Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who

Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who and Amazing Journey: Six Quick Ones are two exhilarating feature films about one of the greatest rock bands in the world!

Spanning four decades, this authorized and definitive anthology of The Who relives their journey from humble beginnings to their meteoric rise to rock legend status in a 2-film DVD set. Filled with all-new interviews with band members Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend and music icons Sting, The Edge of U2, Eddie Vedder and more, this must-have collection also features electrifying rare and unreleased concert footage in mind-blowing 5.1 surround sound. David Wild, a contributing editor of Rolling Stone, says it's "brilliant…an exceptionally smart and intimate portrait." For music that spoke to generations of fans, and refused to be classified, the answer is - and always will be - The Who.

Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who is a very satisfying, two-disc set anchored by an excellent documentary directed by Murray Lerner (The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival), whose 1970 footage of the band in concert appears in Lerner’s Message to Love: The Isle of Wight Festival. Lerner’s new film includes recent and extensive interviews with surviving Who members Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend, who candidly recall every chapter of the group’s career, from childhood to the premature deaths of drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle, and beyond to Daltrey and Townshend’s continuing, now-autumnal collaboration. Much of what is said and captured in Amazing Journey has been noted before in myriad ways (including the Who’s 1979 autobiographical feature The Kids Are Alright), but the older Daltrey and Townshend get, the richer their insights into Who history. Lerner’s organization of sub-topics and material also makes Amazing Journey powerful and resonant, including the Who’s earliest period as an emerging club band (called the High Numbers) emphasizing rhythm and blues, and Townshend’s gradual transformation into a songwriter trying to break traditional pop forms. Key relationships are examined and explored, but of special note is Daltrey’s and Townshend’s separate, fascinating assessments of the former’s evolution as a vocalist and frontman. (Each maintains that it was Daltrey’s personal connection to the central character in Tommy that turned him into an expansive, charismatic singer.)

A second disc contains superb outtakes from Amazing Journey, with an emphasis on the wisdom of Daltrey and Townshend, both in their 60s, examining their individual artistries. Who fans and musicians alike will certainly enjoy an exciting analysis, from the likes of the Edge, Simon Townshend (Pete’s brother and member of the Who’s backing band) and Eddie Vedder, of Townshend’s gifts as a guitarist. A wonderful mini-documentary co-directed by D.A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back) captures a recording session from 2003, and footage of the High Numbers in a 1964 performance (from an aborted film by the Who’s late co-manager, Kit Lambert) is a remarkable artifact. --Tom Keogh