Heal me
It was only really, though, when we got onstage with Tommy as a complete piece of music
that I really found my feet and found The Who voice.
(SINGING) Touch me
Feel me
TOWNSHEND: Roger suddenly became this different kind of singer.
(SINGING) Feel me
He'd never had that quality that he now has,
which is of going up to the audience and engaging them
and opening his body to them, you know, and that kind of nakedness,
instead of being a really tight little kind of, "I'm a vicious mug,
"don't get in my way" kind of thing.
(SINGING) Listening to you
I get the music
Gazing at you
I get the heat
Following you
I climb the mountain
I get excitement at your feet
It was a role. He actually lived each song as it went through.
(SINGING) I've got a feeling 21 is gonna be a good year
Especially if you and me See it in together
So you think 21 is gonna be a good year
STAMP: Rock 'n' roll was still being seen on a very bad level.
The sound systems weren't good. You couldn't hear it properly.
So we thought, "Well, let's use opera houses."
(SINGING) I had no reason to be over-optimistic
STAMP: The group played Tommy truly as an opera,
and it was, like, fantastic
'cause you had these ancient, beautiful acoustical places, right?
And this audience hearing their music
played this way for the first time.
NARRATOR: After 18 months of touring,
The Who played one final opera house in New York City,
the Metropolitan.
(PLAYING I'M FREE)
STAMP: They really didn't want us to go in there.
They really didn't want to put rock 'n' roll
in the Metropolitan Opera House, right?
The worst snobs turned out to be Americans, right?
We got in.
And when we got in, Decca Universal re-released Tommy.
It just sold again like five times what it had sold the first time.
It became like one of those huge albums.
That was the printing-money era.
(SINGING) Can you Can you hear me?
How can he be saved?
CURBISHLEY: Tommy was huge, and did take the band along on its coattails.
Tommy, in its own way, became as big as The Who.
(SINGING) Waking up on Christmas morning
Hours before the winter sun's ignited
They believe in dreams and all they mean
Including Heaven's generosity.
Peeping 'round the door to see What parcels are for free in curiosity
BARNES: They were developing this high-powered sound for live gigs.
And it's absolutely incredible
that you could get that fantastic, full, rich rock sound
out of just a guitar, a bass guitar and a drum.
(SINGING) Listening to you
I get the music
Gazing at you
I get the heat
Following you
I climb the mountain
I get excitement at your feet
Come on!
I started to feel accepted again in the band during Tommy.
TOWNSHEND: Roger became Tommy, became this figure, then it equalized.
And then we were unbelievably potent, because we were balanced.
It was a marriage, but it was a good marriage.
Those were glorious years.
(SINGING) Right behind you
I see the millions
On you
I see the glory
From you
I get opinions
From you
I get the story
(BEHIND BLUE EYES PLAYING)
(SINGING) No one knows what it's like to be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes
I think that Pete has always felt the pressure
of being the guy who came up with the ideas.
It was such a special gift that he had.
(SINGING) No one knows what it's like to be hated
To be fated
To telling only lies
DALTREY: I went through terrible periods
where I would want to be getting closer to him
but I had to push myself away because he was in a creative thing,
and you kind of felt that if you left him alone, it would be better.
But it must have been, for Pete, incredibly Ionely.
It must have felt, sometimes, that we didn't give a fuck about him.
(SINGING) I have hours, only Ionely
My love is vengeance
That's never free
It took a terrible toll on him. After Tommy,
they said, "Now what are you going to do next," you know?
NARRATOR: In 1971, Pete conceived the first interactive rock show.
He imagined fans connected to the band, the music, the art.
The futuristic performance was to be filmed for a movie and called Lifehouse.
The trouble is, with Lifehouse,
no one I've ever met, apart from Pete, ever understood it.
At the time, people just thought I was nuts.
NARRATOR: Including his mentor.
Behind my back, Kit Lambert was telling everybody that I was insane,
and that what we were really doing was making a movie of Tommy,
and he was directing it.
Pete said, "I've had enough of that.
"I mean, we're gonna be known just for Tommy. It's bigger than the band."
That was the point at which Kit just exploded the relationship.
(SINGING) No one knows what it's like to be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes
NARRATOR: In the spring of '71, Lifehouse was abandoned.
(PLAYING BABA O'RILEY)
The songs for Lifehouse became the basis
of The Who's most successful album, Who's Next.
