The Who Take on US and Win, 1967-69 cover art

The Who Take on US and Win, 1967-69

The Who Take on US and Win, 1967-69

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 This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit tonyfletcher.substack.comWelcome to the 19th episode of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast — a.k.a. the podcast in which music journalists/obsessives Dan Epstein (the Yank) and Tony Fletcher (the Brit) clash and connect over music from either side of the pond.After making an appearance in our previous episode on The Beach Boys and their influence upon the UK pop scene, The Who finally make their long-overdue appearance on this podcast. The band has loomed exceedingly large for both Dan and Tony — the latter of whom authored the best-selling biography Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon, published in the US as Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend — and now they are about to embark on their North American Farewell Tour, a 17-date trek with stops at such massive venues as Boston’s Fenway Park, Chicago’s United Center and New York’s Madison Square Garden.But in this episode of CROSSED CHANNELS, we flash back to 1967, the year The Who played their first North American gigs. The band’s inaugural US performance took place on March 26, 1967, where they promoted “Happy Jack” — their first real US hit — with a brief but brutal set as one of a dozen or so attractions on Murray the K’s “Music in the Fifth Dimension” show at midtown Manhattan’s RKO Theater.Dan and Tony discuss how The Who’s burgeoning popularity in the US not only helped to keep the band afloat during this uncertain period, but also set the stage for their breakthrough 1969 album Tommy and the band’s legendary appearance at Woodstock. “If it wasn’t for America there would be no Who,” says Max Ker-Seymer, a friend of the podcast who has seen The Who in concert over a longer period than anyone still attending their shows, and we’re very much inclined to agree.As The Who’s 1967-1969 visits to North America also included such infamous incidents as Pete Townshend’s bad acid trip on the flight home from Monterey, Keith Moon’s raucous 21st birthday party at the Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan, and the concert with The Doors at New York’s Singer Bowl that inspired Townshend to write “Sally Simpson,” there was no shortage of material for our esteemed hosts (and diehard Who fans) to touch upon; indeed, with the help of only a few pints, this nearly 90-minute episode could have easily stretched to nine hours.As always, this full CROSSED CHANNELS episode is only available to paid subscribers of Jagged Time Lapse and/or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith, though a short preview of the episode is available above for all to listen to. To hear this episode in full, along with all of our previous CROSSED CHANNELS episodes, just sign up for a paid subscription to one of our Substacks — or, better yet, sign up for both of them! CROSSED CHANNELS can be heard both here on our Substack pages or via your preferred podcast app: just follow the links and instructions on the right. In addition to the podcast, Jagged Time Lapse and Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith regularly serve up previously unpublished interviews and other exclusive content to our paid subscribers.
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