Be Here Now is the third studio album by the English rock band Oasis, released in August, 1997 at the height of their fame. It became the UK's fastest selling album of all time, eventually topping 8 million copies worldwide. During its creation, the Gallagher brothers, Liam and Noel, were said to have been major-league substance abusers in the manner of The Who's drummer of extreme notoriety, Keith Moon, who lived life to the fullest and enjoyed being seen doing so.
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The Rolls Royce parked in the pool on the cover of the album (shot at Stock House in Aldbury, Hertfordshire, which was the rural hangout of Playboy UK) has been widely assumed as a tribute to Moon, who allegedly drove (or rolled) a (Cadillac) or a (Lincoln Continental) into a Holiday Inn swimming pool during his 21st birthday party.
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Many regard The Who as the first punk-rock band. Actually, they were Mods (as opposed to Rockers) and mod-ism is well-explained in this couplet of the times:
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"I can do anything right or wrong
I can talk anyhow to get along
I don't care anyway, I never lose
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere I choose."
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Moon was a man seemingly in control of being out of control. He wrecked cars, homes, hotel rooms, and restaurants. It was once estimated the total damage wreaked by Moon around the world over a span of 14 years exceeded a half million dollars. Sadly, his own need for attention and his penchant for outdoing himself to amuse others lead to his death (a prescription drug overdose) in September, 1978.
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He was one of rock's greatest drummers but never had a drum set in any place he lived, and he never practiced. In some ways his lack of discipline made his drumming unique and exciting. Moon could not drive (or, rather, he didn't have a license) and crashed cars on multiple occasions. Guitarist Pete Townsend said, "He simply did not know how to steer a car. He just couldn't do it." Later, Moon, while escaping from skinheads who were trying to attack him and his friends after an altercation in a pub, accidentally ran over and killed his chauffeur, Neil Boland. It was an accident, but Moon was haunted by it for the rest of his life.
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Moon was born on August 23, 1946. Twenty one years later, that same day in 1967, he celebrated his birthday at an airport Holiday Inn in Flint, Michigan. The Who were the opening act for Herman's Hermits and the bands had just played Atwood Stadium, a timeworn high school venue, under cloudy skies and with just a few thousand in attendance. As was typical, they left the stage with destroyed equipment everywhere, then trashed their dressing rooms. That night a huge birthday cake featuring a half-naked pop-up girl with frosting-coated breasts was furnished to Moon by Premier Drums and Decca Records.
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Either later that night or throughout much of the next day, a drunken food fight erupted. The hotel's manager was called and what remained of the cake was thrown in his face. Before the police were called, Moon (and apparently others) took fire extinguishers outside into the parking lot and sprayed a half-dozen cars, peeling their paint. At that point, it's recalled (possibly apocryphally) that Moon, now either stark naked or in briefs, jumped into an unlocked Lincoln (but, might have been a Cadillac) parked on slight hill, released the parking brake and (without keys to start the car) was unable to stop it from rolling through a fence and into the hotel pool.
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Then, upon climbing out, trying to evade the police who'd arrived with guns drawn (to quell the disturbance now involving drunken members of all the bands' entourages destroying snack machines and throwing tables and chairs into the pool), Moon slipped on what was left of the buffet, flew through the air, lost a front tooth, was handcuffed, arrested, and taken to a dentist. He spent that night in jail and upon being released was advised never to visit Flint again. The bill for the entire incident was reported to have been $24,000, paid off in cash the next day by all the band members and roadies who each gave up $1,000. Rumor has it the Holiday Inn handed down a lifetime ban to The Who, although it was never enforced and in fact the band stayed at Holiday Inns many times afterwards.
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Moon himself recalled in detail--although likely greatly embellished--the entire episode when interviewed by Jeremy Hopkins in Rolling Stone #124 (12-21-72). "So there I was," Moon chortled, "in the driver's seat of a Lincoln Continental, underwater. And the water was pouring in--coming in through the bloody pedal 'oles in the floorboard, squirting in through the windows. In a startling moment of logical, I said to meself, 'well, I can't open the doors until the pressure is the same.' It's amazing 'ow I remembered that from my physics class! I knew I'd 'ave to wait until the water crept up to me nose. AH-HAHAHAHAHA!"
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Another good account of that day appeared in Hard Rock magazine (January, 1979), and still another was later posted online by Flint's onetime WTAC DJ Peter C. Cavanaugh (WTAC is said to have been the first US radio station to play The Who's first single, "I Can't Explain"), who himself was there at the station when The Who did their on-air promotion the day of the concert, then at the concert itself, and afterwards at the Holiday Inn.
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Here's what singer Roger Daltry recalled. "I saw it. I remember the car in the pool. And there was incredible, bloody chaos everywhere. One of the best rock & roll birthday parties . . . ever."
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