Pete Townshend -- Face the Face

 

Welcome to the weekly article for Reminiscings of Youth where I bring forth a song that I remember from my childhood and adolescence (most of the time) and give some of my memories about it. 

I was never a fan of legendary rock band The Who although even as a rock-averse child, I'd known about Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Keith Moon going nuts on the stage and smashing guitars via television footage and radio station commercials. In my first year of high school and final year of ever picking up a clarinet again, we even had to practice selections from The Who's 1973 "Quadrophenia" album. I can guarantee that our attempts to play those selections didn't help me to appreciate or even remember any of the tracks.

But my image was set that The Who was a very angry group of musicians and singer-songwriters. And of course, in the decades to come, the "CSI" franchise made it a tradition to use their songs as themes for their individual shows. Personally, I've learned to enjoy the scream-worthy "Won't Get Fooled Again" for "CSI: Miami" while watching sunglasses-toting Lt. Horatio Caine spout one of his droll musings.

However, that was obviously much later in the century. Some years earlier, when I had that image of Townshend raging and transforming his Fenders and Gibsons into so much kindling and metal parts, he rather surprised me when I was a university student. I caught a music video of his where he transformed himself into an old-fashioned 1940s bandleader in a cheesy tuxedo in charge of a group of happy musicians playing some high-energy jazz and rock. Townshend looked stylish (as a mix of Nicolas Cage and Ralph Fiennes) and apparently absorbed a bit of Cab Calloway showmanship. 

I've read that "Face the Face" and its November 1985 source album of "White City: A Novel" weren't exactly warmly welcomed by critics who probably didn't enjoy seeing and hearing a hardcore rock musician going all Joe Jackson jive all of a sudden. However, I actually was good with the catchy song, and according to what I've read in the comments for the various YouTube representations of the tune, the song has amassed its popularity. For example, whoever was on the drums all throughout "Face the Face" should have received a massive bonus for providing that cool and percussive storm to get the folks up and dancing along with those happy and jamming horns.

"Face the Face" reached No. 17 on Canada's RPM and then No. 26 on America's Billboard charts. The highest that it got anywhere else around the world was in Sweden where it hit No. 8. Now, what was hitting the Top 3 of Oricon in November 1985?

1. Akiko Kobayashi -- Koi ni Ochite (恋におちて）

2. Checkers -- Kamisama Help!（神様ヘルプ！）

3. Anzen Chitai -- Aoi Hitomi no Elise（碧い瞳のエリス）