The Song Is Over...Priced

Methinks one of my longtime musical heroes has finally completely lost his mind:

For Pete Townshend, the kids are all right. But a certain film about the kids isn't.

The Who mastermind is distancing himself from an in-the-works documentary about the legendary band by Oscar-winning filmmaker Murray Lerner and Spitfire Films, criticizing the project's creative direction...

Apparently worried the Who's history will play out like a soap opera-like production, Townshend threatened to withhold Lerner's access to the band's recordings unless the filmmaker focus more on the music.

"I am the one in the Who family who writes science fiction musicals and operas, and my music--Who music--is not a commodity I will make unconditionally available to filmmakers. My entire mission is to preserve the integrity of Who music, and I'd rather offer it to sell soap than have it turned into a 'soap' by Lerner," said the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer...

Yes, Pete, you have forever preserved the integrity of Who music. I remember as a teenager thinking that Who music would be perfect for selling cars and as a backdrop for Crime Scene Ivestigations. Urgh. Even sadder: Rumor has it that Pete refused to license "We Won't Get Fooled Again" to Michael Moore for the finale of Fahrenheit 9/11 (as a musical punctuation of Bush's infamous "Fool Me Twice" speech) because Townsend was a supporter of Blair and the Iraq war. Instead we got Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" -- an appropriate counter-choice seeing how Neil is the man who wrote "This Note's For You":

Ain't singin' for Pepsi
Ain't singin' for Coke
I don't sing for nobody
Makes me look like a joke
This note's for you.

Ain't singin' for Miller
Don't sing for Bud
I won't sing for politicians
Ain't singin' for Spuds
This note's for you.