When you look at the basic structure of a rock band, there's always a lot riding on the singer. Since you're basically the frontman, everyone tends to want a piece of you, whether that be the media whenever you do interviews or literally any time you put your face in front of the microphone. Having charisma was never just the singer's responsibility though, and every now and again the attention gets thrown towards someone else in the band.
From the minute that these bands hit the scene, the fans were focusing on one person, and it was rarely the singer. For all of the star power that they may have had, things tended to shift along the way, leaving the guitar player or the drummer as the center of attention a lot of the time. Even the best player, which is probably one of the least interesting jobs in the rock band, sometimes manages to go above and beyond and overshadow the singer in one way or another.
That's not a diss to the singer though. That's just a testament to the kind of charisma that you're working with here, where the charm is spread out across a lot more people than you'd imagine. For as many hits as these acts may have notched up on the charts, the singer is probably the last person you're coming to during the meet and greet.
The entire dynamic of the Who never really seemed to line up with the traditional rock format. Although Roger Daltrey was always the soul behind every song, Pete Townshend was the real mouth of the band, always writing every lyric and making sure that they were on the right track in terms of having some sort of impact on the genre. While Townshend was the serious side of the band, Keith Moon was practically a cartoon character being unleashed onstage.
Much like his colleagues like John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, Moon was always a spectacle onstage from the sheer power that he had behind the drum kit, sprinkling in complex fills, mountains of attitude, and even a touch of humor every time that he played a song. From the first time the band played together, it almost felt like Moon's persona was closer to a clown than a rock and roller, looking to stir up chaos and more often than not getting it. Just look back on the footage of the band's first gigs, like when he set off a bomb at the bottom of his drum head during a performance of My Generation.
Some of that magic also translated into the studio, never really playing the same thing twice and making some of the more complex drum grooves sound simple. The drum part in something like Won't Get Fooled Again might feel a little too busy for what Townshend may have wanted, but what Keith played was never out of place. It's just exactly where it needs to be.
I'm just a junkie for all things media. Whether it's music, movies, TV, or just other reviews, I absolutely adore this stuff. But music was my first love, and I love having the opportunity to share it with you good people. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/timcoffman97
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