The Who – It’s Hard

 

The Who – It’s Hard

By

Jesse E. Mullen

 

You’ve achieved legendary status all over the world. You’ve released at least five albums which belong in anyone’s top 100 rock albums. And then the tragic loss of key member threatens to derail everything. How do you recover?

So was the story of The Who after 1978. Formed in London as The Detours in 1959, the group spent several years slugging it out on the club circuit before settling on a stable lineup, and a group dynamic that was all their own.

Of particular importance to the group dynamic was the tension between all of its members. Bassist John Entwistle didn’t play the traditional “backline” role but functioned as a de facto lead guitarist. His melodic lines worked against the pyrotechnics in human form bashing of drummer Keith Moon. And lead singer Roger Daltrey never got along with Townshend.

In spite of the tension – or perhaps because of it - The Who would go on to record classic after classic album of “Maximum R&B.” From the pirate radio tribute of 1967’s The Who Sell Out to the story of a troubled Mod in 1973’s Quadrophenia, the group were able to fully realize songwriter/guitarist Pete Townshend’s high concepts – thus taking rock ‘n’ roll in a more serious direction.

However, this is where things began to get messier. On the first night of the Quadrophenia tour, Moon collapsed onstage after overdosing on animal tranquilizers. The show went on – albeit with a fan behind the kit – but it was a harbinger of things to come.

Townshend was beginning to feel as if his glory years had passed him by. Despite only being 28 at the time, it appears that he was feeling middle-aged by rock standards. The next two albums – 1975’s Who By Numbers and 1978 Who Are You – reflected this weariness. Be it “However Much I Booze” or "Music Must Change," one can tell where Townshend’s headspace was. But none of this would compare to the difficulties which were yet to come.

On September 7^th, 1978 – just three weeks after the release of Who Are You – Keith Moon died from an accidental overdose of clomethiazole, a drug used to treat alcohol withdrawal. Moon’s death sent the group into a state of shock.

Ultimately, it was Daltrey who rallied the troops into carrying on, despite the loss of a seemingly irreplaceable drummer. After much deliberation, Moon’s replacement ultimately turned out to be Kenney Jones. The former drummer for Mod group Small Faces was also a drinking buddy of Pete Townshend’s.

Soon after Jones accepted the role, Phil Collins also offered his services. As no public announcement had been made, Collins assumed that he would be considered. Unfortunately for him, the role had already been filled.

With the drum stool settled, The Who were able to carry out their touring duties for Who Are You. At the conclusion of the tour, Pete Townshend recorded his first solo album of the new decade. Released in 1980, Empty Glass marked a shift in Townshend’s writing.

While still featuring classic elements of The Who’s sound – loud guitars, ringing melodies, choruses in a different tempo and key than the verse – it was very different than what was heard before. Musically, the tracks were influenced by the new wave movement of the time.

And while a weariness is still detectable in Townshend’s writing, he sounds almost settled here. There is the obligatory song dealing with Moon’s death – “Jools and Jim” – but Townshend seems to have found inner peace on the rest by looking inwardly.

Which isn’t to say that Townshend was “settled” in The Who. Their next album – 1981’s Face Dances – carried over some of the introspective elements of Empty Glass but received mixed reviews. And Daltrey’s relationship with Townshend was ever prickly, accusing the writer of saving his best songs for his solo albums.

With all of this in mind, The Who quickly entered the studio (in this case, Glyn Johns’ facilities) in June of 1982 to record another new album. But given their recent problems, how would this record sound? And could Townshend marry his new style of writing to The Who?

The ensuing album, It’s Hard was released in September 1982 on Polydor Records. From a production standpoint, it again featured the classic Who sound of loud guitars and clever synthesizer programming. And like Townshend’s recent work, it (again) featured songs dealing with more personal subject matter.

Opener “Athena” began its life as a song Townshend wrote called “Theresa.” The lyrics dealt with a situation at a Pink Floyd performance of The Wall, where Townshend’s advances towards actress Theresa Russell were rejected. However, the title was changed to “Athena,” a move Daltrey criticized as getting too far from the subject matter.

Nevertheless, it is a strong opener, with a bright major key melody played by Entwistle on the horn. Entwistle is omnipresent on the track, as his contributions on the bass are noteworthy as well. The rumbling, ping-ponging effect – which Rolling Stone noted upon release of the track – leads the song into its verse and back into its iconic “she’s a girl (she’s a bomb)” chorus.

