To the Moon…

Who’s next. One of those records that simply escaped me until recently. I got home tonight, flipped on the tube, and found I recorded a Classic Albums episode on the VH-1. I never realized that the record came out of another concept rock opera that was originally destined for film, but nobody outside of Pete Townshend got it.

The record is full of unheard of studio mastery at the time. To hear some of the original demos was awesome and gave me a different view of the songs. But what impressed me the most was hearing just the drum tracks with the lead vocals. Moon was devilishly clever, he played drums with the vocals. I listened to the section several times. No vocals, straight beat. Vocals, almost all fills. I used to joke about Keith Moon being the only drummer who played three bars of fills then ended with one bar of straight beat, but the method within the madness was there, plain as day when you know where to look.

Brilliant.