The editors Gennaro and Harisonhave successfully compiled a selection of texts on a band and their followers who could only exist at that particular time. . . .Here we have a good compilation of texts that will appeal to anybody interested in popular music, British bands of the 1960s and of course The Who. * Popcultureshelf.com * It isnt their over-the-top stage moves or musical chops that made The Who the embodiment of their generationyouth of the Sixties. Rather, it was their verbal focus on expressing oneself authentically, the passion of the era. Authenticity was the theme of their hit songs (like Behind Blue Eyes, The Real Me, I Cant Explain, See Me, Feel Me, and Substitute), in the title of their 1968 album The Who Sell Out; and expressed by Townshend in innumerable interviews. Authenticity, and its barriers, was also central to the works of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and the philosophers most influential to young Brits in the 1960s, the French existentialists, Sartre and Camus. Discussing the philosophical underpinnings and relationships between the work of this popular and influential rock band and a set of great modern philosophers, this long overdue volume provides a deeper understanding of both. -- Deena Weinstein, DePaul University What a terrific book! Harison and Gennaro have assembled a wide-ranging collection of essays spanning the academic, the intellectual and what is oftentimes just plain fun. Any deep fan of the Who has spent plenty of time reading into the bands Mod antecedents, the symbolism of violence in the destruction of their instruments on stage, Townshends simultaneous striving for the power and permanence of opera while insisting that pop music is ephemeral, and how Meher Baba has lain a continuing religious thread through Townshends musical ideas. This book is for that fan, and anyone trying to look for their own philosophical thread running through the songs and career of rock musics most philosophically adventurous act. -- David Simonelli, Youngstown State University