Unlocked! The Who Take on US and Win, 1967-69

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In this 19th episode of CROSSED CHANNELS, we flashed back to 1967, the year The Who played their first North American gigs. The band’s inaugural US performance took place on March 26, that year, where they promoted “Happy Jack” — their first real US hit — with a brief but brutal set as one of a dozen or so attractions on Murray the K’s “Music in the Fifth Dimension” show at midtown Manhattan’s RKO Theater.

But while no one who saw their Murray the K shows (a nine-day stint during which they performed up to five times a day) would ever forget the experience, The Who would make a greater and more lasting mark in the US with their show-stopping appearance that June at the Monterey International Pop Festival, their grueling two months on the road spent opening for Herman’s Hermits at fairgrounds, auditoriums and stadiums across North America, and their quite literally explosive performance that September on CBS Television’s The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

The band’s hard graft paid off, earning them their first US Top 10 hit with “I Can See For Miles,” which reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 that November. But even as The Who were slowly muscling their way to stardom in the US, they seemed in grave danger of fading away in their homeland. “I Can See For Miles,” which peaked at #10 in the UK, was their poorest-selling new single of original material in over two years, and their brilliant 1967 LP The Who Sell Out only reached #13 on the British album charts. Sounding woefully out of place amid the changes in the UK pop scene, the band’s three 1968 singles — “Call Me Lightning,” “Dogs” and “Magic Bus” — wouldn’t even manage to crack the UK Top 20. Throw in the massive debts the band had accrued by regularly trashing their equipment onstage, and The Who were in deep trouble…

However, as we discuss, The Who’s burgeoning popularity in the US not only helped to keep the band afloat during this uncertain period, but also set the stage for their breakthrough 1969 album Tommy and the band’s legendary appearance at Woodstock. “If it wasn’t for America there would be no Who,” says Max Ker-Seymer, a friend of the podcast who has seen The Who in concert over a longer period than anyone still attending their shows… and we’re very much inclined to agree.

Given that The Who’s 1967-1969 visits to North America also included such infamous incidents as Pete Townshend’s bad acid trip on the flight home from Monterey, Keith Moon’s raucous 21st birthday party at the Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan, and the concert with The Doors at New York’s Singer Bowl that inspired Townshend to write “Sally Simpson,” there was no shortage of material for Dan and I to touch upon; indeed, this nearly 90-minute episode could have easily stretched to nine hours.

CROSSED CHANNELS can be heard both on our Substack pages or via your preferred podcast app. In previous episodes we have discussed everyone from Siouxsie & The Banshees to Parliament, Sweet to Otis Redding, The Jam to The Ramones, The Clash to Blondie, Kate Bush to the Raspberries - but always with a transatlantic angle. Fully paid-up subscribers to either Dan Jagged Time Lapse or Tony Fletcher, Wordsmith get all the 31 episodes, plus our exclusive previously unpublished interviews and access to all the archives all of the time. That is danepstein.substack.com or tonyfletcher.substack.com.

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