New York, NY (Top40 Charts) As opening lines go 'I don't care, I know you're going to hate this song, and that's fair we never really got along' from The Who's new single "All This
Music Must Fade" is perhaps the most confrontational and catchy of 2019 so far. The song, which debuted on the BBC
Radio 2 Breakfast show today, opens the WHO album and Pete Townshend describes it as 'A song is dedicated to every artist who has ever been accused of ripping off someone else's song. Seriously? Our musical palette is limited enough in the 21st Century without some dork claiming to have invented a common chord scheme'.
The Who has one of the greatest rock legacies in music history, they're one of the all-time great live bands, have sold over 100 million records worldwide including 9 US & 10 UK top ten albums and 14 UK top ten singles in a career spanning six decades.
Now Fifty-five years after they made their first recordings, The Who is back with their first new album in thirteen years entitled WHO due for release on December 6 via Polydor Records/Universal
Music Canada, the country's leading music company.
The eleven-track album was mostly recorded in London and Los Angeles during
Spring and Summer 2019 and was co-produced by Pete Townshend & D. Sardy (who has worked with Noel Gallagher, Oasis, LCD Soundsystem, Gorillaz) with vocal production by Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers,
Roger Daltrey, Wilko Johnson).
Singer
Roger Daltrey and guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend are joined on the album by long-time Who drummer Zak Starkey, bassist Pino Palladino along with contributions from
Simon Townshend, Benmont Tench, drummers Carla Azar and Joey Waronker, bass player Gus Seyffert and
Gordon Giltrap.
The album cover has been created by famed pop artist, Sir
Peter Blake who first met the band in 1964 at a taping of the legendary TV show Ready Steady Go. Sir
Peter designed and contributed a painting to the sleeve of The Who's album Face Dances in 1981.
The songs on WHO cover a myriad of subjects including the Grenfell Tower fire, musical theft, spirituality, reincarnation, the power of memory and 'an old rock star that has lost his marbles'. Singer
Roger Daltrey rates it amongst their strongest "I think we've made our best album since Quadrophenia in 1973, Pete hasn't lost it, he's still a fabulous songwriter, and he's still got that cutting edge".
After their triumphant return to Wembley Stadium in the Summer, the band will be embarking on a UK tour featuring a full orchestra in
Spring 2020, the dates are listed below.
WHO - TRACKLISTING:
All This
Music Must Fade
Ball And Chain
I Don't Wanna Get Wise
Detour
Beads On One String*
Hero Ground Zero
Street Song
I'll Be Back
Break The News**
Rockin' In Rage
She Rocked My World
All songs written by Pete Townshend except
*Pete Townshend/Josh Hunsacker **Simon Townshend
Produced by Pete Townshend & D. Sardy
Roger Daltrey Vocal production Dave Eringa
Mixed by D. Sardy
The Who are one of the top three greatest rock legacies in music history with 9 US & 10 UK top ten albums and 14 UK top ten singles. They have played over well over 2000 gigs in a career spanning over 50 years including venues such as Woodstock, Monterey Pop, Glastonbury (twice), Hyde Park (four times), The Isle Of Wight (three times), the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, Desert Trip, Shea Stadium, The Superbowl half time show and Live Aid to name but a very few.
The band is in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, the UK
Music Hall Of Fame and has lifetime achievement awards from The Brits and The Grammys and in 2008 were the first rock band ever to be awarded the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors.
Emerging in the mid-1960s as a new and incendiary force in rock n' roll, their brash style and poignant storytelling garnered them one of music's most passionate followings, with the legendary foursome blazing a searing new template for rock, punk, and everything after.
Inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall Of Fame in 1990, the band has placed 27 top-forty singles in the United States and United Kingdom and earning 17 Top Ten albums, including the 1969 groundbreaking rock opera Tommy, 1971's pummeling Live At Leeds, 1973's Quadrophenia and 1978's Who Are You. The Who debuted in 1964 with a trio of anthems "
I Can't Explain", "The Kids Are Alright" and "
My Generation". Since then they have delivered to the world hits such as "Baba O'Riley", "Won't Get Fooled Again", "Pinball Wizard", Who Are You," and", You Better You Bet".
In 2008, they became the first rock band ever to be awarded the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors. The Who has performed all over the world including global music events for the Super Bowl XLIV Halftime Show in 2010 and closing the Summer Olympics in 2012. The Who continued their charity work by playing a concert in January 2011 to raise money for trials of a new cancer treatment called PDT. In December 2012 they performed at the Hurricane
Sandy Benefit in New York.
Alongside his groundbreaking work with the Teenage Cancer
Trust in the UK, in November 2012 Daltrey, with Townshend at his side, launched Teen Cancer America, $1 from each ticket sold for the 2019 MOVING ON! TOUR which each night features a full orchestra will benefit Teen Cancer
America (www.teencanceramerica.org)
With both
Roger and Pete delivering their own memoirs in recent years (Pete's Who I Am was released to much acclaim in 2012, and Roger's autobiography, Thanks A Lot Mr. Kibblewhite; My Story, was embraced by critics in 2018) it's fitting that the two remaining WHO members have shared their incredible legacy in literary fashion, for few bands have had a more lasting impact on the rock era and the reverberating pop culture than The Who.
