Daltrey, Roger

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Roger Daltrey

Singer

"The Who is the band that refused to die before it got old," stated Dave Marsh in The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll. From their formation in the mid-1960s to through several reunion tours, the Who embodied some of the most basic elements of rock and roll—chaotic performances, destructive onstage behavior, and record-breaking noise levels—and the group took music in new directions with trend-setting concept albums and rock operas. In a business where bands typically go through many personnel changes and rarely last for more than a few years, the Who were also remarkable for their stability and longevity. For more than 20 years the group's lyrics have been effectively shouted out by vocalist Roger Daltrey.

Daltrey, bassist John Entwistle, and guitarist Pete Townshend all grew up in the same neighborhood, a working-class section of London known as Shepherd's Bush. By the early 1960s the three were playing together in a band called the Detours, which performed rhythm and blues and covers of early Beatles songs in local dance clubs. Late in 1963 the Detours hooked up with managers Pete Meaden and Helmut Gordon, who encouraged the band to cater to the British "mods"—young people dedicated to amphetamines, Vespa scooters, American rhythm and blues, and stylish clothing. Drummer Keith Moon joined the group, which had been renamed the High Numbers, and punched up their sound with his manic playing. They built up a following in the mods' favorite clubs, but their only recording, "I'm the Face," failed to sell.

Meaden and Gordon were soon replaced by Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, two young filmmakers who discovered the band while looking for a movie subject. They were as much intrigued by the frantic crowds that came to hear the High Numbers as they were by the group's music. They carefully calculated ways in which the band could heighten its appeal, suggesting that they revert to a gimmicky name they had used in the past—the Who—and prodding them to make destruction a part of their act. Under their tutelage the Who began putting out "soul music pilled-up and riotous, played with none of the elegant perfection of the Rolling Stones, but with all the zealotry of garage-band amateurs," wrote Marsh. When Townshend began smashing his guitars onstage and Moon kicked over his drum set, the mods loved it, and according to Marsh, this type of flamboyance "saved the Who, who would never have gotten far trying to play R & B with the propriety of the Bluesbreakers or the Stones." They took volume to new levels, eventually being listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's loudest band.

The Who released their first single, "I Can't Explain," in 1965, but it didn't take off until they appeared on the British music show "Ready Steady Go!" with their screaming mob of fans from the London clubs. From then on, success was theirs. From the very first, the Who mocked their own popularity, with album titles such as The Who Sell Out. Despite their tongue-in-cheek attitude, however, they were real innovators. Their second album included a ten-minute mini-opera that eventually led to the first full-scale rock opera, 1969's Tommy. This story of a deaf, dumb, and blind pinball champion was considered pretentious by some, but was hailed as a masterpiece by many others, and it brought wealth, artistic respectability, and international fame to the Who. A second rock opera, Quadrophenia, explored the tortured inner lives of the mods, once exploited by the group to build their fame.

When The Who by Numbers was released in 1975, the group was as popular as ever, but its members, particularly Townshend, seemed to be undergoing an identity crisis. The most famous line from their first album had been "Hope I die before I get old," but they hadn't died and they were uncertain about what to do next. The group didn't record for three years while its members worked on individual projects. Daltrey had already released a solo album and appeared in the title role of the film version of Tommy. In 1975 he portrayed classical composer Franz Liszt in Ken Russell's Lisztomania. He later acted in Sextet, The Legacy, and McVicar, a film biography of train robber John McVicar. He also developed the script for McVicar from the robber's autobiography.

The Who returned as a unit in 1978 with Who Are You?, but only a month after the long-awaited album was released drummer Keith Moon was found dead in his apartment, overdosed on a drug which, ironically, had been prescribed to curb his alcoholism. The Who's future was thrown into doubt; but after much deliberation Daltrey, Entwistle, and Townshend decided to try to replace Moon and carry on. Kenny Jones of Small Faces was recruited, noted session man John "Rabbit" Bundrick joined the group on keyboards, and "finally, the Who came back onstage, with live shows that were more formal and less spontaneous but retained all of the old power and more of the enthusiasm than anyone had a right to expect," wrote Marsh. Unfortunately, the return of the Who was overshadowed by a tragedy that occurred when they played Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum: eleven concertgoers were crushed to death in a rush for seats. The group put out two more studio albums of new material, but announced their official breakup in 1983 after the release of It's Hard.