The opening track was an anthem
named in part for Pete's spiritual guide, Meher Baba.
TOWNSHEND: The nerve of having something open
with that huge, long synthesizer intro, which...
Everyone in rock at the time said, "You can't have an intro like that
"'cause the radio won't play it," you know.
He claims, Pete says, that those riffs are...
That he put Meher Baba's birth into the computer, and this is what came out.
I'd, "Yeah, yeah, I know you, Pete, you're... Right."
You know, "Like hell."
(SINGING) Out here in the fields
I fight for my meals
TOWNSHEND: One of the first messages that I received directly from Meher Baba
was that he recognized me,
that I was one of his, as it were.
And he died two years later, so I never met him.
(SINGING) Don't cry
Don't raise your eye
It's only teenage wasteland
Sally, take my hand
Travel south 'cross land
Put out the fire
And don't look past my shoulder
NARRATOR: Following the tour for Who's Next,
Pete went to India to visit the tomb of his spiritual guide.
Beloved Baba sends his love to you.
He is always with you, in you and near you,
and he says, "Be happy and not to worry."
In a sense, I was engaged in some kind of sabotage, you know.
I was inside this very, very macho group that smashed its guitars
and had a reputation for being quite rebellious,
trying to spread this message of love and peace.
(THE REAL ME PLAYING)
(SINGING) I went back to the doctor
To get another shrink
I sit and tell him about my weekend
But he never betrays what he thinks
Can you see the real me, Doctor?
Doctor?
Can you see the real me, Doctor?
Oh, Doctor!
NARRATOR: In 1973, Pete crafted a second rock opera.
Quadrophenia was set against the rumble of the Mods and Rockers.
(SINGING) She said, "I know how it feels, son
"'Cause it runs in the family"
TOWNSHEND: I wanted Kit to be a part of Quadrophenia,
even though it was done and dusted.
Chris Stamp said, "Well, he's in New York,
"and he's got a bit of a problem. He's become a heroin addict."
DALTREY: After Tommy, the drugs changed.
We lost a bit of our vision.
The dynamic of wealth introduced into this family was what changed it.
Kit and Chris were fighting on a daily basis.
They began to fall apart as partners
and they began to fall apart as people.
It was quite obvious that Kit was now into quite heavy substances.
And money was going missing.
It wasn't a matter of they were trying to screw us.
They were just completely of control.
We became the problem, right?
So if we were to go, the problem would resolve itself.
Now, I've never understood that.
Because, although we may have been fucked up,
we could still utter one decent idea once a week from our stupor, you know?
So, I don't know. It ended.
NARRATOR: The band turned to Bill Curbishley to take over management.
I looked at the past contracts and what they were achieving as live performers,
and I felt that could be dramatically changed.
(SINGING) Bell boy!
I've got to get running now
Bell boy!
NARRATOR: Having set their affairs in order,
he urged them to tour Quadrophenia.
(SINGING) Carry the bloody baggage out
Bell boy!
Always running at someone's heel
NARRATOR: But Pete's new opera was much more demanding live than Tommy had been.
TOWNSHEND: What happened on Quadrophenia was is that I had absolute control,
and everybody involved in it was like my puppet.
And I think by the very, very end of it, Roger just got sick of it.
Roger and Pete had a fight in rehearsals.
DALTREY: Pete just got really angry with me.
Takes his guitar and hits me over the shoulder with it.
So the road crew, they jump on me.
I was holding Pete back and the roadies were holding Roger back.
And I hadn't done anything!
Pete turned around and said, "Yeah! Let me go! Let me go!"
So, I thought, fine. I let him go.
And he just came at me. He was so drunk.
And he walked up to Roger and...
I just managed to catch him with a very lucky punch.
Whack.
Completely knocked him spark out.
His feet left the ground and he hit his head on the stage.
And he was unconscious and I thought, "Fuck."
We were all exhausted.
It's a magnificent piece of work, you know, absolutely magnificent.
It's our towering triumph, Quadrophenia.
So, in a sense, you know, a little bit of blood spilt on the way is nothing.
NARRATOR: As boys, they played dance halls and pubs.
ANNOUNCER: Here they are, The Who!
NARRATOR: Less than a decade later, they were headlining stadiums.
As The Who developed, so had the business.
CURBISHLEY: Just think about the feeling to walk onto a stage,
and you've got 60,000 people out there to see you.
