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A Band with Built-In Hate: The Who from Pop Art to Punk
Exploring the explosion of the Who onto the international music scene, this heavily illustrated book looks at this furious band as an embodiment of pop art.
“Ours is music with built-in hatred,” said Pete Townshend. A Band with Built-In Hate pictures the Who from their inception as the Detours in the mid-sixties to the late-seventies, post- Quadrophenia . It is a story of ambition and anger, glamor and grime, viewed through the prism of pop art and the radical leveling of high and low culture that it brought about—a drama that was aggressively performed by the band. Peter Stanfield lays down a path through the British pop revolution, its attitude, and style, as it was uniquely embodied by the first, under the mentorship of arch-mod Peter Meaden, as they learned their trade in the pubs and halls of suburban London; and then with Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, two aspiring filmmakers, at the very center of things in Soho. Guided by contemporary commentators—among them, George Melly, Lawrence Alloway, and most conspicuously Nik Cohn—Stanfield describes a band driven by belligerence and delves into what happened when Townshend, Daltrey, Moon, and Entwistle moved from back-room stages to international arenas, from explosive 45s to expansive concept albums. Above all, he tells of how the Who confronted their lost youth as it was echoed in punk.
“Ours is music with built-in hatred,” said Pete Townshend. A Band with Built-In Hate pictures the Who from their inception as the Detours in the mid-sixties to the late-seventies, post- Quadrophenia . It is a story of ambition and anger, glamor and grime, viewed through the prism of pop art and the radical leveling of high and low culture that it brought about—a drama that was aggressively performed by the band. Peter Stanfield lays down a path through the British pop revolution, its attitude, and style, as it was uniquely embodied by the first, under the mentorship of arch-mod Peter Meaden, as they learned their trade in the pubs and halls of suburban London; and then with Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, two aspiring filmmakers, at the very center of things in Soho. Guided by contemporary commentators—among them, George Melly, Lawrence Alloway, and most conspicuously Nik Cohn—Stanfield describes a band driven by belligerence and delves into what happened when Townshend, Daltrey, Moon, and Entwistle moved from back-room stages to international arenas, from explosive 45s to expansive concept albums. Above all, he tells of how the Who confronted their lost youth as it was echoed in punk.
- GenresMusicNonfiction
280 pages, Paperback
Published September 20, 2022
7 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Peter Stanfield
16 books2 followersPeter Stanfield is a senior lecturer in film studies at the University of Kent at Canterbury and the author of Hollywood, Westerns and the 1930s: The Lost Trail.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 1, 2021
An excellent study on The Who and their culture. Kimley and I will be interviewing Peter Stanfield on his book on BOOK MUSIK. The podcast should be up on May 1st. Here's the link to the BOOK MUSIK episode on this book: Book Musik podcast
August 4, 2021
Initially, I found this hard-going but after a couple of chapters it became very engrossing. I have a shelf full of Who books that tend to regurgitate the same facts in different ways. However, this book takes a very different approach to their career and influence. Recommended for fans of The Who/Townshend looking for a fresh perspective.
May 1, 2021
Tosh and I discuss this with author Peter Stanfield on our Book Musik podcast.
The Who is a band rife with contradictions and easily one of the most acutely self-aware bands to come out of the British music scene of the 1960s. From recording ads on The Who Sell Out to the rock opera Tommy, The Who explored the vast continuum of what popular music could be. They were anti-intellectual intellectuals who embraced constant change and who weren’t afraid to smash a few guitars along the way.
The Who is a band rife with contradictions and easily one of the most acutely self-aware bands to come out of the British music scene of the 1960s. From recording ads on The Who Sell Out to the rock opera Tommy, The Who explored the vast continuum of what popular music could be. They were anti-intellectual intellectuals who embraced constant change and who weren’t afraid to smash a few guitars along the way.
December 17, 2021
For my money, The Who have to be considered in the pantheon of "greatest rock band ever." From their inception in 1964 amid the Mods of London to the loss of Keith Moon in 1978, this band was one of the greatest, most dynamic acts on either side of the pond when it came to pop and rock music. Fueled by Pete Townshend's amazing songwriting and some of the best auto-destructive techniques ever captured on film, The Who staked a claim towards being no one's idea of a second-tier act deferential to the marquee players like the Stones or the Beatles. They were a harbinger of punk, and perhaps the one band that could've survived the onslaught of that genre in the mid-Seventies not only unscathed, but held up as godfathers to the punk scene.
"A Band with Built-In Hate" might be the best book about The Who that I've ever read (and I've read Pete's memoir, "Moon" by Tony Fletcher, and "The Who: Maximum R&B" by Richard Barnes, among others). Peter Stanfield gets that the band's most creative period was 1964 to 1973, the years of "My Generation," "The Who Sell Out," "Tommy," and of course "Quadrophenia." Add the steady stream of great singles, and you have a band that is firing on all cylinders amid the crowded field of rock-star-wannabes in the British and American music scene of the day. What Stanfield gets right is the notion that the biographical stuff isn't essential to understanding The Who; this is a cultural history of what the band was around and influenced by, as well as what they influenced.
