Song 183: “Pinball Wizard” by the Who, Part 2: “His Disciples Lead Him In”

A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs - Andrew Hickey

This episode explores the Who's 'Tommy' album, focusing on Pete Townshend's spiritual journey influenced by guru Meher Baba, his bisexuality, and the band's evolving identity amid personal turmoil. It also examines Keith

Key takeaways

• Townshend embraced Meher Baba’s teachings post-1967

Transcript preview

A history of rock music in 500 songs by a drag. Song 183, Pimbal Wizard by the Who. Part 2, His Disciples lead him in. Before we begin, this episode contains a lot of references to subjects that might upset some people, both in what I say and in the lyrics of the songs excerpted. It contains some and the subject of songs. Sexual assault, drug use and physical violence. It also discusses songs that have ablest attitudes and the episode both excerpts them and discusses those attitudes. In particular the song that gives this two-part episode its title and others from the same album use a term for muteness that many non-speaking people find extremely offensive. That term is also used in a working title for the album and in interviews from the time period. and I will have to mention it as a result, though I will keep uses of the word to a minimum. There are also excerpts from another song from that album that uses a term beginning with G for Romany people, which some Roma consider an offensive slur. My understanding, which may be wrong, is that it's generally considered a slur by Romany people in North America, but that most in Western Europe use the term about themselves. Sadly that term is used so often in songs from the late 60s and early 70s that it's essentially impossible it in musical excerpts used in the podcast, though I won't say it myself. The episode also contains brief mention of domestic abuse, mention of racist violence, alcohol abuse, and a longer though non-graphic description of a death in a car accident, as well as some descriptions of self-harm and mental illness. If those things may upset you, it might be better to read the transcript or skip this episode rather than listen, and it may also be an idea to avoid listening to the music and the accompanying playlist. That said, let's get on with the story. When we left the Who at the end of the last episode, they had just released a single that Townsend believed was his ultimate single. As we heard, that single did make the top 10 in both the UK and the US, but did nowhere near as well as its writer hoped. This may impart have been because of the lyrics. While they were about jealousy, and town's enders stated repeatedly that that's all he intended, many listeners heard them as it's right to hope. This may in part have been because of the lyrics. While they were about jealousy, and Townsenders stated repeatedly that that's all he intended, many listeners heard them as actually being about tell us. And while for most bands the end of 1967 saw a transition from caring about pop singles to being about albums that didn't yet really apply to the Who. The Who sell out their third album which had been released at the same time as the single and which is now often regarded as the group's greatest album only reached number 13 in the UK and didn't make the top 40 in the US. However, while the group were making such an impact as a live act, especially in the US where they could make serious money, that didn't matter all that much. As Townsend told the enemy, the group has been getting a great feeling of satisfaction from the dates we've played. We'd like to reach the stage where our record success becomes secondary to concerts. And I think we might be getting there. He also got some satisfaction from a message from Sir William Walton, one of Britain's most celebrated composers, who had, among other things, written the coronation marches for both King George the 6th and Queen Elizabeth II. Walton was Kit Lambert's godfather, and he sent word and he sent word via lamb but that he had that he had that he had that he had that he had that he had by I can see for miles. Even if the record-buying public weren't as filled with his experimentation as he'd hoped, Townsend could take comfort in knowing that someone is renowned as Walton found his work worthwhile. But late 67 and early 68 was a time when Townsend was re-evaluating a lot of his life. He had his first same-sex sexual experience with Danny Fields, while on tour in the US, and while the way he describes it in his autobiography makes it sound like a sexual assault rather than a consensual encounter. He also describes enjoying it and it leading him to the realization of his bisexuality. And even more importantly he was becoming interested in the teachings of Maya Barber. My object in coming to the West is not with the intention of establishing new creeds or spiritual societies and organisations. I see the structure of all the great religions of the world tottering. Tansa naturally became a follower