Adulation from masses of people is power.
And it distorts.
The adrenaline that you get from stage, it's incredibly good
when it's used.
But if you can't use it, it's incredibly destructive.
TOWNSHEND: Keith and John together were a dangerous double act.
I was very naive. I didn't realize how much coke they were doing,
as well as drinking. And Keith was doing everything else.
TOWNSHEND: Mandrakes to go to sleep. He'd...
Elephant tranquilizer.
Anything anybody gave him, he would do it.
DALTREY: Who knows what was going on in his brain?
I sometimes feel that he started to believe that he was invincible.
"I can take anything. I'm Keith Moon of The Who."
He was falling down with drug overdoses
on the stage during the shows!
I thought if we kept doing what we were doing, you know,
Keith was gonna die!
NARRATOR: After the Quadrophenia tour,
The Who did not take the stage again for 16 months.
DALTREY: We were off the road for long periods of time.
And that in itself was destructive to Keith.
Keith just used to go out on benders
because he didn't have nothing else to do.
BUTLER: He loved dressing up.
But the trouble is, he'd end up in a nightclub
with him dressed up as a tart or a cavalier.
And then 3:00 in the morning, you're going home,
and he's still that person.
(GIBBERING)
BUTLER: We would just book a hotel in London,
and he'd pull all the Swedish models out of Tramps for four nights
and, excuse my French, shag ourselves to death.
I used to drive him home, and he was like that in the car.
And I'd just get him outside by the gates,
"Oh, dear boy, what a brilliant four days.
"Let's do that again next week."
And, "Yeah, okay."
STAMP: Dougal, he was always there for Keith.
You know, he was a good roadie. He was a good driver.
He was a good... He was a good corner man.
NARRATOR: Moon's previous corner man was killed on the job.
In 1970, his childhood friend, Neil Boland,
was accidentally run over by Keith
during an alcohol-fueled scuffle outside a nightclub.
Nobody's really clear on what happened that night,
but Keith's journey of experience with alcohol and drugs
basically gathered speed.
NARRATOR: In 1974, Moon moved to Malibu,
home of the Southern California surfer music he loved so much.
(SINGING) Here by the sea and sand
Nothing ever goes as planned
I just couldn't face going home
It was just a drag on my own
BUTLER: He wanted to get into movies.
You know, people say, "I make a great movie star."
At the end it became too much.
I made a phone call to Bill Curbishley,
and I said, "Look, I'm leaving 'cause I can't do it anymore."
But I did say to Bill, "Get him home as soon as possible
"'cause the way he's carrying on, he's not gonna be here much longer."
(SINGING) Nothing is planned By the sea and the sand
NARRATOR: In 1975, Tommy was immortalized on film.
But not by Kit Lambert.
Director Ken Russell wrote a new script for the rock opera.
GALLAGHER: The film is appalling, right? It's dreadful.
And everybody in it really should question their fucking judgment,
particularly Eric Clapton.
Bit pants. Little bit pants.
TOWNSHEND: I've always been a fan of Ken's,
both as a person and as a visionary,
and I love it.
I just love it.
NARRATOR: Tommy spent 14 weeks atop the British box office,
and garnered three Academy Award nominations.
As his most popular creation took another lap around the world,
Pete went to work on a new album.
TOWNSHEND: I would think, "I can't go through that again."
"I just can't go through it again.
"I can't come up with some great idea
"and push it through. I don't have the arrogance, I don't have the...
"I don't have the balls to do it again."
(SINGING) It's clear to all my friends that I habitually lie
I just bring them down
TOWNSHEND: Where we saw our future was in movies.
We'd already done Tommy,
we'd managed to get a foothold in Shepperton Studios,
we thought that we were gonna be about movies.
NARRATOR: Manager Bill Curbishley would strike a deal
to produce the film of Quadrophenia.
As they pursued the new popular art form,
a new generation began taking over music.
GOLDSMITH: Punk, I hated it.
And I couldn't see the point of spitting and all that crap.
It was the revolution of the uglies.
NARRATOR: And the uglies loved The Who.
(SINGING) You think that we look pretty good together
You know, they come under that category a little bit
as big stars that weren't approachable.
(SINGING) A substitute for another guy
TOWNSHEND: We were frightened. It was like the French Revolution.
It could have ended up with, you know, The Beatles, the Stones and The Who
being beheaded in public.