Beginning with an admittedly intellectual and heady introduction framing the "Pop Art" movement of the postwar period (which would have enormous influence on the image of The Who, from their stage clothes to their album covers), Stanfield gives us a sense of what it was like to discover these four unpleasant but magnetic individuals who came together in the wake of groups like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and others storming the charts in the UK. The Who were never going to be able to topple the Beatles, and they weren't as wedded to the romantic notions of American blues musicians like the Stones, so they staked out their own sonic territory. Loud, aggressive, unrepentant, and utterly destructive, "maximum R&B" was what The Who did. And no one did it better for as long as they did it, from their crunching first singles ("I Can't Explain" and "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere") on through their Pop Art period (which saw their first rock opera "A Quick One (While He's Away)") before their further expansion on into a full-length album of rock opera ("Tommy" and later "Quadrophenia"). Stanfield puts the band into the wider context of their times, including the writing of one of their chief champions and sparring partners, Nik Cohn.
This book is an absolute delight; when I got it in the mail, I resisted for as long as I could because I knew I'd consume this book in prolonged sessions of reading, and that proved to be the case. "A Band with Built-In Hate" isn't interested in being exhaustive, and thank God for it. What it does is place the band into perspective and show how they really were one of the most unique pop creations of the era. At their absolute peak, no one could put away a rock concert quite like The Who, and Stanfield conveys the majesty of their studio output as well. Far from dying before they got old, The Who have maintained a relevance and stature on par with their contemporaries, and they're still going as a live and recording entity (albeit one robbed of the creative tension that served them so well when Keith Moon was still alive). "A Band with Built-In Hate" is an essential read for anyone who loves The Who, and I frigging loved every minute of reading it.
"A Band with Built-In Hate" might be the best book about The Who that I've ever read (and I've read Pete's memoir, "Moon" by Tony Fletcher, and "The Who: Maximum R&B" by Richard Barnes, among others). Peter Stanfield gets that the band's most creative period was 1964 to 1973, the years of "My Generation," "The Who Sell Out," "Tommy," and of course "Quadrophenia." Add the steady stream of great singles, and you have a band that is firing on all cylinders amid the crowded field of rock-star-wannabes in the British and American music scene of the day. What Stanfield gets right is the notion that the biographical stuff isn't essential to understanding The Who; this is a cultural history of what the band was around and influenced by, as well as what they influenced.
Beginning with an admittedly intellectual and heady introduction framing the "Pop Art" movement of the postwar period (which would have enormous influence on the image of The Who, from their stage clothes to their album covers), Stanfield gives us a sense of what it was like to discover these four unpleasant but magnetic individuals who came together in the wake of groups like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and others storming the charts in the UK. The Who were never going to be able to topple the Beatles, and they weren't as wedded to the romantic notions of American blues musicians like the Stones, so they staked out their own sonic territory. Loud, aggressive, unrepentant, and utterly destructive, "maximum R&B" was what The Who did. And no one did it better for as long as they did it, from their crunching first singles ("I Can't Explain" and "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere") on through their Pop Art period (which saw their first rock opera "A Quick One (While He's Away)") before their further expansion on into a full-length album of rock opera ("Tommy" and later "Quadrophenia"). Stanfield puts the band into the wider context of their times, including the writing of one of their chief champions and sparring partners, Nik Cohn.
This book is an absolute delight; when I got it in the mail, I resisted for as long as I could because I knew I'd consume this book in prolonged sessions of reading, and that proved to be the case. "A Band with Built-In Hate" isn't interested in being exhaustive, and thank God for it. What it does is place the band into perspective and show how they really were one of the most unique pop creations of the era. At their absolute peak, no one could put away a rock concert quite like The Who, and Stanfield conveys the majesty of their studio output as well. Far from dying before they got old, The Who have maintained a relevance and stature on par with their contemporaries, and they're still going as a live and recording entity (albeit one robbed of the creative tension that served them so well when Keith Moon was still alive). "A Band with Built-In Hate" is an essential read for anyone who loves The Who, and I frigging loved every minute of reading it.
July 9, 2021
Bob Stanley is well on point calling it best book on The Who. It leaves out tiresome and well known biographical details, and gives a lot of context & theory on what Pete Townsend was set out to achieve. Many insightful quotes from pop theorists of the day, like Nick Cohn and George Nelly.
October 29, 2022
Only for the true fans
October 29, 2023
Enjoyed this book. It's not a standard bio but more a look at the band through the lens of contemporary writers such as Nik Cohn and George Mellym
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews