mused before<\/a> on these virtual pages about the uncomfortable \u2013 and arguably even tenuous \u2013 relationship between scholarship and rock music. Somehow the pairing just doesn’t seem natural, even though a significant portion of rock is intelligent, and (I imagine) some scholarly works are at least in part informed by a rock’n’roll sensibility. But in general, the two go together like…oh, pick your own metaphor; I haven’t had my coffee yet. Oil and water? That’ll do for now.<\/p>\nStill, I remain open and receptive to endeavors in that area. And that openness \u2013 wise or misguided; you decide \u2013 led me recently to Casey Harison<\/strong>‘s Feedback: The Who and Their Generation<\/em>. This book seeks to place The Who<\/strong> into the author’s context of something he calls \u201cAtlantic history.\u201d For the purposes of his study, Harison constructs a cultural and geographical entity he calls the Atlantic; this region includes the United States (and presumably Canada, though it doesn\u2019t figure into the narrative) and Western Europe (with a decided emphasis on England).<\/p>\nWith that basic scene\/premise set and accepted, Harison endeavors to place The Who into the context of social, historical, and even political trends throughout the second half of the 20th<\/sup> century. Fair enough, you might say. But he doesn’t stop there: the author widens his historical lens to place that narrative into the context of the last, oh, five hundred<\/em> years.<\/p>\nWhat that means in practical terms is that readers find a discussion of Renaissance minstrelsy alongside a look at Pete Townshend<\/strong>‘s guitar playing. Harison draws some very interesting connections \u2013 and, you may be glad to learn \u2013 avoids making grand, sweeping hyperbolic assertions about The Who’s place in it all. But somehow the whole enterprise feels a bit overcooked, a bit of, dare I say, a stretch.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/who_feedback.jpg\")
<\/p>\n