(SINGING) I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth
Me and Cookie went down to Speakeasy,
which was an after-hours place in London.
And Townshend was in there, already drunk.
TOWNSHEND: Went screaming after Jones and Cook
and kind of going, you know, "If you wanna take over, fucking take over.
"Just fucking get on with it!"
You know, "Good fucking luck!"
STEVE JONES: I think we might've been all a bit tipsy, but he was hammered.
And he was going up to people saying, "Who are you? Who are you?"
To everyone.
NARRATOR: In 1977, Keith returned to England.
Pete had been writing new material.
(SINGING) Who are you?
Who, who? Who, who?
Who are you?
Who the fuck are you?
NARRATOR: That December, they filmed a performance
for the band's latest project,
a documentary film.
(SINGING) Who are you?
Tell me who are you? Who are you?
NARRATOR: It was their first time back onstage in more than a year.
(SINGING) Oh, tell me who are you?
Who are you?
I woke up in a Soho doorway A policeman knew my name
He goes, "You can go home tonight
"If you can get up and walk away"
I staggered back to the Underground
And the breeze blew back my hair
I remember throwing punches around
And preaching from my chair
Who are you?
TOWNSHEND: Unfortunately, the band didn't play as well,
but we all, I think all of us, had such a good time together.
But we were all wrecks by then, you know, so it's kind of like...
(SINGING) Who are you?
Who, who? Who, who?
I really want to know
Who are you?
Who, who? Who, who?
Oh, who the fuck are you?
NARRATOR: In the spring of 1978,
they went back into the studio for the first time in three years.
That summer, Moon began taking prescription medicine to try to curb his drinking.
TOWNSHEND: Keith did that thing...
I said, "Now come on, come on. Give it a real go."
And he'd start to try and play and, "I can't, I can't."
I'd say, "Come on, try again," and he'd...
(IMITATES MOON SIGHING)
And in the end he threw down his sticks, and he went,
"I'm still...
"Having a bad day,
"but I'm still the best fucking
"Keith Moon type
"drummer in the world!"
(SINGING) Who are you?
Who, who? Who, who?
I really want to know
NARRATOR: Who Are You was released August 18, 1978.
(SINGING) I really want to know
Who are you?
Who?
I really want to know
Come on, tell me Who are you, you, you?
Who are you?
NEWSCASTER: He was found unconscious in a London flat this morning.
NEWSCASTER 2: A doctor was called, who pronounced Moon dead.
NEWSCASTER 3: He was found dead by his girlfriend early today. He was 32.
It was a silly mistake that made him take a handful of Heminevrin
and it disables the esophagus and, you know, he couldn't throw up, and...
He just always took pills in handfuls. It was just a habit that he had.
CURBISHLEY: He was never gonna grow old gracefully.
I don't think he was destined to make old bones.
I suppose he was designed in such a way to be remembered as he was.
It is the end of an era.
We're gonna try and go on,
but the one thing that everyone must understand,
it will never, ever be the same. That died.
But it was very strange 'cause there's something underneath
determined not to let the one thing that we'd all created,
including Keith,
die.
The music, not to let it die.
(SINGING) Long live rock!
I need it every night
Long live rock!
Come on and join the line
Long live rock!
Be it dead or alive
NARRATOR: Less than eight months after Moonie's death,
The Who returned to the stage with keyboard player Rabbit Bundrick
and drummer Kenney Jones.
Kenney Jones was a good mate from The Small Faces.
And we'd always admired him as a drummer, and we liked him as a guy.
Anything can change, especially, you know, with Pete.
So, you just go with it and you got to know when to go with it.
STAMP: I went to see The Who for the first time without Keith.
And I'm standing at the side of the stage
and Pete goes off onto some sort of freestyle sort of riff,
you know, on his guitar.
And he turns to Keith.
Because he's gone as far as he can go.
So he turns to Keith to take over.
TOWNSHEND: Those moments, like on the stage when I...
I'm taken aback,
because I look and expect him to be there.
This is because it is like a marriage.
(SINGING) Long live rock!
Come on and join the line
A real sense of connection
and of life wanting to kind of go on like a wheel,
and thinking, "Well, everything that goes comes back again."
And the thing is is that with people, it doesn't work like that.
They don't come back again.
Let's have the biggest hand of the night
for Mr. Kenney Jones, our new drummer.
Hey!