of Mayor Barber in directly thanks to the Blues Magoos. When the Who toured on the same bill as the Blues Magoos, two members of the band had introduced towns then to the works of the New Age guru and supposed UFO contactee, George Adamsky. A Damsky, you may remember, claimed to have been visited by a Venusian called Orthon, an alien who was truly shocking in appearance. To quote a Damsky, there were only two outstanding differences that I noticed as I ne. One, his trousers were not like mine. They were in style, much like ski trousers. passing thought I wondered why he wore such out here in the desert. Two, his hair was long, reaching to his shoulders, and was blowing in the wind as was mine. But this was not too strange, for I have seen a number of men who wore the hair almost that long. Orthon also communicated only by telepathy, augmented by hand gestures, rather than using words like Earth people. At least at first, go between his first and second visits to Edamski, he learned English. On that second visit, on the Venusian was accompanied by Furcon the Martian and Ramu the Saturnian. They however wore normal business suits rather than having trousers unlike those of normal men. Orthon, Furcon and Ramu took Adamsky to Venus where they introduced him to someone called the Master, a thousand years old in his current body, who gave Adamsky important revelations such as that war is bad and tolerance is good, which he was told to take back to the other people on Earth. Townsend was talking to his friend Mike McInary about this. and McKinneyry handed him a book which he thought described similar revelations. This was The Godman, a book about Meer Baba. Mea Baba is a figure who it's very difficult to sum up in any sensible way. He described himself as a Sufi, but his teachings had little to do with actual Sufiism and Buddhism, and some overlay of Sufi terminology. Those teachings are written in an idiosyncratic jargon, full of terms that are expected. to be understood without being explained. And no two sources I consult can fully agree on what those terms mean. One thing that everyone is certain of though is that Barbara coined the phrase Don't Worry Be Happy, which later inspired the hit song by Bobby McFerrin. trouble when you worry you make it double don't worry be happy don't worry be happy don't worry be happy. of the Prophet Zarathustra, which seems to have had a lot of influence on the Abrahamic faiths. But as we've discussed previously, there seems in the late 19th and early 20th century to have been much more fluidity between religions and India than people listening to this would tend to assume, and it was very possible for someone seeking enlightenment to follow a guru with a different religion altogether. So the first master to be followed by Baba was not a Zoroastrian, but Hazrat-Babajan, an Afghan Muslim holy woman whoa woman whoa woman who had a Muslim holy woman who had a woman who had a woman who had a supposedly trained under a Hindu guru. Though almost everything we know about her comes via Baba, whose description of her life contains several miracles which those of us who don't follow either of them must consider sceptically. And it is an interesting point to note, given the themes of gender we have noted in Townsend's writing in the previous episode, that Baba John was a name she chose herself and the Baba in her name, as in Mayor Baba's similarly self-chosen name, means father, and she would apparently get very angry if anyone referred to mother rather than father, claiming that being a woman had connotations of weakness and she was strong. According to Barbara, after sitting in silence with Babajan on many occasions, she kissed him on the forehead, thus passing on her Barak, a blessing that gives one spiritual powers. He had apparently already had a realization years earlier, after reading a book on Budder and coming across talk of the Budder's future reincarnation as the Mitraia, that he was in fact the Mitraia. As he put it, all of a sudden I am that actually phrasing which will be familiar if you remember some of the things I've said in earlier episodes about the Vedas but then he forgot about that until spending time with Babajan after being kissed by Babajan by Babajan by Baba's own description he spent the next nine months almost catatonic fasting and living on almost nothing but tea in a state of divine bliss but with no consciousness of his own body his parents thought he was mad and took him to doctors who could do nothing And one day he went to move his bowels and couldn't, because he hadn't eaten solids in so long, and, according to Barbara, then I saw with these gross eyes of mine, circles and circles, whole universes. From that moment, instead of the divine bliss that I was in, for nine months I was in such torches that none in the world can understand. I used to bang my head, I used to bang my head. I scored my head. I scored my head. I scored my head. I scored my head. I was This pain, according to Bower was because he