Search - The Who :: It's Hard

Magnificent in context

genx66 | 05/01/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"People forget that no good rock records were recorded after December 1978 (when Led Zeppelin finished In through the Out Door). Okay, not quite true. Back in Black, driven by a unanimous feeling of awe towards Bonn Scott was probably the last good rock record. So the Who's releasing two epilogue-style records in 1981 and 1982 was a gift, to say the least. No one understood the album rock era as Pete Townshend did. If he didn't start it (Sgt. Pepper did, or maybe Pet Sounds), his Tommy sealed it. Sad that it was played out in ten years. But that's what happened. Face Dances and It's Hard are excellent because they show the Who at full power but with no more reason to do any of this. Their cultural moment was over and it was frustrating but real. (Like a thirty-five-year-old former stud combing the high schools in his muscle car.) I listen to these albums as a forty-year-old to indulge in this mismatch between capability (huge) and what's wanted by the public (something else). So get these albums if you have a large collection. They will complete it. (And if it's just too depressing, start stocking Beethoven et al.; before the idea of album covers, age and "the cultural moment" [i.e., timing and youth] had little to do with anything [the music was all that mattered], and the best generally got better until they became sick and died.)"