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
Didn't know what I was letting myself in for, really,
to be honest. But there you go.
What happened to me was I started to drift into substances, you know.
Pete's addiction in 1979 was perhaps a reflection of, I think, the guilt that both,
I'm sure Pete felt, and I, 'cause I know I did.
That we I hadn't done enough to save Keith.
You know, even I started to do things I'd never done before.
You know, I felt very miserable for a long time.
JONES: Roger obviously was missing Moonie.
Not just onstage, but in many other ways.
And I think it really got to him a bit.
I didn't bank on the emotional elements, you know.
NARRATOR: During Kenney's first tour,
The Who played through the deadliest rock concert in US history.
Cincinnati was an emotionally devastating situation.
The band were like 20 minutes into their show.
The co-promoter came to me and he said,
"We got a problem up on the plaza level."
What happened is there was only one door to get through, and a staircase to go down.
So they all rushed.
CURBISHLEY: And those kids that fell
got trampled on.
The band were unaware of what was happening until they finished the show.
We had to go back to America a couple of months later and be grilled by the lawyers.
"Do you feel responsible for the people that died?" You know.
It still haunts me to this day.
I can't tell you how I felt about the parents of those kids.
Their kids have gone off to a concert, and they don't come home.
We all bear scars.
But you don't live
without having that map of life somewhere on your face.
(PLAYING EMINENCE FRONT)
NARRATOR: They released two albums in two years,
Face Dances in '81 and It's Hard in '82,
only to be savaged by some fans and critics.
TOWNSHEND: When you read the newspapers and the reviews, it's like,
"This album is the worst thing that's ever happened in the history of rock and roll."
You know, "Townsend has gone mad and is masturbating in public."
You know. "They may as well crawl away and die."
(SINGING) Sun shines
People forget
The spray flies as the speedboat glides
People forget
NARRATOR: The man who encouraged Pete to write works of art
died of a brain hemorrhage in 1981.
Kit Lambert was 45.
I didn't have an answer.
I couldn't work out what to do that would return the band to its halcyon years.
(SINGING) ...as the skier tracks
People forget
They forget they're hiding
It's an eminence front
DALTREY: What makes The Who special is that it's not even what's written.
It's the bits that you don't know are going to happen. And they come of thin air.
Some nights it makes it, some nights it doesn't.
But the nights that it makes it,
they were... That was the trouble with Kenney.
Those nights became fewer and fewer.
CURBISHLEY: It was Roger who pushed to get him of the band.
He didn't think he was right for The Who.
There is no right drummer for The Who.
There will be never be the right drummer for The Who.
It will only be Keith.
But there you go.
(SINGING) Eminence front
Yeah! Just an eminence front
It's a put-on
NARRATOR: In 1983, Pete officially dissolved the band,
just months before Tommy was reissued on a new format, the compact disc.
(SINGING) Bullshit! Bullshit
Yeah, yeah, yeah
We've just reached the end, you know?
That's the way I feel about it. I don't know why.
Bye-bye!
I can't wait to get out.
(SINGING) Got to dress to kill
Dress yourself to kill
DALTREY: You've been traveling on this thing
that's going a million miles an hour,
and all of a sudden it comes to a complete, dead stop.
And it's incredibly difficult to adjust,
because we haven't lived normal lives.
It's as though the world stops.
TOWNSHEND: At the time I was fairly convinced that I would do better as a solo artist.
I did a few songs. It was a pragmatic decision.
Whether it was the right or the wrong decision, I had to do something.
I think if we'd have continued to work, I think I would've been a casualty.
I blamed rock and roll.
And of course, after three or four years being out of front-line rock and roll,
I realized I was just as sick, just as mad
and, you know, just as overworked. You know, so...
It was me that was the problem.
NARRATOR: The Who returned to the stage on only two occasions
over the next 13 years:
A 20-minute set at Live Aid,
and an all-star tour for the twentieth anniversary of Tommy.
That's the weird thing, it's like soldiers that used to go out to war
and come back and just couldn't identify with, like, normal life anymore.
When you come home, it's like, I can't take this, like, normal existence.
BOB PRIDDEN: John lived for gigging.
He went out with his solo bands, and...
And it cost him!
He financed it. He didn't make any money. Just to be out there.
John was deeply in debt. I don't think it's any secret that he was.
Those years when The Who weren't working,
he continued to spend and live the lifestyle.