had achieved what he referred to as God realization and was conscious of a greater bliss than anyone knew, but he had to come back to normal levels of consciousness to bring everyone else to that level with him, and he was unwilling to come back to the pain and suffering of normal life. After Babajan, Baba went on to follow up personally Maharaj, a Hindu guru and Avedic doctor who had himself studied with a Muslim guru, Saibaba, who was regarded by many of his Hindu followers as an incarnation of the god of the god of the god Datetraa Maharaj apparently helped Barbara to come back to normal consciousness on their first meeting by throwing a stone at the young man's head, which hit him on the forehead in the same place Baba Jan had kissed him, drawing blood. This sort of thing seems to happen a lot in the stories around Barbara, though it's usually Barbara inflicting the violence rather than having it inflicted on him. All of these stories are filtered through Barbara's followers who say things like, this might sound to ignorant Western ears like abuse, but to those of the mystic East it is apparent that this has a deepest spiritual spiritual meaning spiritual meaning. and his gentle loving kindness. According to Barbara, at any time in the world's history there were five perfect masters who were responsible for guiding humanity. Baba John Maharaj and Maharaj's Guru Saibaba were three of them. The other two were Tajudin Baba and Nairan Maharaj. Baba visited all of these, three Muslims and two Hindus, in 1914 and happened after Baba Jan kissed him. He would often go off and head-but rocks until he bruised himself. In 1921, Baba came to the realization that he was himself the avatar, a personification of God. According to Baba, every few hundred years the avatar incarnates in a new human body, and he was the reincarnation of Zarathustra, Rama, Buda, Krishna, Jesus and Mohammed. In 1922 he gathered 45 followers, 12 Muslim, 1101-1-1-1-111, 11-0-1111111, 11-111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111, and 22 Hindu who he said should continue to practice their own religions while following him. Barbara's teaching as far as I can understand it was that everyone started as the same infinite soul but that that soul got shocked and shattered into pieces which identified themselves with gross material objects. Each soul, according to Barbara, starts out as a stone and keeps getting reincarnated as a stone until it has experienced everything that a stone can possibly experience and realise the all the impressions of its existence as a stone have been illusions caused by its form. It then me incarnates as a metal and the same thing happens over again. Then as a plant and it has every possible experience for a plant to have, then a worm, then a fish, then an animal, then a human. Each time the same cycle repeats. Souls get reborn over and over and learn all they can through their sense impressions as worms, as fish or whatever, until they realise that all those sense impressions are false. only when they've realized that all human sense impressions are false can they once again ascend and become one with God. That point that one's senses are always lying and that enlightenment comes with the realization that you can't trust your sense impressions is the theme that we see come up again and again in town's future work. There's one other thing we need to note here about Mayor Barber, and that is that for the last 44 years of his life, from 1925 on, Barbara didn't speak a single word. Instead he communicated at first by pointing at letters on an alphabet board, spelling out the words for his followers. And later, having renounced even the written word, by making hand gestures which were interpreted by a trusted follower. He claimed many times that he would say one final word which would shake the world to its foundations and set things up for the next avatar, who will arrive in 700 years. But that word was never spoken before his death in 1969. Townsend started going to meetings with some of Barber's disciples and also talking with his friend Ronnie Lane of the small faces who became another follower of Barbara. The small faces in the hands of the spectrum. All I want to do is that we knew I know. the former lead singer of Manfred Mann. That tour did not go very well at all. From the very start it seemed doomed as the group found out when they got to the airport that they were having to make the 36-hour multi-stop journey in economy class and then when they arrived in Australia they immediately had to do a press conference for hostile journalists. The very first question, according to various band members later memories, was directed at Ian McClagen of the small faces who had recently been busted who had recently been busted who had recently, who had recently been busted, who had recently, who had been busted for as so many pop musicians of the period were. He was asked, Mr McClaggin, is it true you're a drug addict and perhaps understandably swore at the