<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My first introduction to Keith Moon and The Who came from the 45 rpm I had added to my drum practice records.\u00a0 I would put on a stack of 45s (and later, albums) and retreat to the basement.\u00a0 After playing through as many songs as would fit on the spindle,\u00a0 my mom would flip them over and I would play through the B sides (and if no one was home, I would run up stairs and flip them over myself).\u00a0 My first and only Who record at that time was <\/span>I Can See for Miles<\/span><\/i> backed by <\/span>Mary Ann with the Shaky Hands<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 I had never seen The Who perform so what I knew of Keith Moon\u2019s drumming came strictly from learning to copy his unconventional style.\u00a0 Moon seemed to play around the beat of the song as much as he set the time for the band.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t like anything I had ever played along with before but the lesson served me well by the time my high school band (The Twig) learned our version of <\/span>Summertime Blues<\/span><\/i> (our arrangement drew liberally from the way both The Who and Blue Cheer played the song).\u00a0 Once I was able to see Moon in action, the manner in which he attacked the drums left me wondering how a band could work with a drummer who seemed to be from a different planet.\u00a0 When The Twig began playing <\/span>See Me, Feel Me<\/span><\/i> from their rock opera <\/span>Tommy<\/span><\/i> (we played it as an instrumental because we couldn\u2019t do the vocals justice), I had seen enough of Moon\u2019s playing style that it gave me a better idea how the drum part carried the tune.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In Part 1 of <\/span>Moon the Loon<\/span><\/i>, we left the fifteen year old Keith Moon playing in a semi-pro band after replacing his pal and fellow drummer, Gerry Evans, in The Escorts.\u00a0 During this period, Moon was steadily improving.\u00a0 As he gained more confidence in his playing, Keith started plotting the next step forward in his drumming career.\u00a0 He answered an audition call with Shane Fenton and the Fentones (a band that had racked up six hit singles) but failed to get the gig.\u00a0 The band seemed to think he was much too young to be drumming in such a popular, professional band.\u00a0 It was 1962 and the blues were making their first significant inroads to the London music scene thanks to Alexis Korner.\u00a0 Korner opened the first R&B club in the city which featured his Blues Incorporated group as the house band.\u00a0 Moon wasn\u2019t on board with the blues at this point.\u00a0 He was perfectly happy playing pop music with the Escorts, but he was keeping his options open.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When a next level semi-pro band called The Beachcombers advertised for open drummer auditions near the end of 1962, the now sixteen year old drummer was driven there by his father.\u00a0 As one drummer after another was dismissed, the band kept calling in the next aspiring time keeper.\u00a0 The band had already told Moon he was too young and that he should just go home, but he stayed until all the other candidates had been dismissed.\u00a0 His father pulled rank and suggested they had nothing to lose by giving him a shot so they relented.\u00a0 All the other drummers had set up in front of the band so they could watch what the band was doing.\u00a0 Moon was the only one who set up on the back line just like he would when playing a gig.\u00a0 When they counted off the first number, not only did Moon come in right on time, he surprised them with the powerful playing style he had picked up from Carlo Little.\u00a0 Just like that, he was in The Beachcombers and although they didn\u2019t have an extra suit for him to wear (the last drummer had kept his rust-brown outfit), Moon started wearing his own outlandish gold lame suit – a fashion statement that spoke to the audience as loudly as his drumming.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0His influence was immediately felt as he pushed the band to become more than just \u2018shadows of The Shadows\u2019 (Cliff Richard\u2019s hit making band) and become better performers.\u00a0 All was well during his eighteen month stint with The Beachcombers.\u00a0 They played a regular circuit of London clubs, numerous American Army bases, and the coastal tourist spots (and why not, they were The Beachcombers after all).\u00a0 Moon tried to get the band to take the next step and become a recording band, but the other members all had jobs and families;\u00a0 they were content to remain a great semi-pro band.\u00a0 Keith was becoming more and more the center of attention in the band and it suited him.\u00a0 Moon had his eye on a higher prize.