Over the course of the last two weeks, I’ve been seeing
\nadvertisements for the movie
\nThe Iron Giant<\/i>, and each time I saw the ads, I thought to
\nmyself, “This sounds incredibly familiar. Someone else has told
\nthis story.”<\/p>\n
Sure enough, the first ad I saw that had the Iron Giant say the
\nname “Hogarth,” I knew. The motion picture makers might think
\nthey’ve fooled the general public, but anyone who is a music fan –
\nespecially of Pete Townshend and The Who – knows that Townshend
\ntook on this story 10 years ago with his musical
\nThe Iron Man<\/i> (which was also based on the 1968 short story
\nby the late Ted Hughes).<\/p>\n
I don’t believe that Townshend’s musical was ever produced in
\nany fashion. Too bad, ’cause trying to follow the story by the
\nmusic alone is pretty difficult – and that’s the sticking point I
\nhave with this album.<\/p>\n
To be fair, it is not completely right to call this a Townshend
\nalbum; Townshend, besides writing the music, becomes an actor in
\nthis musical play, along with John Lee Hooker, Nina Simone, Chyna
\n(whom I’m embarassed to admit I know nothing about) and – egads! –
\nThe Who, performing their first new music together since their 1983
\nbreakup.<\/p>\n
But Townshend does take on the role of the main character, a
\n10-year-old boy named Hogarth, who befriends the Iron Man (played
\nby Hooker) after he crash-lands in Australia. The Iron Man is not
\nunderstood by the adults, who work to put down the beast, while
\nHogarth becomes his friend and rescuer. The story takes on a
\ndifferent twist when a dragon (Nina Simone) threatens to destroy
\nthe earth, leaving only the Iron Man to save the planet.<\/p>\n
The one single from this album, “A Friend Is A Friend,” is a
\npleasant little number that simply brings to mind the importance of
\nthe subject. It’s not his greatest solo work, but it’s definitely
\nnot his worst. (C’mon, you don’t expect to hear “Let My Love Open
\nThe Door” during a children’s short story, do you?) The difficulty
\nis that the story line – even with the descriptive narrative in the
\nliner notes – is very difficult to follow; it almost feels like
\ncramming the story into 50 minutes doesn’t do it justice.<\/p>\n
Hooker is an odd choice to play The Iron Man, but in retrospect,
\nhis delivery of the material proves that he was the best choice for
\nthe role. It’s a shame we only get to hear him twice, on “Over The
\nTop” and “I Eat Heavy Metal” – the latter an interesting song,
\nseeing that the movie is being promoted to the tune of “Rock You
\nLike A Hurricane” by the Scorpions.<\/p>\n
Of all the characters, only Nina Simone’s seems like incorrect
\ncasting. The song she sings, “Fast Food,” also doesn’t seem to fit
\nthe mood, so errors are made all the way around.<\/p>\n
\nThe Iron Man<\/i> almost feels like a musical without a story at
\ntimes, and just becomes a reason for Townshend to not only reunite
\nwith The Who (who do sound brilliant, though their glory days are
\nlong gone) but to also jam with some of his musical friends. Here’s
\nhoping that the movie does a better job with Hughes’s tale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7566],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-39373","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-pete-townshend","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39373"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}