2005年10月のピートのアンソロジー発売と同時の質問に対する回答とフランス人ジャーナリストへの回答、今年9月のものがダイアリーに数回に分けてアップロードされていて、すべて読むのも大変なほどの量になっています。ワードに貼り付けて読みましたが、26頁もの長さになってしまいました。簡単に読み飛ばすにはかなり重要なことも書いてあり、特に気になった点についてコメントを書くことにしました。
WISE ONE: The order of creative action was a little different. In 1998 I started working on a radio play called The Boy Who Heard Music. This was supposed to be a follow up to my first radio play Psychoderelict from 1993. In 2000 I decided to develop TBWHM story as a novella. My aim was to inspire some songs. In 2005 I published the novella as a serial for 25 weeks on a Blog. The reader feedback from that Blog helped me to write a very concise summary that I was then able to transform into a ‘lyrical summary’. That comprised the set of lyrics that became Wire & Glass, a ten song mini-opera.
ミニオペミニオペラの原作、The Boy Who Heard Musicは1998年のラジオプレイのアイディアが始まりだったようです。それががそれが2000年に小説まで発展し、ブログとなった。
I had been working on songs for a possible Who album since 1999, before John Entwistle’s death. After John‘s death in 2001 Roger and I were a little confused about what to do about a new record. Roger was anxious to try, but wanted to record a conventional record in the studio with a band. I wanted more control, wanted the record to be as much as possible about just Roger and myself, and made the record in my home studios, adding musicians later only if I needed them. Roger added his vocals at the end.
他のインタビューではジョンが亡くなって初めてニューアルバムを作る気になったと発言していましたが、これは今までの経緯どおり1999年から正しいようです。
What's your favorite song (or songs) to play live off the new album?
Tea & Theatre, and Endless Wire. They are so different to the usual Who songs we play live.
ピート自身、ステージで演奏して気に入っている新曲はこの2曲だそうです。
Death is not what is important in life, it is life itself. If you’re young and reading this, let me pass on to you the words of my teacher and master since 1967 Avatar Meher Baba, these are words that were beyond my comprehension when I was 24 years old: ‘Don’t worry, be happy. Do your best and leave the results to God’. I think I understood the second part, because I thought then I knew what God was, or was not. But the first part? Don’t worry? Be happy? How do you do that? Get drunk? Take drugs? Meditate? Be a hippy? Go live in a cave? Laugh when someone beats you up and steals your bag? How is that possible? If you are 24, you have plenty of time to work it out. Trust me, in the end it becomes possible.
ミハー・ババからの言葉。興味深いです。
BARGAIN. We know from interviews you’ve done that this track, which sounds like a love song, is a song about Meher Baba. Was this apparently deliberate ambiguity because you wanted to avoid alienating your fans? (The way that Dylan did with his born again period)?
The song is about the spiritual search, so written about my relationship to Meher Baba, not about him. In Lifehouse it was a love song, but a love song about a higher love, a love between disciple and master.
バーゲンはミハー・ババとピートの関係について書かれたものだそうです。
No, I think some vital tracks were not recorded. They existed as demos. An example that comes to mind is TEENAGE WASTELAND, there were a number of others.
まだライフハウス用の曲でデモの状態のものが数曲あるそうです。
Where Rachel’s input into my work is vital is when I reach the outer fringes of my capability as a composer. For example, on In The Ether, one of the new songs on the forthcoming Who album, I was wary of playing it to anyone because it is so different to what I usually do. She adored it, exalted it, called it ‘genius’. That gave me the confidence to include it in my weblog serial publication for The Boy Who Heard Music, and receive encouragement from my readers, and a three star review and hope for more from Rolling Stone.
In The Etherはレイチェルが褒めてくれたことにより、アルバム入りすることになったそうです。
Could you tell me about "It's Not Enough?" When did you first hear it, and what struck you about it? What made it sound like a Who song in your head? Was it radically changed, or is it still easy to hear it as Rachel's creation (melody, feel, arrangement, subject)?
One day I suggested to Rachel that if she wanted to write a radio hit she should try my failsafe technique: Find a rolling, rhythmic electronic loop that might be fun to listen to while driving your car or jogging, add an overlay of several very simple repetitive chords (as heavy as possible), and an earnest lyric. She did this with a tune she called Magic Flute. For a while she tried to complete it, but I saw her heart wasn’t in it. As I’d let her appropriate my jazz-style guitar chords for her song Just Breathe I asked if I could appropriate her backing track for the Who album. I changed the words, imposed an extremely aggressive guitar part and some big backing vocals and It’s Not Enough was the result. This song is one of two or three chosen by radio from the new Who album.