\u00a0 In later years, the former Beachcombers had some regrets for not being brave enough to go all in, but they all agreed on one thing:\u00a0 during his time in the band, Keith Moon was the best drummer they had ever worked with.\u00a0 Perhaps he was already one of the best rock and roll drummers in England.\u00a0 As his drumming skills improved, so did his capacity to pull pranks on friends and foes alike.\u00a0 When the band caught him stealing an amplifier from one of the clubs, they made him return it and explain the \u2018mix up\u2019, but it didn\u2019t quell his penchant for nicking this, that, or the other thing whenever he got the chance.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Another popular band that was handled by the same management company as The Beachcombers was The Detours.\u00a0 Legend has it that Keith Moon had mentioned that he would really like to play with them, but there is no evidence that he would ever have made a move to displace an established drummer from their band.\u00a0 In truth, The Detour\u2019s drummer was a fulltime bricklayer with a family who was moonlighting six nights a week with The Detours.\u00a0 Doug Sandom\u2019s wife might not have approved of his second life as a drummer, but Sandom enjoyed playing rock music.\u00a0 A few years older than his fellow Detours, friction with teenage art student \/ guitarist Pete Townsend pushed Sandom to quit the band in anger after being chastised by Townsend.\u00a0 It appears that ousting Sandom had been Townsend\u2019s plan all along, but he still insisted that Doug complete the next month of bookings before he left.\u00a0 Sandom was on better terms with singer Roger Daltry and bassist John Entwhislte but when Entwhistle offered to leave with Sandom, the drummer told him, \u201cYou carry on.\u00a0 I\u2019m too old to be in the band really.\u00a0 You\u2019d be stupid to throw away your contract because of me.\u201d\u00a0 Not long after Moon had taken his drum seat, Sandom brought the hideous stage outfit that Townsend had designed for the band to the Oldfield with the intention of shoving it down Pete\u2019s throat.\u00a0 He realized that Townsend had played him and was angry and embarrassed to see this \u2018kid\u2019 taking his place.\u00a0 During a break, Moon approached Sandom and told him that he had seen him play many times.\u00a0 Keith also surprised him by thanking him for the great opportunity he had given Moon by quitting The Detours.\u00a0 It was the first and last time Moon and Sandom spoke.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Through their shared management company, Sandom was asked if he might be interested in replacing Moon in The Beachcombers.\u00a0 After a little arm twisting, the two bands swapping drummers seemed like a good idea, but after having Moon push the band with his playing, they found Sandom\u2019s playing ordinary.\u00a0 After one gig with The Beachcombers, Sandom hung up his sticks for good.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0At the time that Keith Moon joined The Detours, they were in the process of becoming The Who.\u00a0 They had ditched their tailored suits in favor or a tougher look.\u00a0 They had also begun inserting some blues songs in their set of covers.\u00a0 When their door knob manufacturing manager (yes, you read that right) Helmut Gordon asked The Rolling Stones publicist Peter Meadon to look the band over, Meadon immediately hatched a plan to make the band the poster boys for the London mods.\u00a0 He pushed them to record two mod anthems he himself crafted by writing new lyrics to tunes he borrowed from Slim Harpo (<\/span>Got Love if You Want It<\/span><\/i>) and the Showman (<\/span>Country Fool<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 The crassly commercial songs <\/span>I\u2019m The Face<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Zoot Suit <\/span><\/i>were so unlike the music of The Who\u2019s new image, they were recorded under a handle that had deep meaning for the mod crowd, The High Numbers.\u00a0 Meadon reoutfitted the band with Daltry as \u2018the face\u2019 (or leader) of the band and the rest were \u2018tickets\u2019 (regular mods).\u00a0 In that this was the band\u2019s first opportunity to record, they more or less went along with the new plan, at least until their mod pandering singles tanked.<\/span><\/p>\n They ended up with three management teams tugging them in three different directions when Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp decided they were the band that they had been looking for.\u00a0 The duo had a plan to feature The Who in a film about the rise of rock bands.\u00a0 By then Helmut Gordon had become a footnote in the band\u2019s career.