BOOKS THREAD

From some Who documentary I remember Pete saying with a smile something like he would agree to tour whenever Entwistle came to him saying he needed the money. In his memoir Pete wrote a lot about the band's bad finances and even his into the 70's when I thought at least Pete would be set for life.

 

Daltrey talks about the bad deals they signed early and the management that ripped them off - and took Townshend's publishing money, which is what everyone thought had him on easy street. Drug use and equipment destruction ate into the profits too. Daltrey's comments about the Face Dances/It's Hard era of The Who are pretty interesting although hindsight is 20/20.

I have always felt that Daltrey was a little like Jimmy Page is with Zeppelin - unable to get something going musically away from the band (his early solo albums are totally un-Who like, which he says is the point, but they were also lousy, the McVicar soundtrack and Under A Raging Moon were much better) that he has to keep going back to it. Townshend, who has done some great stuff on his own (I saw him touring behind Psychoderelict and it was one of the five best shows I have ever seen) gets sucked back in where Robert Plant has little interest in it.

 

I have a long-term running bet with some friends who are music nerds that runs back to when I was in college. Which will tour longest:

1. Bob Dylan
2. The Who
3. The Rolling Stones
4. Paul McCartney/Ringo Starr as a combination

It's going to be a close race. There's wings on the line for whoever wins. I have Dylan. I think he's going to live to 102 and still be disassembling his classic songs until you can't recognize them (Love ya, Bob!) in concert until he croaks.

 

I'd take Dylan. He'll tour until he drops dead in a hotel in the middle of nowhere.

 

Reading "Redeployment" by Phil Klay right now. The collection of stories starts out strong, when what you're reading sounds like a barely fictionalized version of his experience as a Marine in Iraq. But then we move to a story where he casts himself as a chaplain and then a Muslim, which pops the bubble for me. Still, I like his style of writing -- largely conversational with short, fragmented sentences -- and am interested to read other fiction by him.

 

Gotta go with the solo guys as having the best odds. If Jagger, Richards, Daltry or Townsend die, the Stones and the Who are done.

 

Tom Papa is a very funny comedian. His book, sadly, is not too funny. Just a lot of dad jokes, which I guess I should have foreseen. He's never been edgy, but this book was like generic brand plain vanilla ice cream.

 

Hey, @Elliotte Friedman, is this book as good as you say??

 

I don't follow hockey, but it caught my eye and I might just read it.

 

Given how mysterious and elusive he was as a person and artist I don't know if we'll ever see a definitive Prince bio, but Dig If You Will The Picture: Funk, Sex, God and Genius in the music of Prince by Ben Greenman might be the leader in the clubhouse right now. I lost track of Prince's career some time in the early-90s but Greenman has listened to everything he has released and does a great job dissecting his output by theme: sex (obviously), religion, race, politics. There are chapters on his early musical life, his many musical side projects, his movies, his career onstage, the creation of his Paisley Park compound, his relationship with the Internet, what made him so prolific, even some thoughts on why he favoured purple. This only runs 260-odd pages - plus a discography - but there are great nuggets on every page.