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White City



Hello again who-listers!!  I know this response is a little late, but 
I've been out for a couple of weeks and just finished catching up on over 
two weeks worth of Who digests.  So the past topics are still fresh in my 
mind.  White City came out during my freshman year at school.  I know 
it's not Pete's best album, but it's probably my favorite album.  When I 
went off to school and was finally away from home for the first time, I 
thought I was the biggest Who fan around.  I had all of the studio 
albums, even the LSO version of Tommy and thought that was as far as you 
could go.  One day I was walking past this one room in my dorm when I 
heard a live version of Dr. Jimmy, and I said to myself, "Holy sh*t, 
that's LIVE Dr. Jimmy, something I've never heard before!"  I walked into 
the room and Marty S. introduced me to the world of bootlegs.  A few 
months later, while visiting Marty in the hospital, he told me to get 
White City on the way back to school.  The guy that drove us there 
(remember Fred, Marty?) took me to a record store and I picked it up.  
Ever since then I've associated that album with my first year away from 
home and all of the new people I met that year.  I love Phsyco and EG, 
but WC (not the water closet :) ) has more attached to it.



A couple of years ago I had the chance to take a walk through White City 
while I was in London.  I saw the White City stop on the tube map and had 
a couple of hours to kill.  I don't know if I'd call it a slum like we 
have in the states (North Philly, Harlem, etc) but it wasn't the nicest 
part of town.  I was there alone and kind of had the feeling that I was 
being watched by unwelcoming eyes.  I wasn't threatened by anyone, and I 
might have walked around a little longer if I hadn't been alone.  But it 
looked just like it did in the WC video and all of the streets were named 
after places in the British Empire.  When I made it back to the WC tube 
stop, I asked someone to take my picture near the White City tube sign.  
When I asked he gave me a look like I was out of my mind (maybe I was :) 
)but agreed to take the picture.  WC will probably never make the tour 
book list of "must see" places in London.



Mike