By Sam Sutherland
MSN Music

Add the Who to the list of iconic rock figures being revisited through more ambitious documentaries, a welcome wave amplified by the commercial payoff of DVDs, which have transformed this once specialized niche into a new video and film staple.

See photos of the Who

This month brings the debut for "Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who," a new two-hour film that chronicles the original quartet's pilgrimage from Shepherd's Bush, where they first built a Mod audience as the Detours, to international acclaim as one of rock's most ambitious and explosive bands of the '60s and '70s. That feature premiered Nov. 3 on VH1.

On DVD, "Amazing Journey" will be coupled with a second disc, "Six Quick Ones," comprising individual short films featuring original members Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle and Keith Moon, plus a 2003 D.A. Pennebaker profile of a recording session, and "Who Art You," a look at pop art and Mod culture. The two-disc DVD set releases Nov. 6 on the coattails of the cable premiere.

"Amazing Journey" isn't the first authorized profile of the band, which previously was examined nearly 30 years ago in "The Kids Are Alright." But the new film inevitably takes on a darker cast beneath the long shadows of the band's subsequent experiences, including the deaths of drummer Keith Moon in 1978, at the age of 32, and bassist John Entwistle, who died in 2002.

We asked Who guitarist, songwriter and principal architect Pete Townshend about his reactions to this newer view of the band, conducting our virtual interview via e-mail with the wired and Web-savvy Townshend, whose current solo activities have been woven through the Web for years. (That's why we're leaving Web acronyms intact.)

MSN Music: In the past, you've been deeply involved with the Who's archival projects, but earlier this year you told Alan Light that "Amazing Journey" is "Roger's baby with our managers." How do you view the finished package -- is it significantly different from how you might have portrayed the band's history?

Pete Townshend: I like it very much, I think Roger gets the right amount of air time at last. I see the man I know, rather than someone who just throws away his chance to speak, as often seems to happen in documentaries about the Who.

The Who's 1979 documentary, "The Kids Are Alright," is regarded as one of the best rock profiles ever and noteworthy for its often self-deprecating tone. To your eyes, how do the two views of the band compare?

I prefer the first one, but then those were the halcyon years. What this new movie does is make some sense of everything that followed, and a lot of it is pretty scary.

Your own visions for the band notably included interactive aspirations for the "Lifehouse" project. How might that have taken shape as a DVD?

I would have needed the Web, not a DVD. I am running an interactive music site at LIFEHOUSE METHOD. This is close to what I envisaged back in 1971. The missing part is bringing all the pieces of music together at a big concert event.

Your original managers, Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, documented the band frequently on film, which pays dividends here. How do you feel looking at that early footage of the band when you were the Detours?

I particularly like hearing Roger's R&B voice, it's authentic, different to the post-"Tommy" voice. I've never heard Roger's voice presented so consistently in this kind of context before. I also like the fact that the band sing pretty well too, especially on the Tamla stuff.

Between your own documentaries, the Who's historic inclusion in the Monterey Pop and Woodstock projects, and then the theatrical versions of "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia," the Who has provided one of the more comprehensive visual records for any band from that halcyon '60s era. Was that always part of the band's creative vision?

We've been lucky in some ways, but people always liked to shoot the Who, we move around. Certainly, as you rightly say, Kit and Chris were filmmakers from the beginning. But Tom Wright was with us before them, and though he was a stills photographer, his style was documentarian. Soon after, we met Richard Stanley and Chris Morphett, who elevated the documentation through stills to movies. I even made movies myself.

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