Pete Townshend recalls Keith Moon
Pete Townshend shed some new light on the late Keith Moon's early days with the Who, while posting excerpts from his upcoming autobiography, titled Who He?, on his blog petetownshend-whohe.blogspot.com. He recalled Moon's entry into the band in 1964, writing that, "We tried a few drummers including Mitch Mitchell who went on to play with Jimi Hendrix. But Keith Moon appeared one day at one of our regular dates at the Oldfield Hotel in Greenford and as soon as he began to play we knew we'd found the missing link."

Townshend went on to describe Moon's wildman antics, explaining that, "Keith was an eccentric player, and seemed to be showing off all the time, pointing his sticks up in the air and leaning over the drums with his face thrust forward as if to be nearer the front of stage. But he was loud and strong. Slowly too we realized that his fluid style hid a real talent for listening and following, rather than just laying down a beat."

He went on to describe how Moon, as the new member, interacted with the rest of the band: Roger (Daltrey) tried to befriend Keith, perhaps in an effort to mold him, but Keith was tricky -- and saw Roger's success pulling girls at our gigs as a challenge. They sometimes chased the same girls in these early days, and it was never clear to me who was winning... I'm not sure how Keith saw me in the first few months he was in the band, but I sensed in him yet another challenger to the evolving arty manifesto I was developing for the Who."

Townshend added that it was the band's rhythm section, with Moon on drums and John Entwistle on bass, that struck up an immediate friendship, remembering that, "Keith's main pal in the band was John Entwistle. They were hysterically funny together, and shared an apartment for a while. One got the impression that they did almost everything together, including having sex with girls. It must have been mayhem."

Townshend also posted on his blog that the Who have begun rehearsals for their European tour which kicks off next week, on May 16th in Lisbon, Portugal.

Thank you for posting -- confirms my suspicion that the most likeable members of that band are now deceased : (

prat!

.....I miss Keith....and The Ox...

thanks for sharing

Lukester Wrote:
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> .....I miss Keith....and The Ox...
>
> thanks for sharing

Maybe they are jamming with John and George at this very moment...

Call me an idiot. I loved KM's stage antics and he did have a style for spectacular drum rolls on those double kits.

But to this day, as much as I love the Who's classic albums, I couldn't pinpoint one track to anyone who would ask me "why" he was such a fantastic musician. And why he apparently was so hard to replace.

By Moon's own admission, he couldn't play the standard 6/8 "jazz waltz" required on "Music Must Change". Townshend had to do without him on this beautiful song.

While I can listen to Mitch Mitchel with Hendrix and am guaranteed to get shivers down my spine. ...Or to the Ox for that matter!

I don't want to criticize Moon for the sake of it and would love to be enlightened on this.

Listen to Who's next!!! Enough said. Won't get fooled again is absolutely unique and incredible drumming.....

Without a doubt, he was the most fun to watch of any drummer I can think of.

It is not a cliche to say that they broke the mold after they made Moon.

Hi There,

The thing about KM was that he fitted in totally,and made the band complete.

Unfortunately his off-stage behaviour overshadows his huge talent for playing totally with PT and JAE.

As has been stated by many who know better than I,the band had an almost telepathic connection when they were at their best.

We will not see their like again!

As ablett says,"Who's Next" is as good a place as any to try and see what I'm bangin' on about.Within the album KM shows absolute understanding of what is needed to enhance any particular song,whether it is restraint or balls-out 100mph.

The song you mention,"Music Must Change" comes from KM's last album with the band.
By that stage his ablity had deteriorated very significantly-to the extent that even a simple 6:8 beat caused it's own problems.That wasn't the case on the band's last great album,1975's "Who By Numbers".

I won't be the first person to say that there were parallels between KM's life and say,George Best for example.Untouchable at their peak,but it's a long way down...

Cheers,

Si.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-05-10 21:20 by SimonN.