Although Who fans had hopes of a reunion tour in 1985 when the group agreed to perform at the Live-Aid benefit concert, it wasn't until 1989 that all the members agreed to participate in a tour. Daltrey, Townshend, and Entwistle hit the road with 15 musicians to back them up on "The Kids Are Alright 1989 Tour." "Extraordinary is the only word that comes to mind," Boston Globe reviewer Steve Morse wrote of the much-anticipated show. "The Who thoroughly aced their exam. … scoring in the upper 99th percentile on song selection, visuals, sound mix, performance, crowd rapport, and just about anything else you might want to judge a show by. … It was the best stadium show this writer has ever seen." The tour featured the band, this time with noted jazz and rock drummer Simon Phillips, performing Tommy in its entirety. In 1996 the group would re-form with drummer Zak Starkey on a live tour featuring complete performances of Quadrophenia. The group also gave an invigorated performance at the Concert for New York City benefit for the families of New York City Police and Fire Department members who died in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Another reunion tour in 2002 was nearly grounded when the band's erstwhile bassist, John Entwhistle, died on the eve of the tour's first show. Rather than pack it in, Daltrey and Townshend enlisted Pino Palladino and soldiered on. Townshend's arrest and subsequent dismissal on child pornography charges (he claimed he was conducting research for a book on his own experiences as a child sexual abuse victim) brought Daltrey and Townshend closer together. The duo wrote and recorded the understated and underappreciated first Who album in nearly 25 years, Endless Wire, released in 2006.

For the Record …

Born Roger Harry Daltrey on March 1, 1944, in London, England.

Founding member, with John Entwistle, of rhythm and blues/dance band the Detours, early 1960s; founding member of the Who (originally called the High Numbers) with Entwistle, Keith Moon, and Pete Townshend, 1965; solo artist, 1973-; appeared in films including Tommy, McVicar, Lisztomania, Sextet, and The Legacy; hosted History Channel television series Extreme History, 2003.

Awards: named Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 2005.

Addresses: Record company—Atlantic Records, 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10019.

Flying Solo

The volatile relationships within the Who prompted the members to go their separate ways for extended periods between erratic recording and touring schedules. During these periods the members worked on solo projects. Daltrey's self-named debut solo effort, for example, was a highlight of album-oriented rock radio upon its release in 1973. The album featured eight songs written by the then-unknown songwriting team of Leo Sayer and David Courtney, including "One of the Boys," "Giving It All Away," and "The Show Must Go On." While generally considered to be a less successful effort, Daltrey's 1975 follow-up, Ride a Rock Horse, had many fine moments but failed to yield hit singles. If Ride a Rock Horse underwhelmed audiences, 1977's One of the Boys inexplicably yielded slight notice, this time because performers such as Daltrey were considered "dinosaurs" by punk musicians and critics. The album featured tasteful performances by such guest instrumentalists as Eric Clapton, Mick Ronson, Rod Argent, and John Entwhistle and songs written by Paul McCartney, Murray Head, and Andy Pratt.

After the recording of the Who's Who Are You, the death of Keith Moon, a subsequent tour and flurry of film projects, including the Who documentary The Kids Are Alright, and a cinematic version of Quadrophenia, Daltrey dedicated his newfound financial resources to the film and soundtrack of McVicar, a biography of a notorious bank robber. On the strength of the single "Free Me," the album became the highest selling release in Daltrey's solo catalog. The album also featured a blistering opening cut, "Bitter and Twisted," proving that the "dinosaur" could out-rock punk's snottiest contenders. A dearth of interesting material plagued Parting Should Be Painless, Daltrey's first album after the Who officially hung up their spurs in 1984. He rebounded a year later, however, on an album conceived both as a tribute to Keith Moon and a meditation on the ravages of age, Under a Raging Moon. Townshend contributed a fine composition brilliantly sung by Daltrey, "After the Fire," and Bryan Adams contributed "Let Me Down Easy." The 1987 release, Can't Wait to See the Movie, was a disappointing follow-up as Daltrey offered mostly indistinguishable ballads and held back on the throttle of his typically muscular vocals. Rocks in the Head, released in 1992, found Daltrey once again in fine command of his voice and song selection. Many of the songs were co-written by Daltrey with guitarist Gerard McMahon.

In 2005 Daltrey was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's New Year Honours List for his charity work, including the Teenage Cancer Trust. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Who in 1990, Daltrey's inimitable vocal style has proven him possibly the best interpreter of Pete Townshend's lyrical forays into adolescent and middle-aged isolation, if not one of the best vocalists in all of rock music.