Jeff Stein's 'TKaA' introduced me to the dysfunctionally co-dependent family that was The Who in their more-than-full-volume, willfully insane glory days of Keith Moon. Their balls-to-the-walls, ear-shattering, finger-slashing, skull-splitting, hammers-of-hell, power-plus-volume blues-based rock & roll put their contemporaries deservedly to shame (Townsend didn't pull punches in his criticism) and set a high bar above all that wreckage which their successors have yet to reach.
It doesn't cover all of The Who's KM-era music (Quadrophenia, Who by Numbers) nor does it dig up the worst/best of the dirt (Daltrey repeatedly KO'ing a whiney Townsend over the years) but it captures as only a fan's we're-not-worthy devotion can the band's intense, sometimes-paranoid craziness as well as their self-knowing, self-mocking intelligence about their craziness -- and their true worth in the annals of rock & roll. Stein deserves a spot in Cleveland right next to them.
It doesn't cover all of The Who's KM-era music (Quadrophenia, Who by Numbers) nor does it dig up the worst/best of the dirt (Daltrey repeatedly KO'ing a whiney Townsend over the years) but it captures as only a fan's we're-not-worthy devotion can the band's intense, sometimes-paranoid craziness as well as their self-knowing, self-mocking intelligence about their craziness -- and their true worth in the annals of rock & roll. Stein deserves a spot in Cleveland right next to them.