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The Who, the sunrise, and other things



I was off the net for a month and it has taken me a good FOUR
weeks to catch up with you guys.  Felt like making a few comments.

-Call me crazy (and I know you will!) but I've secretly preferred
Pete's voice to Rog's for a while now.  Well, maybe what I really
love is the combination.   What I like about many songs is the 
juxtaposition of Roger's gruffness, toughness with the emotional honesty of 
Pete's lyrics.  That combination (especially in songs where Pete comes in
for the middle eight or a particular verse)is part of what makes them 
The Who, for me.  The music of The Who and of Pete's is so 
versatile...there's something there for you for your every mood.  

This morning I woke up at 3 am 'fraught with anxiety' over a complex
personnel situation at work.  I left the house a few hours later to
drive to the office.  The first song I heard as I drove down the
highway with the foothills on my right and the sunrise on my left
was Pete's "Pure and Easy" off of the remixed Who Came First.  I played
it three times.  I got to the parking lot.  I felt that pure joy that
i sometimes feel when listening to Townshend...the flipside of the pain
that i have felt at other times.  The song transcended all the
other crap and I did what I had to do this morning and felt a lot better
about it.  Compare that with two weeks ago.  I FINALLY bought the new
Who's Next (thanks to you guys).  Put it in the changer, got in my car,
started driving home.  Ended up 15 miles away driving waaay over the limit
on the plains -  in Who heaven! Good God.  That disc brought all my 15 
years of being a Who lover rushing up in front of my face....like that 
guy in front of the speaker in that poster...you know.   When I finally got 
home, I made my husband go out and do the same thing .  Long live rock.

Those are the two sides of the Who for me.  There's something about
driving and The Who.

-Also, thanks WFang (although I'm growing fond of "Mr. Fang") for your
list of boots.  I've slowly been on the prowl out here in Colorado for
them.  Did not make it into the village when i was out in NJ in October.
It was great to be in NJ for a few weeks.     Really.      I swear.

-At some point, there was talk of covers.  One time I heard a born-again
Christian group do a version of "Bargain."  Say want you want about born-
again people (on second thought, let's not do that), but I thought the
take they had - that the song was about a spiritual being rather than a
human being was great.  When I hear the song now, I realize I kind of 
think of it as a prayer (to whomever..i'm not trying to get religious on 
you.)  I can't remember the name of the group but it was one of those
heavy-metal Christian groups that was around in the eighties.

-Last thing, I watched the tape of the PBS "Psychoderelict" the
other night.  Pete's been better (thought he might of been sick or
something) but I loved it anyway.  I think we taped that on Dec 1, 
1993...only took me two years to be able to watch it.  Little things like 
pregnancy, childbirth, toddlers just keep getting in the way!

Thanks for keeping the list going everyone.  Wish I could make it
to the NYC show (will definitely make it to the Denver one.)

Trish P.
trish.pottersmith@colorado.edu