Townshend is the best rock critic we have ever had. When the Who decided to perform a surprise number at Madison Square Garden, they chose an obscure track from The Who Sell Out. But "Tattoo" isn't a random choice; the song is about sex roles, and the disfigurement of one's body in the pursuit of ambiguous beauty. It concerns getting tattooed and there's no more important historical precedent for contemporary unisex fashion than that ugly, painful process. (p. 48)

There are rock songs about rock songs—lately there seems to be almost nothing else—and there are movies about movies but all of them—save Townshend's—are worshipfully nostalgic. Having been through the rock mill for ten years, Townshend understands the clay feet of the golden age. Our Golden Decade, he maintains in Quadrophenia, among other places, was also a Giant Drug.

Many, maybe most, of us already believe...