Actually, Entwistle is omnipresent throughout the album, contributing three compositions: “It’s Your Turn,” “Dangerous,” and the skipping rhythm of “One At A Time.” A strong case could be made that this was because of the quick turnover rate between 1981’s Face Dances and 1982’s It’s Hard, giving Townshend less time to write. But that doesn’t mean that Townshend’s songs aren’t uniformly excellent.

“A Man Is A Man” features spooky synths and gorgeous rising/falling vocal harmonies between Daltrey and Townshend in the chorus. “Cooks County” fuses pulsating synthesizers and passionate Daltrey vocal in the verses with up-tempo drumming and high harmonies from Townshend in the chorus.

The title track is also a blast. While not part of a rock opera, “It’s Hard” captures the feelings of The Who’s grandiose concept albums in one song. With lyrics such as “Any tough can fight/few can play” and “Any stud can reproduce/few can please” it would seem that Townshend was defending his honor as a songwriter after the criticism of Face Dances. (The fast chord changes also gave Townshend plenty of opportunity for windmilling when The Who played it on tour.)

“I’ve Known No War” features eerie tremolo guitars, pounding “Kashmir”-esque drums, and a passionate vocal from Daltrey. As both Daltrey and Townshend were born at the tail end of WWII, the subject matter fitting. Both the lyrics and the music echo the anxiety they must have felt in the Cold War-era of the early 1980s.

But Townshend’s best composition on the album is “Eminence Front.” An anxious pulsating synthesizer sample opens the track, before giving way to Jones’ drums and Townshend’s guitar riff grooving along at mid-tempo, followed by Townshend’s lengthy intro guitar solo. By the time Townshend steps up to the mic, a minute has gone by.

The lyrics deal with familiar territory for musicians – rockstar excesses, particularly cocaine. But whereas other songwriters (Lou Reed, Mick Jagger/Keith Richards) wrote about the effects of drugs, Townshend instead dealt with the idea of using drugs as a façade to hide behind – thus hiding “behind an eminence front.”

The song was both a huge commercial and critical success, reaching number 68 on the Billboard Hot 100 upon release. It was later ranked as the 10^th best Who song by Rolling Stone.

But perhaps the best song on the album is John Entwistle’s “It’s Your Turn.” The bassist writes from the perspective of an aging rockstar giving advice to a younger musician.

At first the lyrics appears to demonstrate the elder musician’s status and superiority over the younger one: “I was a face in a magazine/When you were still playin' with your plasticine."

But the elder soon realizes that by looking the younger artist in the eye, he sees a younger version of himself in the lad: “I know you young and dumb/I know where you're comin' from. Don't know where you're goin' to/But I been there same as you.”

The young artist takes it in stride, also realizing that the two aren’t all that different, saying that he has “made the same mistakes” that the elder made in his younger years.

By the end the veteran rocker has sympathized with the young buck, even offering a few words of wisdom: "It's your turn, step up and take it/If you've got the guts to hang on, you can make it"

Musically, the track bears a strong resemblance to “Behind The Lines” by Genesis, with some very tight drum fills by Kenney Jones and bing-bing-biiiiing synthesizers played by Entwistle. There are nice tempo shifts and key changes from the verses to the bridge and to the chorus, which give the track a nice sense of variety.

Unlike other Entwistle compositions, this one is sung by Roger Daltrey. And as with Townshend’s greatest compositions, Daltrey makes this one his own vocally. He grunts, pauses on just the syllables, and lets loose with his upper-register wail on the final “ooooh… TAKE IT!!!”

It’s easy to imagine Daltrey identifying with both characters in the song, having cemented his legendary status in rock by the mid-1960s, but singing these words in 1982. While Townshend had (mostly) settled down and gotten away from writing about where he fit into the “new” musical landscape of the 1980s, it must have been cathartic for Daltrey – and the rest of the group – to exorcise the demons one last time.

Which brings us to the present. In the 40 years that have followed It’s Hard, The Who have released just two albums, 2006’s Endless Wire and 2019’s WHO. They’ve broken up, reunited, broken up again, and reunited yet again. Townshend damaged his hearing and had a brief brush with the law.

Most significantly was the death of John Entwistle in 2002. As the last studio album featuring his contributions, It’s Hard is lent an extra poignance through his absence.

While The Who have made better records in the past, this was the last time that they felt like a “group.” It’s Hard might not get the acclaim of the earlier records, but it is better than most remember it being. And on that merit alone, it is worth checking out.

Polydor/1982