journalist in response and from that moment on there was no salvaging the situation. Townsend was amazed though to be introduced to a girl who was also a follower of Mayor Barber who handed Townsend a badge with Barbara's face on it confirming for him that he was looking in the right place by following Barber. He had a brief affair with the girl and wrote the song's sensation about her, though, though the song sensation about her, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though, though gender swapped. That badge became the source of an anecdote which summed up the attitude that some of the other members of the band had to Townsend's new firm religiosity. When Moon saw Townsend wearing it, he asked who was on his badge. Mayor Barber, Townsend replied. To which Moon responded, Is it? Well you won't see me walking around with a picture of Vidal Sassoon. For some Americans who are reading the transcript rather than listening to the podcast. That joke might not make sense. So that's a brief explanation. Most English accents. Most English accents, including both mine and moons are non-rotic, which means they drop or soften the letter R when it comes after a vowel but not before another one. While most American accents are Rotic. This means that in English accents, Barbara, as in Mayor Barber, is pronounced the same as Barbara, as in someone who cuts hair. But other than meeting that girl, little went right for the group. Both the who and the small faces were accused of swearing on stage and investigated by Australian police. And then on an internal flight, a to serve any of the traveling musicians. They complained about this and were accused, possibly correctly, of being drunk and held for three hours at the next airport, before having to charter a private plane as the pilot for their connecting flight refused to have them on his plane. That's not to say that the groups in question were innocent of bad behavior, of course. For a start there was an incident at Steve Marriott's birthday party where he threw a TV of his balcony right in front of a passing police car. But there were serious threats that there were serious threats that there would be a and neither the who nor the small faces could cope with the cultural conservatism of Australia and New Zealand at the time. They likened it to the American Midwest in the 1930s. By the end of the tour, Townsend in particular was vowing never to return, and he didn't for more than 40 years. The feeling was mutual. New Zealand newspaper the truth said of both groups on their departure. We really don't want them back again. They are just unwashed, foul-swelling booze willing no hopers. The stress of the tour traumat. The stress of the tour traumatised the tour traumatised the tour traumatised. Moon in particular. And a typical story told about him is when on their next trip to the US, three of the who were meeting with Frank Barcelona. He knew townsend very well already but didn't know the other three. Barcelona made a remark about how if the group were making serious money now they should consider investing in businesses in Australia, which he saw as a growing market. Moon immediately went into a frenzy, screaming and throwing the wine he'd been drinking all over Barcelona's furniture, ranting about how he hated Australia and if Kit the face becoming a totally different person as ever switch had been flipped, before eventually calming down, apologizing and leaving having ruined the night. End Whistle who remained behind, said to Barcelona, You know my song Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Now you see what my inspiration was. This is the first time you've seen it, but we see it all the time. The inserpills, how I know which trouble is Susie and his kind. Buster High, Buster High, Buster High, Buster High, Buster High, High. High. High. High. and was now throwing Cherry bombs from his hotel balcony at police on the street who were trying to figure out how to arrest him without being blown up themselves. Moon's vandalism and drunken buffoonery were at the time often laughed off, at least by casual acquaintances and friends who only saw him in public. But he was a deeply, deeply disturbed person. And while he would play the fool in public, because of his desperate need to be loved, in private that would often turn to violence, both against his bandmates and, inexcusably against his wife. who left him on multiple occasions after his violence got too much but always returned when he promised to reform. Most of these violent turns an angry outburst, like the incident with Barcelona, happened when he was drunk. He was, by all accounts the nicest man in the world went sober. The problem was, he was getting drunk more and more often and spending less time sober. After the Australian tour, of course, there was more music to be made. Plans were made initially for an album to be released during the Wimbledon finals that year, that year. to be titled Who's for Tennis, though as it turned out the Who