Roger Daltry at a bar in New York City, 2005
Photo by Frank Beacham
Roger Daltrey is 78 years old today.
An English singer, musician, songwriter and actor, Daltrey is best known as the founder and lead singer of The Who. He has maintained a musical career as a solo artist and has also worked in the film industry, acting in films, theatre and television roles. He has also produced films.
Born in the Hammersmith area of London, Daltrey was brought up in Acton. It was the same working class suburban district that produced fellow Who members, Pete Townshend and John Entwistle.
Daltrey attended Victoria Primary School and then Acton County Grammar School for Boys along with Townshend and Entwistle. He showed academic promise in the English state school system.
His parents hoped he would eventually continue on to study at university, but Daltrey turned out to be a self-described "school rebel" and developed a dedicated interest in the emerging rock and roll music scene instead.
He made his first guitar from a block of wood, a cherry red Strat copy, and joined an existing skiffle band called the Detours in need of a lead singer. They told him he had to bring a guitar, and within a few weeks he showed up with it. And he could play it too.
When his father bought him an Epiphone guitar in 1959, he became the lead guitarist for the band and soon afterwards was expelled from school for smoking.
Describing the post-war times, Pete Townshend wrote in his autobiography:
"Until he was expelled, Roger had been a good pupil. Then he heard Elvis and transmogrified into a Teddy Boy with an electric guitar and a dress-sneer. Was it simply rock 'n' roll? It was obvious to a young man as intelligent as Roger that there was no future in conforming any more."
Daltrey became a sheet metal worker during the day, while practicing and performing nights with the band at weddings, pubs and working men's clubs. He invited schoolmate Entwistle to play bass in the band, and on the advice of Entwistle, invited Townshend to play guitar.
At that time, the band consisted of Daltrey on lead guitar, Pete Townshend on rhythm guitar, John Entwistle on bass, Doug Sandom on drums and Colin Dawson on lead vocals.
After Colin Dawson left the band, Daltrey switched to vocals and played harmonica as well, while Townshend became the lead guitarist. In 1964, drummer Doug Sandom left the band, eventually being replaced by Keith Moon.
Early on, Daltrey was the band's leader, earning a reputation for using his fists to exercise control when needed. In 1964, the group discovered another band working as the Detours and discussed changing their name.
Pete Townshend suggested "The Hair" and Townshend's roommate, Richard Barnes, suggested "The Who." The next morning, Daltrey made the decision for the band, saying "It's The Who, innit?"
With the band's first hit single and record deal in early 1965, Townshend began writing original material and Daltrey's dominance of the band began to decline.
As Townshend developed into one of rock's most accomplished composers, Daltrey's vocals became the vehicle through which Townshend's visions were expressed, and he gained an equally vaunted reputation as a powerful vocalist and riveting frontman.
The Who's stage act was highly energetic, and Daltrey's habit of swinging the microphone around by its cord on stage became his signature move.
Daltrey's Townshend-inspired stuttering expression of youthful anger, frustration and arrogance in the band's breakthrough single, "My Generation,” captured the revolutionary feeling of the 1960s for many young people around the world and became the band's trademark.
Later, his scream near the end of "Won't Get Fooled Again" became a defining moment in rock and roll.
With each of The Who's milestone achievements, Tommy, Who's Next, and Quadrophenia, Daltrey was the face and voice of the band as they defined themselves as the ultimate rebels in a generation of change.
When filmmaker Ken Russell's adaptation of Tommy appeared as a feature film in 1975, Daltrey played the lead role, was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for "Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture" and appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine on April 10, 1975.
Afterward, Daltrey worked with Russell again, starring as Franz Liszt in Lisztomania. He worked with Rick Wakeman on the soundtrack to this film, writing the lyrics to three songs and also performing these, as well as others.
Daltrey has long been known as one of the most charismatic of rock's frontmen. According to Pete Townshend: "He almost invented the pseudo-messianic role taken up later by Jim Morrison and Robert Plant."
Daltrey uses Shure SM 58 microphones with cords which he tapes to reinforce the connection and avoid cutting his hands when he swings and catches the microphone.
In addition to music, Roger Daltrey has acted in advertisements, television and films, and maintains an extensive filmography.