Teenage Wasteland

The reason I am writing this book is because it has never been properly given credit to the real cradle of the Who’s success: San Francisco. The concerts the Who played at promoter Bill Graham’s Bay Area venues made them grow exponentially and unified them as a band at a time that guitarist Pete Townshend recalled as artistically and financially draining. San Francisco held the band together, gave it confidence and the right input that made it become what it is known for today. The two Winterland concerts in 1968 and 1976 are pivotal, in that 1968 is the one in which the most interesting experimentation took place, while the 1976 performance is considered the band’s Zenit by everyone that was there.