And I went to Pete and said, you know, "This is the only way he's gonna
"ever get a chance to dig himself out of the hole
"is to get... If you would get The Who back together."
(SINGING) Why should I care?
Why should I care?
I would never hesitate to consider, at least,
you know, that it might be something to do, because I would just think,
"Well, without him, I wouldn't even be here."
NARRATOR: Pete agreed to tour Quadrophenia in 1996.
The band brought in Ringo Starr's son, Zak Starkey, on drums.
As soon as we played those songs, Moonie was alive again.
(SINGING) Girls of 15
Sexually knowing
The ushers are sniffing
Eau-de-cologning
At the end, John was handed checks of well over two, three million dollars
and they were gone overnight.
NARRATOR: With John in financial trouble,
they agreed to yet another reunion in 1999 with just their basic lineup.
(SINGING) I've got a feeling inside
Can't explain
It's a certain kind
Can't explain
TOWNSHEND: John never seemed to go into depression.
As long as there was a nice big wardrobe with 15 pairs of shoes in it
and the obligatory serially monogamous girlfriend along, he was happy.
NARRATOR: Under the continued leadership of manager Bill Curbishley,
the band agreed to a series of live shows.
(SINGING) I can't explain
I think it's love
Try to say it to you
When I feel blue
But I can't explain
Something happened then. Pete became inspired again.
It was like the wheel was back on the barrow.
TOWNSHEND: We were just celebrating the old music.
I'd felt like we should just accept that, you know, that we had these great songs
and that, personally, I was never gonna be able to surpass them.
(SINGING) I said, I can't explain
DALTREY: Thank you very much.
We are honored to be here.
VEDDER: Music is an art form.
That art form includes rhythm, meaning and communication.
I've met people from different walks of life, and they've all been touched
in such a unique and pure way.
They really feel this deep connection.
So now you've got, for me, the greatest art form that ever existed.
(PLAYING WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN)
(SINGING) We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
CURBISHLEY: When we got that call about the concert for New York,
America meant so much to The Who, we had to go.
(SINGING) I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and I'll play
CURBISHLEY: I was standing just off the stage...
I mean, you know, for me, over all those years of watching The Who,
man, I've never seen anything like that.
(SINGING) We don't get fooled again
No, no!
EDGE: I was sitting with Bono.
We just... The two of us could not believe it.
Just the way they just owned that event, you know?
Over the TV.
(SINGING) There's nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced by the by
Just so much more powerful live than anyone else that was on the bill that night.
That show in New York, that could be one of the best illustrations
of the power of music.
Yeah!
(SINGING) Don't you get fooled
Don't you get fooled again
Never! No, no, no, no!
The sentiments to those songs, if I could explain it to you,
right, it would be too easy to explain it to you.
It's magic how those songs came from Shepherd's Bush, you know,
and mean as much to people 40 years later than they did when they were written.
You know, that's phenomenal. And that something you can't put into words.
It's just magic, man.
CURBISHLEY: They were back, in a big, big way.
Back as a four-piece. Back on the road.
It was like a rebirth again.
We had to go back and play there. We had a contract to play Las Vegas.
I flew out to Las Vegas. The next morning, got a call from my tour manager
saying they couldn't wake John up.
BUTLER: Let's put something into a little bit of perspective.
John was one of the best bass players in the world.
John died at the age of nearly 60,
with a woman in bed, after snorting cocaine.
Now, you think, "Hold on, John.
"You should have done this in the '70s. Not now."
The coroner's report of the situation in Las Vegas is quite clear.
He shouldn't have been there. He shouldn't have been doing what he was doing,
and it was crazy. It's kind of what he chose to do.
That's just how he was.
I did have a chuckle. I mean, if he was gonna go,
he couldn't have gone in a better way, really.
On tour, doing all the things he...
And being around the things that he loved best, you know.
I think all of us want to die onstage.
I mean, none of us wanna be just written off.
GALLAGHER: It gets more difficult as you get older.
How do I say this?
Let's say for argument's sake,
you're a 58-year-old guy who's been in a band from the '60s, right?
It's fucking frowned upon in this country.
It's like, "God, you fucking idiot.
"What are you doing, silly old man?"
We have this tendency to kind of take the piss out of lads like that.
I don't know why it is, you know?
We should keep going until it's over. We shouldn't stop.