would not release an album in 1968 at all. Townsend was eager to expand this musical vocabulary. He'd been teaching himself the piano and learning orchestration and he was doing exercises in different styles. One of the first things he wrote and demoted after the Australian trip was a song titled Going Fishin, an attempt to copy the style of Brian Wilson's work on the Beach Boys Smiley Smile Album. There was a new non-album single, Call Me Lightning. which wasn't released as an A side in the UK and barely scraped the top 40 in the US. In the UK, the UK that was released as the B-side of another single, Dogs, a song about Greyhound Racing that shows the strong influence of the small faces. Greyhound in track number one. Your white coat was shining in the afternoon sun. Now we're both together. We're never gonna break apart no no. That only made number 25. The lowest that any proper whose single endorsed by the band themselves had ever reached other than their version of the last time which had never been promoted. That only made number 25. The lowest at any proper who single endorsed by the band themselves had ever reached, other than their version of the last time which had never been promoted. Townsend later said of this period. funny period of Happy Jack and dogs. It was also a very terrifying period for me as the Who's Only Ideas man. For instance, though I can see from Isles was released after Happy Jack, I'd written it in 1966 but had kept it in the can for ages because it was going to be the Who's Ace in the Whole. If you want the truth and nothing but, I really got lost after Happy Jack, and then when I can see from My else bombed out in Britain, I thought, what the hell am I going to do now? The pressure were really on me, and me, and me, and something very quick. Daltrey was similarly dismissive of this period, describing it later as a real self-indulgent wanking off period that didn't work. And once again the group seemed on the verge of splitting up. Townsend later said of this rather floundering period. When this happens a group generally splits up. If a group goes along without accelerating its talents, it is inevitable that you either split up or you go into cabaret. We said it can't be that simple, why should we split up? The group were in a quandary. worshiped a two and a half minute rock single but worshiping it and playing it are two different things. Musically, the who were totally capable of making records like these, but by now we were doing things that just couldn't be captured on the pop single. We needed a bigger vehicle. Speaking of vehicles, the next single was another sign that Townshe was wheel spinning creatively. It was a remake of Magic Bus, the song he had given to the pudding the year. That is no better than dogs in the UK chart. That is a lot, magic bus, to get on the bus that takes me to you. Too much magic bus. I'm so nervous I just sit and smile. How she's only another mile. and was equally unloved by the band members, especially Endwhistle, who found it dull playing the simplistic bowedly riff. While there was in 1968, the start of a move back to more simple, straightforward blues influenced rock. That move was more noticeable among album artists than among singles artists like the Who. The pop charts were still looking for innovation, not for anything metro. It made number 25 on the US charts and number 10 on the cashbox charts. One of the bigger discrepancies I've seen between the bigger discrepancies I've seen between the the cash box and billboard tallies. The single was successful enough in the US that when a planned live album of the group shows that the film or East was rejected by the band, their US label put together an odds and sods collection titled Magic Bus, The Who On Tour, which was meant to give the impression that it was a live album. The actual live album didn't get released until 2018 when it finally got a release to retain the copyright. As well as the live album, Lamber's who's for the tune to the end of doing my home was all the week lost. Now to have to get me in the full soft talk. Come on everybody! left several of the master tapes that the group had recorded in a taxi. Oddly though, while Townsend was unable to come up with a hit for his own band as a songwriter, he produced a bigger hit for someone else than the Who ever had. Townsend had been a fan for a long time of the band The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and had got Brown and his band signed to Track Records. Townsend is credited as Associate Producers of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown's eponymous first album, with Lambert, the credited producer. And I bring you fire. I'll take you to burn. Fire. I'll take you to learn. I'll take you to learn. I'll see you go. You fought hard and you saved and earned. I'll see you burn. That was recorded in June 1968, shortly after the recording of Dogs, and shortly after Townsend's marriage, and on its release in September became one of the biggest hit