Mr. Townshend has announced plans for a new musical. Apparently this new project called "Floss" concerns the angst of the ageing Baby Boomer generation.
"I am writing a new musical," he writes in his blog "Floss is an ambitious new project for me, in the style of Tommy and Quadrophenia". The songs will be interspersed with surround-sound 'soundscapes' featuring complex sound effects and musical montages."
Townshend said the album is designed as an outdoor "son et lumière piece", to be debuted in 2011. Currently he's talking with producers in New York but hopes to release some of the musical's more "conventional" songs on a new Who album next year.
The musical tells the story of Walter, a pub-rock musician, who hits it big when one of his songs appears in a car advertisement. Suddenly wealthy, Walter becomes a "house-husband" as his wife, Floss, takes up horse riding!!. "When [Walter] tries to return to music after a 15-year hiatus," Townshend wrote, "he finds that what he hears and what he composes evoke the ecologically rooted, apocalyptic mindset of his generation. Shaken by this and torn by personal difficulties, he and Floss become estranged."
Townshend described the piece as a bit of a response to My Generation, the 1965 hit he calls "the most explicitly ageist song in rock". "At 64," he wrote, "I now want to take on ageing and mortality, using the powerfully angry context of rock'n'roll."
Don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to hearing more about this project and eventually listening to it.
6 comments:
Hi Lesley,
My first reaction to hearing it was called Floss was to think it was going to be about dentistry. Antoinette and I had a brief discussion about this new work in progress and I have to agree with her that he seems pretty incapable of removing himself from his projects and really delving into a more fictitious persona.
I'm glad he's happily creating, but why can't he remove himself from rock star characters lately? It just seems like another Ray High moment.
My 2c, currently of the American variety. ;)
xx
AM
Yes, Ray High came to mind, too, Anne-Marie.
Although, what he does best in his "fiction" is to write about his life and experiences channeled through another character - after all, he really is a rock star...
In his songwriting he doesn't have to go through a different character. He tends to be more "himself".
I'm looking forward to watching it all unfold.
It sounds very interesting. I too was thinking, "Floss"? interesting.
I hope it goes elsewhere other than New York.
I knew he had to be up to something!
I hope it will amount to more than a Ray High moment, and it's wonderful that he is writing seriously again, but I don't really find the subject all that inspiring!
Somehow I think the subject will be one that he can relate to - and as Dale said - could be something similar to his experience. Hopefully if this is the case, he can repeat what he did in the 70s and not be another Ray High. Curious about the horse riding too.
Pete's a creator, plain and simple, like his creations or not. Good for him.
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