Keith Moon was Filth. According to Ian McLagan's book he beat his wife(later Mac's wife) and hired some goons to work Mac over. Pete got wind of it, and paid the same guy NOT to bash up Mac.

Hi FA,

Yep,what you say is right...but I could give you a few instances where KM helped people without seeking anything in return.

Like anyone else,he could behave like a complete c**t.However,he was not "...Filth."

If you ever get the chance,I'd recommend Tony Fletcher's "Dear Boy:The Life Of Keith Moon"-it is a very different book to Mac's,but just as essential.

[www.amazon.co.uk]

[www.amazon.com]

Cheers,

Si.

.....okay, back to Keith's on stage antics.......I've seen lots of drummers, lots of different styles, and the thing about Keith that really caught my eye (yeah I saw him) and ears was the way he played the drums almost like a lead instrument, instead of as back up rhythym or whatever....take "My Generation", for example, you can hear the drums out pacing the rest of the instruments at times.....like he was frenetically saying, "keep up guys, this one's a fast one." I am not much of a musician so I can't explain it in musical terms....but I know what I like and I like Keith's drumming

Odd-beat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Call me an idiot. I loved KM's stage antics and he
> did have a style for spectacular drum rolls on
> those double kits.
>
> But to this day, as much as I love the Who's
> classic albums, I couldn't pinpoint one track to
> anyone who would ask me "why" he was such a
> fantastic musician. And why he apparently was so
> hard to replace.
>
> By Moon's own admission, he couldn't play the
> standard 6/8 "jazz waltz" required on "Music Must
> Change". Townshend had to do without him on this
> beautiful song.
>
> While I can listen to Mitch Mitchel with Hendrix
> and am guaranteed to get shivers down my spine.
> ...Or to the Ox for that matter!
>
> I don't want to criticize Moon for the sake of it
> and would love to be enlightened on this.


All of Quadrophenia!!! My god he is absolutely sublime on all of that double disc. Especiall on I am the Sea, I'm One and The Rock, where there seems to be the bell of a typwriter used as he adds his drum rolls...stunning stuff.

...bell of a typewriter?....jeez whitem8, you've got a keen ear...

I don't know if that is what it is, but it sure sounds like one:-) I have often listened to that part of The Rock over and over again and it sounds like the carrage return of a type writer....

I hear ya Lukester. Hell I barely know what a guitar sounds like.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

......yes you do, charmer, ....it's that killer straight to the heart instrument that compliments Keith's drumming so well....

Your right now I remember.............As I listen to the final jam on Jumping Jack Flash from Candlestick.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-05-11 03:58 by sweetcharmedlife.

Yeah, there you go! Great guitar sweetcharmedlife! Now I gotta pull that one out and give it a listen.

...hey, what happened to the Elvis signature?......you quit watching the detectives?

Note Edit..............Forgot to check that pesky little box..... I blame it on hunger pains...must have food.....Gotta get my grub on....catch ya later L'ster.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

I loved watching Moon, saw him 4 times with the WHO and even caught his drumstick that he tossed to me at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in 1971. The sheer power of his drumming made you FEEL the music and as someone said, listen to WHO'S NEXT if you doubt for a moment what he could do. Three of the 4 times that I saw Moon with the WHO I was very close and his drumming actually pounded my chest so hard my necklace vibrated! I lost a bit of hearing, I'm sure, because of the WHO. My boyfriend is a drummer and usually prefers jazz drummers( does not like Charlie's style at all) and he loved Keith Moon. Like Luke, I can't really describe him as a musician would but I know certain passages that he played that I am quite sure no other drummer could have played as good as he did.

keith moon recalls keith moon:
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How much of the interplay between yourself and John Entwistle is worked out and how much is spontaneous?

