We covered 1971, one of their stellar years, last time. Even with the crushing bruise to his ego about the collapse of Lifehouse, Townshend was soldiering on, starting to write new material for what many consider to the be finest effort that The Who would ever produce. But 1972 was a slow year for them in many ways, and it took its toll.
They did not do a North American tour, and only did a few venues in Europe. What is not widely known was that the rift betwixt the band and Kit Lambert was growing, due both to Lambert’s increasingly debilitating addiction to narcotics and alcohol and for lack of studio work for them. They started working with Glyn Johns more and more, but Lambert still controlled the finances at Track Records, and that eventually prove to be a disaster.
Townshend spent most of the first two months of the year visiting shrines to Meyer Baba, his religious center, in India. He also recorded some music that was released in limited editions to people who bought albums from the Baba association. I have not included any of that in this piece, out of respect for Townshend. I think that he would think that it is too personal for public display except for the faithful.
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