9. The WhoLive At Leeds
Now, D. Boon went all trebly for Minutemen, but actually he was the biggest fan of Townsend’s playing style. He loved Townsend’s slashing rhythm guitar. And also that record had that bass/guitar interplay that we always tried to replicate in Minutemen.
George Hurley learnt how to drum from listening The Who’s A Quick One; and the first song I wrote before Minutemen I wrote after listening A Quick One. It was terrible. It was called ‘Mr Bass King From Other Space’: it was about blowing away the band with a bass solo. I showed it to D. Boon and he laughed his fuckin’ ass off, man. But A Quick One also gave me the idea to make my operas.
But, for us, The Who weren’t an arena rock band – it reminded us more of punk. The 60s part, anyway – we didn’t like their later stuff. It had "the spirit". We loved the sound and feel of Live At Leeds: especially ‘Young Man Blues’. It was so in your face. We loved "in your face": just like with Brother Lou [Reed], man – it was like his voice is in your fucking brain.