Well, we rehearse the length of the song, whether itÕs verse, solo, middle-eight, verse, solo and then ad lib ending or whatever. We donÕt sit down and work out fills. Each of us works out own part and then, when we put it all together and start to play, it comes out extremely powerful. You canÕt really work things out too much. We do certain things, certain build-ups and things but you can run into a danger of becoming an automaton if you do everything exactly the same each night. You just stop thinking and it ends up the same every bloody night but, with us, itÕs different. Sometimes IÕll build up with timpani, sometimes IÕll build up on cymbal or with a roll around the kit. There are so many variations on each effect.

Your use of cymbals has always interested me. Quite often you will start a break on cymbals alone without the bass drum behind it, which is something alien to most drummers.

That gives me absolute top. If you hit the bass drum as well, you bring in some bottom; the cymbal gives you top and with both, you get something in between which is neither fully cymbal nor fully bass drum. Sometimes I do a single-stroke roll on cymbals for a "whoosh" effect. Again, we get back to colour. I believe very positively in colour in drumming. You know, thereÕs so many drummers that can go through the routine but they donÕt add colour anywhere. They donÕt paint with the kit. ThatÕs what I like doing. I like painting, adding colour and effects and shocking people. Constantly, while IÕm playing, IÕm thinking two bars ahead. That gives me a chance to, if IÕm in the middle of a roll, to do something IÕve already thought out so I can get out of the roll and into whatever I was already thinking about. Then when IÕm there, IÕm thinking another two bars ahead.

Having played certain songs for 14 years, do you find it difficult to actually think of new fills and breaks?

No, if I thought about it, IÕd be in trouble. There are some parts that just naturally happen and IÕll think of a figure that IÕll put in at a particular point. A lot of them are very unconscious. Sometimes IÕll think of a pattern and immediately forget it and store it subconsciously and then two bars later, I find myself playing it. Sometimes when we go on tour, there might be a number where there is just a guitar and drum pattern or fill and it would be very easy to do the same thing every night but it doesnÕt work that way because the atmosphere is different at every place you play and the atmosphere on stage is different so you get different fills happening. IÕm very adventurous with things like that. I donÕt like to remain static. I know when IÕve played a certain figure before so I try something else.

How much do you rehearse?

Well, as you know, I donÕt practice on my own. When weÕre going out on tour, we usually rehearse for three or four weeks and thatÕs about three days a week, so we probably have about eight or nine rehearsals spread over a period. If you rehearse every day, you start getting clichéd and you end up like an automaton, you can rehearse it to death. As far as we go, as long as we have the bare bones of a song, thatÕs the way we rehearse. ItÕs just to get the bones, the verses, solos and the general framework of the song. Then, within that framework, weÕre free to experiment. ItÕs rather like plasticine, youÕve got the thing there but itÕs malleable. You can actually shape it and stretch it but youÕre still left with what you started out with.

Do you tune your drums yourself?

Yeah, I do. I work very closely with Bill, my roadie. IÕll go around and tune the drums and then go out front while Bill plays them. I just tell him, "Use the blunt end and whack it as hard as you can." I get the tuning right and if we have three or four dates and we canÕt get to the hall in time for a soundcheck Ð I canÕt really walk on stage in front of the audience and start tuning the bloody things up Ð Bill knows how it should be tuned and he tunes it for me. After a show sometimes when the crew are breaking everything down, I occasionally go up and have a look around the kit and see if any heads need changing or anything. That happens quite a lot. We change the heads on every second show because I play very hard. What happens is the skin itself tends to lose its resonance after a couple of shows. YouÕve thrashed the life out of it and it just gives up, really. We donÕt change all 16 drums, only the tom toms, snare drum, bass drum and one of the floor toms that I use a lot. The timbales are usually OK, but I suppose no skin stays on longer than a week. They do lose their tone after a while and I do tend to hit them hard.

Do you have to work hard to keep fit?

Yes. IÕve just joined a health club because basically itÕs a question of keeping your stamina. You have to psych yourself up to it. I used to belong to a health club when I lived in Beverly Hills and IÕd go there for a sauna and ride bikes and do press-ups and things. It is important to keep the muscles going. You need a lot of stamina to keep up a two-hour show. A drummer has to use more parts of his body than anyone else. I mean, itÕs not so important for John Entwistle to keep in top physical form because he just sort of stands there and basically just uses his hands. (laughs) He does a lot of hand exercises Ð a lot of wristwork!

Your kit has grown since last time I spoke to you. How and why has it gotten bigger?

Well, I added some timbale. The kit changes really as an act changes. When weÕre doing some stuff from Tommy, there are some really big heavy drum breaks where I bring in timpani and the big floor toms and some timbale for light and shade, so youÕre not confronted by a big rumble. That can sound very dull, so I use the timbale mainly for accents. You have to hit them hard but then I hit all the drums pretty hard anyway. TheyÕre miked up through the P.A. anyway and, as long as IÕve got the kit sounding good, itÕs O.K. I have my own P.A. system virtually so I have to check the sound that comes out of the drum P.A. Bill will go round the kit and IÕll listen and see what has to go up or down. So, itÕs not that important to whack Ôem hard although I do whack Ôem hard. IÕm a very physical drummer. In fact, we have to use special mikes for the drums because the amount of air, from hitting it so hard, would produce this "popping" sound Ð like someone blowing into a mike. So they put windshields on and that helps the tonal reproduction.

Is there a nucleus of the whole kit that you tend to work from?

Yeah. ItÕs obviously the bass drum, tom toms, snare and hi-hat. You see, with double bass drums, I have the hi-hat locked in a half-open position so you get a "swoosh." I donÕt actually use it as a hi-hat. Both my feet are on the bass drums. So, basically I get a good ride, hi-hat sound. They just bring in the crowbars! Everything is tightened down and nailed and strengthened with extra screws drilled in. Everything is double braced so I can get up, as we do at the end of the act, and actually stand on the kit without breaking the fittings or ripping them away from the wood. Inside each drum I have a metal plate to support them so I can actually stand on top of the kit. The whole thing is solid as a rock.

What other drummers have you been listening to recently, or do you listen to other drummers?

Not really, IÕve been down to a couple of places like the Vortex and the Marquee and itÕs very odd because I see a lot of myself reflected in their styles. A lot of the atmosphere and a lot of the things they play. ItÕs a bit brash, which I love. I think itÕs great, just thrashing away, but a lot of the drummers have not developed a definite style. ThatÕs something that comes from years of playing. IÕve picked up bits of Elvin Jones, Krupa, Philly Joe Jones Ð they were the sort of people I listened to for drumming.

The whole big band scene?

Yeah, mostly big band drummers. TheyÕre very dynamic, really wild.

Do you listen to the super technicians like Cobham, etc.?

No, IÕm not really into technical drumming. I donÕt play a technical drum at all. That Billy Cobham kind of control and discipline is incredible, beautiful but it just isnÕt me. Then again, IÕd be lousy at playing what he does and heÕd be lousy at playing what I do. I donÕt really get off on being able to do so many paradiddles. It doesnÕt impress me too much. I feel much more at home being very brash and spontaneous.

A few years ago Chris Welch said you deserved an award for "revolutionizing rock drumming."

Well, you see, the drummer was always at the back and was very rarely photographed, the least interviewed. When The Who started, I began playing a constant drum solo throughout the act and Chris Welch saw us and probably thought, "IÕve noticed the drummer for the first time." In that era, nobody ever took any notice of the drummer. It was all guitars and singers. When I started twirling the sticks and standing up and those kind of things, nobody else did that kind of thing in rock. IÕm a total extrovert, I love to be involved. I donÕt like this great big kit in front of me and the audience. I envy the guitarist who can go over and get that much closer to the audience. I canÕt do that, I have to sit at the back, so I acted in a different way and started to draw attention to the drums in a different way by acrobatics and all the tricks. So, a lot of people used to say, "God, look at the drummer!" So I suppose there was a certain amount of revolutionizing the drummerÕs role. Actually bringing the drummer out as an integral part of the group. The group wasnÕt just made up of a singer and a lead guitarist. You used to watch pop shows on TV and theyÕd just show the singer, the rest of the band being just a backup group and nothing else.

When I started showing off a bit, the directors would notice. There were two great directors, Mike Lindsey-Hogg and Mike Mansfield and they started getting the camera on the drums. "Ready, Steady Go!" and "Top Of The Pops" really treated the band as a whole and, up until then, it was just Billy Fury and his group or Adam Faith and his group. Most of the TV in those days was only a couple of cameras, one trained on the front of the singer and the other getting a side shot of the singer and they never bothered with the rest of the group. They were always there as part of the furniture. It wasnÕt until Townshend started smashing guitars and I started smashing up the drums that the producers of the shows began to realize that there was more than the singer in the band. TheyÕd actually line up a camera for the drums, which was a first. People started to actually notice the drummer.
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Live at Leeds is the perfect showcase for Moon's talents; From the beginning
chords of Young Man Blues to the resounding finale to Magic Bus, Moon and
Entwistle are the driving force and cement of the band that allowed Townshend and Daltry to do their own thing; I love a song like "Substitute" that starts
off mellow and then all hell breaks loose with Moon's chaotic rumblings. I think by the time "Who Are You" came out, he had lost interest in the band and it wasn't his best work;

Hi BB,

Thanks for posting this article!

Cheers,

Si.

You're right, Reg, I forgot about LEEDS! That is truly Moon at his best!

Keith Moon was to drums what Miles was to the trumpet. He made that instrument his own.

Thanks everyone, and Beelyboy for the fantastic interview: I had never read that, let alone even knew there had been such technical "musician talk" in the press back in those days!

the guy is just phenomenal beyond words really. was good for me to see, well there he is, aside from all the true stories of wacko gone beyondo on the road and the clownery and drunkness, speed, etc..etc...

there he is...a hard working & innovative guy; a thoughtful guy...doing his own soundchecks, and drum tuning, careful about the evolving mikes and placement... and presenting the drums as their own orchestra with it's own p.a...checking and customizing these huge diverse kits after the shows...

anyone's who has had the experience of a live who show with keith knows that thunder...actually, spot on with live on leeds...so much great stuff recorded, studio and live...how he concentrates on his process etc...aside from the tragedies and outrageous talent, there is an intelligent guy working his ass off year after year on the road and laying it down so heavy, brilliant and perfect...
there really isn't one weak who album ever, except for arguably some of that last one with keith...seemed a little unfocused to me...

one of our fine members posted a utube of entwhistle on a classic live version of 'won't get fooled again'...just entwhistle isolated...the enormous virtuosity is indescribable...there will never be another rhythm section in rock like that...pete was a smart young producer on tommy...keeping the drums/bass presence as UP as the other elements...and here's a surf punk who knows his gene krupa...so not a basher, but stunning precision and improvisation...and a big effin basher bash too...

what they had was so volatile...that scene in 'the kids are alright' where they're doin' that UK talk show...keith just in his own keith-world, and so was anybody else close...he ends up literally jumping on him and ripping the shirt off townshend, literally stripping him on camera as pete is cracking up and trying to fend him off...absolutely primal and point well taken keith...moon then puts his arm around townshend and hugs him close, impossible for the camera to get a shot of pete without a huge face shot of keith... so keith announces he is now ready to take questions; something like that...

it's enormously charming to watch the other 3 just smile wanly trying to look totally disinterested but knowing what's probably coming, and knowing they have absolute zero control of it...roger looks totally surrendered...moon was very loud on the tv geek interviewer guy; something like 'why you always ask the guitar player questions...? or something like that...outright derisive, a bit drunk, totally on the true edge, and absolutely beautiful...it wasn't made to last...not inside of a human body...but out in the culture, it's there forever...he might have been a son of a bitch but he was the king of the world, and acted accordingly; a five star genius in a four star world...

The patented British exploding drummer