The Kids Are Alright

Pete Townshend:
When I'm on the stage - let me try to explain - when I'm on the stage, I'm not in control of myself at all. I even don't know who I am. I'm not this rational person that can sit here and talk to you. If you walked on the stage in the middle of a concert for an interview, I'd probably come close to killing you - I HAVE come close to killing people that walked on the stage. Abbie Hofmann walked on the stage at Woodstock and I nearly killed him with me guitar. A cameraman walked... a, a, a policeman came on when the bloody building of the Fillmore in New York was burning down - and I kicked him in the balls and sent him off. It's not like being possessed, you know, it's just - I do my job, and I know that I have to get into a certain state of mind to do it.

John Entwistle:
We became rich later than I expected. Now I'm too old to enjoy my money.

Pete Townshend:
If you steer clear of quality, you're alright.

Interviewer:
But wouldn't you say a group like The Beatles have a certain musical quality?

Pete Townshend:
Oooh, that's a tough question. Alright, actually, this afternoon, John and I were listening to a stereo LP of The Beatles, in which the voices come out of the one side and the backing track came out of the other. And when you actually hear the backing tracks of The Beatles without their voices, they're flippin' lousy.

Keith Moon:
[asked about previous jobs] I was a rust repairer. I was a rust repairer and full-time survivor. I survived all the major earthquakes, and the Titanic, and several air crashes.

Keith Moon:
My friends call me Keith, but you can call me John.

Pete Townshend:
I've got a guitar up here if any big-mouth little git wants to come and f***ing take it off me.

Pete Townshend:
What first made us want to go to America and... "conquer" it, was being English! It wasn't that we cared a monkey's about the American Dream, or the American drug situation, or the dollars or any of that. It's because we were English kids! And we wanted to go to America and be English!

Ken Russell:
This country's in a weird, feeble, grotesque state and it's about time it got out of it. And the reason it could get out of it is rock music! And I think that Pete Townshend, The Who, Roger Daltrey, Entwistle, Moon, could rise this country out of its decadent, ambient state more than Wilson and those crappy people could ever hope to achieve!

Ringo Starr:
[regarding Keith Moon] Well, I'm sure most of his friends have been on here, cos I'm only one of several, and they've told you about all the mad things he's done in life. Such as, breaking up rooms... driving his car into swimming pools... and driving his car into foyers. Well, I'm not gonna tell you about any of that. I'm just here to tell you about the Keith I know and love.

Roger Daltrey:
My main ambition right now is to get back on the road with the 'orrible 'Oo. The worst rock & roll group in the world...

Interviewer:
[off] The worst?

Roger Daltrey:
Yeah. You couldn't pick four more horrible geezers who make the worst noise that you've ever heard in your life!

Tom Smothers:
[coming back to Roger] And you must be Roger.

Roger Daltrey:
Well I must be.

Tom Smothers:
Are you?

Roger Daltrey:
Yes.

Tom Smothers:
And where are you from?

Roger Daltrey:
Oz. [audience laughs]

Tom Smothers:
[taken aback] Roger from Oz?

Roger Daltrey:
Yes!

Keith Moon:
[having just been introduced as "the guy who plays the sloppy drums", Moon reacts to someone who unexpectedly farts off-camera] You've got sloppy stagehands here.

Interviewer:
[In the 1970's] Excuse me. We just shot a lot of film with the interview. And talking about all that... I was wondering...

Keith Moon:
Heard the worst.

Interviewer:
...now could you really tell us the truth and stop lying?

Keith Moon:
Oh, no. it - I mean, the truth as you wanna hear it? I can't do that. You couldn't afford me.

Pete Townshend:
[Speaking in the early Sixties] You have to resign yourself to the fact that a large part of the audience is sort of thick, you know, and don't appreciate quality however much you put it over. The fact that our group hasn't - hasn't got any quality. It's just musical sensationalism. You do something big on the stage and a thousand geezers sort of go, "Ah!". It's just basic Shepherds Bush enjoyment.

Tom Smothers:
Where did you get that unique way of playing guitar?

Pete Townshend:
From bowling.

Tom Smothers:
So, Roger from Oz, what's the next song you're gonna sing?

Roger Daltrey:
"My Generation".

Tom Smothers:
Your generation?

Roger Daltrey:
Yeah.

Pete Townshend:
Kit turned around to me and said, "I think you should write something linear, something with continuity. Perhaps a ten-minute song." So I said, "You can't write a ten-minute song!" I mean, rock songs are two-minutes-fifty - by tradition! It's one of the traditions, you know, they only allowed you one modulation, four chords, or five - you know, five chords, you might be up before the committee. Ten minutes? It's ridiculous!