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Re: Re[2]:



   Yea, I'll agree the Keith couldn't have saved "Face Dances" or "It's Hard,"
especially not in the condition he was in in the late seventies.  But had he
successfully gotten off of the alcohol and pills, and gotten back to full-time
touring, it might have made a difference (natural ability is something you don't
loose, I would imagine- Keith wasn't a techincally skilled drummer, he was a 
naturally gifted drummer).  And like I said, it always seemed the band, Pete in
particular, fed of of Keith and his enthusiasm; how would it have revitalized
the band, and Pete's attitude towards the band, to have Keith back and healthy?
Would "Face Dances" and "It's Hard" have happened at all?  Would Pete have taken
the better material that he was now hoarding for his own solo albums and used it
for the Who?  We'll never know.... it's probably is just a pipe dream, after    
all.  As you say, Keith did die.
   But I won't agree that I would've crucified Kenny had he been able to play
like Keith- I certainly won't crucify Simon Phillips for trying.  It's fine to
try and come up with your own sound on newer material, but on the older stuff,
I would've been much happier to hear Kenny blatantly aping Keith; not much pride
there for Kenny, but the music would've sounded better.  And I will say this: 
the Who, as one of the biggest bands in the world at the time, probably had 
their pick of drummers.  They probably would have had drummers lining up 
"around the block" for a shot at that kind of gig.  Who knows that there 
wouldn't have been another Keith Moom in there somewhere?  Some hot-shot young
drummer with killer licks, and a devil-may-care attitude?  Who knows what he
may have done for the band?  But instead, the Who choose to play it safe, and
ended up becoming (and I use Pete's words to make a point here, not because I
I can't think for myself) the cabaret act that Pete had always feared they would
become.  The Who with Kenny ended up sound like an oldies band.  And it isn't
entirely the fault of Kenny's drumming; as we all know, it was Pete's loss of
interest in the Who in general.  So my point is, if the Who had really wanted
to start over, to really "relight that fire," getting Kenny Jones was a bad,
bad choice.  Maybe it wouldn't have helped at all to have had another drummer,
even if he was the second coming of Keith Moon incarnate.  Maybe Pete would
have become tired of the Who anyways.  But then that wouldn't have been any 
worse than what happened with Jones, and I can't help feeling that the music 
in-between would have been much better.  
   And also, I must say, I feel the original context of my comments has been
lost.  This began as my opinions on what to put on the live retrospective.
Now, this is an irrefutable fact, which even those who have disagreed with me
have as much as said: the Who did not sound as good with Kenny Jones as they
did with Moon at his prime, or even on good days past his prime (e.g. Swansea);
indeed, they didn't even sound like the same band.  So, with SO MUCH unreleased
live material from the Who with Keith at his prime, why monkey around with 
putting anything else on the live retrospective?  The focus of something like 
this should be to present the band at it's best, unlike the box set, which 
was more required to present a balanced overview of the entire career of the 
band.  An analogy: on the "30 Years of Maximum R&B" video, why, dear God, 
did they include "Pinball Wizard" from the '79 Chicago show, when they had 
three awesome shows from the Tommy tour itself, any one of which would have
been better, and more in-context (does it strike anyone else as odd that there
is no Tommy material on the video from any of the Tommy-era concerts?)?  
"Sister Disco?"  "Music Must Change?"  Fine, I'm happy to have live versions of
those songs, and you won't get them without Kenny.  But where the material is
available in a better form (i.e. from the Who in their prime), why use anything
else?  So I suppose it would be necessary, to get live versions of stuff from
"Who Are You" and beyond (and I have no intrinsic problem with that), to have
some Kenny material, and some Simon Phillips material, too (I acquiesce to the
reasoning of those who want the non-Who material from the reunion tour).  I
hearby stand fully corrected.  BUT, if there is, for example, something like
"Baba O' Riley" from '79 with Kenny Jones, when I know there are versions out
there from San Fancisco '71, or even Charlton '74 or Swansea '76, with Keith,
in the words of Don Corleone, "this I do not forgive." (Sorry to Godfather fans
if I butchered that quote- it's been a long time...)  
   And finally, sort of "by the way," I'm sorry my posts have been so arduously
long, but Purdue won't let me take any writing classes here, so I have to get it
out somewhere! :)


                                                         M.M.