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<\/p>\nRoger Daltrey is one of the most distinctive and inimitable voices in rock. And 59 years after the band he helped make famous released its debut single, Daltrey is playing shows in North America. His limited-run solo tour leg concluded with a June 29 concert at The Pavilion at Ravinia in Highland Park, Illinois.<\/p>\n
As lead singer for The Who, Daltrey sang the immortal line, \u201cHope I die before I get old\u201d on the band\u2019s 1965 single \u201cMy Generation.\u201d His scream toward the end of the epic \u201cWon\u2019t Get Fooled Again\u201d is one of the most powerful and visceral moments in music. And a generation too young to have experienced those songs on original release nonetheless came to recognize Daltrey\u2019s extraordinary voice on \u201cWho Are You,\u201d the 1978 hit single that also served as the theme song for the long running television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation<\/i>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Who drummer Keith Moon passed in 1978; bassist John Entwistle died in 2002. But thank goodness neither Daltrey nor guitarist-songwriter Pete Townshend died before they got old; the currently lineup of The Who completed its most recent run of tour dates last August. Townshend is currently busy with a number of endeavors; he plans to bring some long-gestating solo projects to fruition soon.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Daltrey \u2013 who recently celebrated his 80th<\/sup> birthday \u2013 has embarked on a tour of his own. Described as a \u201csemi-acoustic\u201d tour, this run of North American dates finds Daltrey reinterpreting songs from The Who (and from his own solo catalog of ten-plus albums) in a style that opens them up to rediscovery.<\/p>\n Despite advancing age and hearing problems, Daltrey simply can\u2019t resist the call of the road. \u201cI just love singing,\u201d he says, noting that he began a short run of solo shows in 2022, just as soon as the post-pandemic world began to open up again.<\/p>\n Daltrey says that part of his motivation for the live dates is to secure work for some of his musician friends. \u201cThe pandemic was brutal on the music industry,\u201d he emphasizes. \u201cSo I thought, \u2018What more could I do than take as many musicians as I could afford to out on the road?\u2019\u201d His current road band includes names that will be familiar to fans of The Who and their orbit: pianist Geraint Watkins, Simon Townshend (Pete\u2019s brother), Billy Nicholls on mandolin, percussionist Jody Linscott and others.<\/p>\n The lineup presents an opportunity to deliver subtly different readings of songs for which Daltrey is well-known. \u201cI love Pete\u2019s demos, the way he wrote his music, and the synthesizers and stuff,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I also have this other side of me that can hear the songs done differently.\u201d With a more acoustic-leaning approach to arrangements, Daltrey\u2019s tour gives him a chance to make good on those desires. The instruments are completely different from the well-known studio versions, Daltrey says. \u201cAnd there\u2019s no synthesizers!\u201d<\/p>\n He notes that audiences are very receptive to these re-imagined songs from The Who and his solo catalog. \u201cI can see the first five rows of my audience; huge smiles appear on their faces,\u201d Daltrey says. \u201cThe songs sound similar but different. In some ways, we\u2019re presenting them with the songs again for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n Daltrey is careful not to give too much away about the shows. \u201cWhat I loathe about the modern world is that it\u2019s so difficult now to surprise an audience,\u201d he says. \u201cIn the old days, I used to go to shows to be surprised! So I\u2019ve got a few still to add, which I\u2019m holding onto.\u201d<\/p>\n One wild card at Daltrey\u2019s shows is the Q&A component. Between songs, he takes questions from the audience. One might think that after 60 years of recording sessions, concert tours and interviews, he would have fielded most any question imaginable. Presenting him with an unexpected question would be challenging. \u201cBut I only answer the curveballs!\u201d he says with a laugh.<\/p>\n Daltrey\u2019s concert tour is neither a farewell run, a victory lap nor a vanity exercise. \u201cUltimately, it\u2019s about giving people a really good night out,\u201d he says. \u201cThe world is in such a miserable state; everywhere you look, there\u2019s trouble. So let\u2019s just have some fun.\u201d<\/p>\n And Roger Daltrey is indeed having fun. \u201cI look forward to every gig,\u201d he says. \u201cHere I am at 80, playing shows, having a wonderful time with a bunch of fantastic musicians.\u201d The octogenarian rocker promises that his singing voice is in peak form. \u201cAnd I\u2019m not blowing smoke up my own arse,\u201d he insists. \u201cBecause I can\u2019t blow that far!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Roger Daltrey is one of the most distinctive and inimitable voices in rock. And 59 years after the band he helped make famous released its debut single, Daltrey is playing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27686,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,62],"tags":[2533,2190],"class_list":["post-27685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-rawk","tag-roger-daltrey","tag-the-who","cat-41-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27687,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27685\/revisions\/27687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}