Roger Daltery – The Who
So much has been said on TV talk shows and written in newspapers and magazines about how the so-called Generation X teens and young adults today are having such a hard time growing up,in part to the economy and the job outlook here in the United States. Yet, for Roger Daltery and the other surviving members of the British rock group, The Who, growing up in the Shepards Bush section of war-torn London in the early ’50’s, was some truly desperate times.
“It was a totally different experience than that of the American youth of today,”Daltrey said. “Kids in England at that time were on a totally different agenda than the kids in America today. We were really from the have not generation. England had just come out of a war and I remember not being able to go to shop and buy sweets without a coupon. I’ve got bow legs thank’s to Hitler because I got rickets as a child because we didn’t have enough food!
When I was born it was the worst years of the war for food.” Later on in the mid-60’s, when Daltrey and Pete Townsend,Keith Moon and John Entwistle were touring the USA,according to Daltrey none of The Who could relate to the “rich American kids”they were performing for.
“When we would tour in America in the early days,”Daltrey said,”we had never even seen steak before. I mean we used to take steak how with us to England! We’d pack a steak in the suitcase to take home to England. Looking back,we really couldn’t identify with those hippie kids in America trying to act poor.”
There are two new Who albums currently out,”my generation-the very best of” and”The Who live At The Isle of Wight festival 1970″ and the group is currently in the midst of their first tour together of the ’90’s.
Daltrey feels the current atmosphere within the American pop music scene for The Who’s music has changed dramatically since they last toured in 1989. “I’ve been around for so long that unfortunately I don’t have the access to TV that the younger bands have got,”he said. “So I’m stuck with having to face the critics who have seen The Who in their early days and they’re all basically jaded.”
A major part of The Who’s current stage show involves the music of “Quadrophenia”,the 1974 rock opera written by Pete Townsend.
Daltrey feels that the music is as timely as ever and he’s wanted for over twenty years to feature the opera at length in a live Who concert. “The music we’re playing on this tour is showing me there’s a tremendous canvas being painted out there,”he said. “Peter’s music is very precious. To me,what was always great about rock is that it gives people hope,when you hear the songs of “Quadrophenia”being played live with a full backup group of musicians it makes every hair on your body stand on end.”
For quite a few years,Townsend endured at time harsh criticism from pop critics because he wouldn’t regroup the Who and tour with the full orchestra performing the music of “Quadrophenia”. Daltrey has known Townsend for over 30 years and the singer offers an interesting insight into why Townsend waited so long to reestablish The Who and tour once again with them. “He was on a Who denial period,”Daltrey said. “I know Pete better than any of those people whom were writing and interviewing him a while back a few years ago.”