It’s Not Enoughはレイチェルの共作とクレジットされていますが、ベースはレイチェルによる作曲のようです。
I made this album entirely by myself. I didn’t need or miss John or Keith. Roger added his vocals with our dear friend Billy Nicholls producing (so Roger would feel free to work in his won way, as I had done). It made for a very good result I think. I like recording a complete band live, but for me to do that on this album I would have had to start all over again. I don’t think the tracks need to recorded again just to satisfy the idea that we need to be seen to be a ‘band’. We are a duo, and we have great musicians to work with on tour.
ニューアルバムは基本的にピート一人により作られ、バンドが必要な曲だけミュージシャンを使い、ロジャーの歌う曲にボーカルを乗せて作られた。
今回のアルバムはピートが好きなように作り上げたアルバムであって、何らかのバンドサウンドをアルバムに取り込むことは全く意識されていなかった。曲ごとに参加ミュージシャンが違うことは、デュオによるアルバムであることを受け入れたのはいつだったのかは分かりませんが、長い目で見たらこれがWHO2が選択せざるを得ない道だったと思います。
Fragments was recorded by using the Method software. Could you tell us more about this revolutionary device ? How does it work ? What is the point ?
Eel Pie is putting out an album of selected pieces produced by this software which was written to my specific brief by Dave Snowdon based on algorithms from the composer Lawrence Ball that he calls ‘Harmonic Maths’. I don’t know how it works, but the brief I gave them was simple. A person visits a website and asks to hear music. The website asks some simple questions and requires some specific input, a note, a rhythm, the sound of a voice. From this a piece of unique music is created.
FRAGMENTSに関するコメント、よくピートがコメントしていることの実践。
One for the guitar players : did you use to modify your SG guitars back in the day ? Who did them ? You, Gibson or your guitar techs ? For instance, was Gibson responsible for installing Schaller tuning keys on your guitar ?
No, they were straight of the box and to be truthful were very poorly made. For me they only sound right with a Hi-Watt stack, and those amplifiers are too loud for me today. Sometimes the guitars broke when I moved the neck back and forth to get vibrato. At that time the tuning keys were a standard option. I am happy today with Custom Shop Fender Stratocasters. They are strong, and need to be, and sound wonderful with Fender VibroKing amplifiers. I have some signature SG guitars made recently by Gibson’s Custom Shop and these guitars are vastly superior to the old ones from the seventies. They are superb instruments, and seem much stronger to me.
ギブソンはラウドすぎるハイワットのアンプしか合わないのでもう使わないそうです。
Are you personally involved in the Keith Moon biopic ?
No.
キースの映画には全く関わっていない。
The Who is a name, and idea, a brand, a manifesto, it is not a living thing. I suppose I realized Roger and I were alive when John Entwistle died in 2002. At that moment I suddenly thought I had an opportunity at last to do one of two things. One: I could tell Roger it was now the end, and we would never try to pretend to be “The Who” again. Two: I could try to come up with some new music that spoke for the two of us, and for our audience (who are a mixture today of young and old fans). It wasn’t until this January (2006) that I felt confident that I had enough good songs for us to hold onto the Who name, idea, brand and manifesto.
新しいアルバムを作ることに確信を持ち、CREATIVE FORCEとしてのフーを再始動させることをはっきり決めたのは今年の1月、十分な曲（デモ等？）ができあがった時だそうです。
できあがるかどうか最も不安を感じていたのはピートそのものだったと思いますが、それが1月に変わっていました。
What is the story and the background of this rock-opera?
The story behind the mini-opera is told from the point of view of one Ray High. He is an old rock star who is in a sanatorium. He meditates every day, and tries to ignore the messages he believes he can hear up in the ether - Ham Radio transmissions, music, voices – to find some peace. He hears a familiar voice, Gabriel. Gabriel is trying to speak to another familiar voice, Josh. Gabriel and Josh were two kids in a trio with Leila who Ray watched growing up in his neighbourhood. They are all from different religions, and have special gifts. He remembers them, and watches them all over again struggle to bring their parent’s families together. They do this by putting on a play called Trilby’s Piano to bring one of their Aunt’s and one of their Uncles together in love. They succeed. They then find a stash of Ray High’s old papers about an internet experiment called The Method. They make some records and become rich and famous. Their dream is to revive Ray High’s lost dream and they do so by reviving their play Trilby’s Piano at a huge concert in New York. At this point in the story Ray High – meditating still in the ether – can see that in reality there is no concert, but it does happen in everyone’s imagination, and as such is a truly wonderful thing. But in reality, the children’s play Trilby’s Piano is actually revived in the sanatorium, not in New York at all. And Josh and Leila are together in the sanatorium with Ray High, Josh in the next room.
