Remembering Keith Moon

Posted on 7th Sep 09 by Paddy Murphy | 4

Keith Moon was The Who‘s legendary drummer from 1964 until his untimely death in 1978, just two weeks after the release of The Who‘s tenth album, Who Are You. Ten albums in fourteen years, makes today’s bunch of so-called rockers look like council workers.

I came to The Who very late, only a couple of years ago in fact. I’d always known who they were but I’d just never really gotten into them properly. It was a Mod thing I guess. I don’t like the Mod scene and they’ve brought some terrible god-awful music to the world. Paul Weller is my personal pet hate. He had a few good songs in The Jam but that’s it. Looking back now, I reckon it’s because Mods have never really moved on from that period in the evolution of modern rock music.

Illustration by Paddy Lynch

You know yourself how it is, you’d read articles about them in Mojo or Uncut or whatever and even though you knew them they didn’t really effect you. Well, two things made me want to get to know The Who better. The first being from Almost Famous when Lester Bangs, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, compared The Doors to The Who. Mr Bangs said…..”Pah! The Doors???!!!, Jim Morrison is a drunken buffoon posing as a poet…now The Who, now there’s a rock and roll band. They’ve got the courage to be drunken buffoons, which makes them poetic” Yes, it’s from a movie, but a movie penned by Cameron Crowe, Lester‘s former protogé.

The man loved blowing up hotel toilets. Why? Sure why not

The second was a quote form Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam‘s frontman. He simply said “The Who‘s Quadrophenia album basically saved my life”. Both Bangs and Vedder made a huge impression on me, so if they thought so highly about The Who, then they must have being doing something good.

The many magazines and articles devoted to The Who have long heaped their praise upon Pete Townsend. I still cannot really understand why. Yes, he’s a good guitar player and he’s a very talented songwriter but he’s not a great guitar player. I mean he’s no Rory Gallagher, Jimi Hendrix or Keith Richards . Townsend was basically the Kurt Cobain of the day, a good guitar player but nothing special really. He wrote great tunes and he looked awesome on stage doing those windmills on his axe.

But the real power behind The Who wasn’t Roger Daltry‘s voice. Nor was it John Entwhistle (a Tolkien reference?). Oh no, the man that made The Who was Keith John Moon.

Moon was destined to become a drummer. In school he was restless, hyperactive and had a powerful imagination. The only thing that could hold his meandering attention span was music. Moon wasn’t The Who‘s original drummer, that honour falls on some forgotten dude called Doug Sandom. Townsend and Sandom didn’t get along and Townsend finally convinced Daltry and Entwhistle to sack Sandom. They continued to gig with session drummers until at one gig, it’s reported in Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who, Moon caught Daltrey‘s attention during the show and shouted toward the stage “I hear you’re looking for a drummer. Well, I’m much better than the one you’ve got”.

Moon auditioned, kicked seven shades out of the drum kit and got the job.

The Who went from strength to strenght and soon began enjoying the celebrity lifestyle that goes with becoming a world famous rock band. Initial success was found when the band released their first album, My Generation in 1965, only a year after Moon had joined the band. The Who quickly became as famous for their on and off-stage antics as they were for their stellar music.

At the end of most of their earlier gigs the foursome would partake in destroying their equipment and anything else in and around the vicinity of the stage. Many bands copied the band’s “auto destruction”, most notably Hendrix started setting his guitar on fire a few years later and for Nirvana, well it wasn’t a proper Nirvana gig if the holy trinity of Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl didn’t smash up the place after their encore.

The most infamous incident occoured on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour when Moon had some 4th of July style fireworks rigged to one of his bass drums during the finale of My Generation. Neither Moon nor the American stage hand who provided the firepower realised the potency of the explosives and at the end of the song a huge explosion went off, watch it here, Townsend visibly shits himself and doesn’t release that his hair is smoking. The guitarist has been a long time tinnitus sufferer, something he blames Moon for. But Moon didn’t escape unharmed, he ended up with a piece of cymbal implanted in his arm for a couple of hours.

He paid somebody to break the finger of Ian McLagan, a former member of The Faces and The Small Faces, because one of his ex girlfriends began seeing him

Moon gained the nicknames “Moon the Loon” and “Mad Moon” because of such escapades and also because of his love for the rockstar lifestyle. Moon adored destruction. No hotel room was safe. Even his own home did not escape punishment. The man lived for three things, partying, drummer and wrecking things. Especially toilets. The man loved blowing up hotel toilets. Why? Sure why not. If I thought I could get away with it I know I would too and so would most of you.

But then again, Moon did have a bit of a psycho streak in him. He was reported to have been violent towards some of his girlfriends and he paid somebody to break the fingers of Ian McLagan, a former member of The Faces and The Small Faces, because one of his ex girlfriends began seeing him. Moon was always fond of a drink and had been kicked out of a few rehab centres over the years but things really went pear-shaped in 1970 when he accidently killed his friend and bodyguard Neil Boland. Skinheads were attacking his Bentley and while trying to escape in the car he hit and killed Boland, as ever the bottle was his refuge.

Moon continued to fight his battle with the booze and on September 6th he attented the movie premier of The Buddy Holly Story with Paul and Linda McCartney. After the movie and some dinner Moon returned back to his pad and took  32 Clomethiazole. Clomethiazole was a sedative prescribed to alleviate alcohol withdrawal symptoms. He was desperate clean up his act. However, Clomethiazole is not for everyone due to its addictiveness and a tendency to rapidly induce drug tolerance and it’s dangerously high risk of causing death when mixed with alcohol.

The pills were also given to Moon by a new doctor, who was unaware of Moon‘s reckless nature and long history of his love for varous substances. The doctor had given Moon a bottle of 100 pills, and instructed him to take one whenever he felt a craving for alcohol (but not more than 3 per day). Moon took 32 and fell asleep, he never woke up. He was only 32 years old.

The world had lost a fantastic drummer and a proper rock and roller.

One of my favourite Moon stories was many years later when Pete Townsend recalled that when The Who would meet up again to begin recording new material Moon would forget how to play the drums. He’d sit behind the kit and try to stay in time but he’d end up getting frustrated. Finally the band would give in and play something old that he’d know and hey presto Keith Moon could drum again.

Illustration by Paddy Lynch

The Who

Tags: Doug Sandom, Jimi Hendris, John Entwhistle, Keith Moon, keith richards, Kurt Cobain, nirvana, Pete Townsend, Roger Daltry, rory gallagher, the who