(SINGING) They made my dream come true
Pete rang me back and said "I want to continue with this tour."
If we'd have split up and gone our own ways the next day,
I think we would have probably found it very difficult
to get back together on a stage.
NARRATOR: The Who performed four days later
at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
Pino Palladino was the band's first choice to fill in on bass.
Listen, we know this...
For some of the fans that have followed us for many years,
this is gonna be very difficult.
And we understand. We're not pretending that nothing's happened,
as Roger said earlier on. And it is difficult.
I can tell you with my hand on my heart,
that when I did look over there and he wasn't there,
I wanted to die. I just wanted to die.
(SINGING) This song is over
I'm left with only tears
I must remember
Even if it takes a million years
CURBISHLEY: If Moon was predictable, then John was unnecessary.
A great, great loss. Great loss, John.
I miss him so much, I can't tell you.
TOWNSHEND: What's actually now happened,
a further gift that John's death has given me,
is to enjoy an acutely emphatic relationship with Roger.
You know, we experienced John's death.
He saw me get arrested for, you know, a child pornography allegation...
(SINGING) How dare you wear a robe to preside?
How dare you cover your head to hide
Your face from God?
He was vilified. He was dragged across the fucking national papers
in a scurrilous way, you know.
And after months of investigation,
they established that there was nothing that he could be charged with.
In the end, nobody, much, is gonna listen to me.
But Roger Daltrey, his partner, he went to bat for him
and he was under a lot of pressure, Roger.
(SINGING) How dare you? Do you think I'll quietly go?
You are much braver than you know
For I can't die
Roger is the voice of The Who. And when you're growing up,
you just think that he wrote all those things
and he's singing them from his heart, and...
And then you realize it was coming from this guy, Pete.
That's when I started to realize there was something deeper going on here.
They're two incredibly strong forces
and they've relied on each other for years.
Since John died, we're probably musically more together.
I'm sure spiritually we are.
(SINGING) Will you have some tea
At the theater with me?
We did it all
Didn't we?
Jumped every wall
TOWNSHEND: I think Roger is the best, you know, interpreter of my work
that I could have ever hoped for.
(SINGING) Unraveled codes
Ingeniously
What's very interesting about what Roger and I are left with
is that we have a very pure relationship.
(SINGING) So seamlessly
We made it work
DALTREY: I recognize his genius and I love him dearly.
He's like a brother. You know, that's love.
Even though on the outside, and when you read things about what we did in the past
and how many fights we used to have,
you think, "These guys used to hate each other.
"Did we fuck?" You know?
Well, I didn't, anyway. I loved him.
(SINGING) A great dream derailed
TOWNSHEND: He's my friend, I love him,
and I'm standing by him, and he stands by me.
We can say what we like about each other now.
You know, it's not easy for either of us,
because we're so unbelievably unalike.
But, you know, we're kind of all we've got now.
(SINGING) One of us me
All of us sad
It is really not important whether I am, at the time,
getting on with Pete or he's getting on with me.
It doesn't matter. All that matters is what we create on the stage.
That two hours of music, that night,
and as long as that is still moving people
and sending people out with a buzz,
then we're succeeding.
(SINGING) Will you have some tea
At the theater with me?
(CROWD CHEERING LOUDLY)
One, two, one, two, three...
(PLAYING MY GENERATION)
(SINGING) People try to put us down
Talking 'bout my generation
Just because we get around
Talking 'bout my generation
Things they do look awful cold
Talking 'bout my generation
I hope I die before I get old
Talking 'bout my generation
This is my generation This is my generation, baby
Why don't you all...
...fade away?
Talking 'bout my generation
And don't try to dig what we all say
Talking 'bout my generation
I'm not trying to cause a big sensation
Talking 'bout my generation
I'm just talking about my generation
Talking 'bout my generation
Why don't you all fade away?
Talking 'bout my generation
And don't try to dig what we all say
Talking 'bout my generation
I'm not trying to cause a plenty big sensation
Talking 'bout my...
Talking 'bout my generation
Talk, talk about it
That really would suck
If you lose her
Keith Moon on the drums here. In that corner, the Ox!
...for Mr. Kenney Jones!
Pino Palladino on bass!
Simon Townshend, guitar and vocals.
Zak Starkey on the drums!
John "Rabbit" Bundrick on keyboards.
But most of all, you!
(CROWD CHEERING)
TOWNSHEND: We will be back!