FOOTNOTE: I would like to believe that the concert in New York could be possible in reality of course.
ミニオペラについての解説。
これから勉強したいと思います。
Partly. But Who’s Next was based on a story about virtual reality and the internet as well. That was ‘Lifehouse’. And the music you speak about was produced using software that is based on ideas contained in Lifehouse. By the way, Lifehouse is Ray High’s lost dream I refer to in TBWHM.
ライフハウスとTBWHMとの関連性について、私はまだよく分かりません。
What is the real Who line-up? Do you consider Rabbitt – a long-time companion- and Zak –the natural son of Keith Moon- as full-time members for instance?
No. They are members of our touring band. They have no creative role in our music. They are exceptionally gifted musicians though and bring something very special to our music. Sadly, any one of them could be replaced, and often are. Rabbit did not perform with us at our famous 9/11 concert in NYC. Zak did not perform with us at our famous performance at Live8.
FOOTNOTE: Since this interview Zak has been invited to become a member of the Who.
ザックとラビットをツアーメンバーと言い切っています。しかしザックをメンバーに誘ったとも注記で書いてあります。
You have a theatre project for 2008. Can you speak of that in a few words?
I have licensed The Boy Who Heard Music for development as a music theatre piece. Not sure how that will develop. I have also thought about trying to do a special version of TOMMY with Roger for its 40th anniversary in 2008. However, this tour runs all the way to July 2007, so I don’t know whether we’ll have enough time to develop another project so soon.
FOOTNOTE: The tour now runs until November 2007. TBWHM is actually not "licensed" as yet. But there is a possibility it may be developed as a theatre piece. I personally cannot commit to a serious involvement in this because of my commitment to Who shows until 2008 and beyond. The TOMMY anniversary is in 2009 not 2008.
TBWHMを舞台化する計画があるが進んでいない、そして今のツアーが2007年11月まで延長されたそうです。そして2009年にはトミー40周年のイベントが。
これが13年間創作活動をほとんどしなかった人かと疑うほど、自信に満ちた発言ばかりで、これはピート･タウンゼントが自らの創作活動のフーというブランドの中で再開することに、何の疑問を躊躇もなくなったばかりでなく、自ら欲していることを示しています。名実ともにフーが再始動した、まず1枚目のアルバムがENDLESS WIREだったのです。
ザ・フー 2006 ツアー日程
ヨーロッパツアー（２３公演終了）7/6のHedgestookを含む
北米ツアー第１レグ（18公演終了）
10/29 London Roundhouse
北米ツアー第２レグ日程（23公演中１２公演終了）
Nov 04, 2006 Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl
Nov 05, 2006 Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl
Nov 08, 2006 San Jose HP Pavilion
Nov 10, 2006 Las Vegas Mandalay Bay
Nov 11, 2006 Palm Springs Indian Wells Tennis Garden
Nov 13, 2006 Salt Lake City Delta Center
Nov 14, 2006 Denver Pepsi Center
Nov 17, 2006 Dallas American Airlines
Nov 18, 2006 Houston Toyota Center
Nov 20, 2006 Fort Lauderdale Bank Atlantic Arena
Nov 22, 2006 Atlanta Gwinnett Center
Nov 24, 2006 Atlantic City The Borgata
Nov 25, 2006 Philadelphia Wachovia Center
Nov 27, 2006 Hershey Giant Center
Nov 28, 2006 Bridgeport Arena at Harbor Yard
Dec 01, 2006 Uncasville Mohegan Sun
Dec 02, 2006 Boston TD Bank North Garden
Dec 04, 2006 Toronto Air Canada Centre
Dec 05, 2006 Grand Rapids Van Andel Arena
Dec 07, 2006 Omaha QWest Center
Dec 08, 2006 St.Paul Xcel Arena
Dec 11, 2006 Columbus Value City Arena