\u00a0 When Lambert and Stamp found out Meadon had put the underage teens on contract without the proper parental permission, they more or less won the tug of war and took over the band\u2019s business end.\u00a0 Although Townsend and Moon didn\u2019t mind the mod look Meadon had crafted for them, Daltry and Entwhistle were just as happy to return to their tougher look, sound, and name.\u00a0 There was a confusing period when The Detours were being booked as The Who and The High Numbers at different venues before finally settling in on their \u2018The Who – Maximum R&B\u2019 identity.\u00a0 The early recordings by the High Numbers took place just after Moon had joined the band and the drumming is uncharacteristically weak when compared to material they would record the next year as The Who.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When The Who finally released their debut single early in 1965, <\/span>I Can\u2019t Explain<\/span><\/i> was instantly recognizable by the four chord guitar figure that introduced the song.\u00a0 Less familiar but certainly one of the things that made this song stand out among other releases that year was the crisp, powerful drumming that pushed the song.\u00a0 Moon\u2019s tendency to lock in with Townsend\u2019s guitar rather than Entwhistle\u2019s bass turned the drums into more of a lead instrument.\u00a0 Although he admired Ringo Starr, Keith\u2019s playing didn\u2019t resemble any of the other well known drummers of that time.\u00a0 Most simply kept time while avoiding the tom toms for anyting other than an occasional fill or roll.\u00a0 Most rode their high hat cymbals – a lot.\u00a0 Keith tended to avoid the high hats (and in some periods, didn\u2019t bother including them with his kit) while attacking the toms and ride cymbals to propel the songs.\u00a0 Entwhistle observed that, \u201cMost drummers tend to play around their set.\u00a0 Keith is the only drummer I ever saw who played them forward.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The rest of Moon\u2019s history with The Who has been well documented.\u00a0 The legendary pranks like repacking the smoke cannons for their appearance on The Smothers Brothers TV show (and subsequently causing the band some permanent hearing loss) have also been told over and over.\u00a0 What rarely has been explained is how Moon ended up such a drug addled mess.\u00a0 When he began performing, he didn\u2019t drink (for one, he was too young to drink in the pubs in which he played and secondly, he really didn\u2019t like beer).\u00a0 He did find over the counter caffeine pills were helpful in keeping his edge early on (and they kept him up through long nights of pranking).\u00a0 Knowing now that he probably had ADHD before it even had a name, the purple and blue pep pills that the mods popped like candy were similar to stimulants later used to treat hyperactivity.\u00a0 Perhaps in the beginning, the pills helped the hyperactive Keith to keep his focus, but it became a case of, \u201cOne pill isn\u2019t enough so why stop at twenty?\u201d\u00a0 Money didn\u2019t drive Keith Moon so spending a fortune on drugs or toys wasn\u2019t a problem.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Being the center of attention was Moon\u2019s one true addiction, one that was aided by popping pills that kept him going for inhumanly long stretches of time.\u00a0 It is both sad and ironic that when he was finally on the right track to sobering up, it may have been the very pills helping him clean up that inadvertently killed him.\u00a0 Moon was driven to be the center of attention and it is equally sad<\/span><\/p>\n that his enormous talent as a musician wasn\u2019t enough to overcome his feelings of insecurity.\u00a0 These insecurities became more apparent in his personal relationships (particularly with his wives and girlfriends) as his drug and alcohol fueled lifestyle began to wear him down.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is still too soon to say which Keith Moon will be remembered longer.\u00a0 My personal hope is that it will be the extraordinarily talented yet unconventional drummer that will endure.\u00a0 His band mates always praised his drumming, but no doubt the antics wore on them as much as they did on his friends and family.\u00a0 After a while, the excuse, \u201cWell, that is just Keith,\u201d couldn\u2019t keep his over the top escapades from making bigger headlines than the band\u2019s music.\u00a0 No matter how beautiful the locomotive is when it comes out of the factory, it is the train-wreck that everyone tends to remember.\u00a0 Such may be the case for Moon the Loon.\u00a0 Only time will tell.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top Piece Video – The Who at Woodstock – I really wanted to use one of Moon’s last recordings\u00a0Who Are You,\u00a0<\/em>but it is tough to find a clean one!\u00a0 This will do!!