Re: covers in general

[mleaman@.sccoast.net (Mark Leaman)]

> Polly = Happy Jack?  I have to listen to Polly again.  In Marsh's
> "Before I Get Old" book he mentions Pete's two upward key changes in
> My Generation being "pinched" from the Kinks.  There is nothing
> wrong with any of this, it's just that Pete did build on the Kinks
> early singles and made them better.  

Well, Pete would say that. I've heard both the original "bluesy" My
Generation and of course the Who version. I hear no Kinks there, other than
the fact that it's chord-driven.
But as you say, Rock is 90% stolen anyway. Most of it would claim a higher
percentage.

>>SOMETHING ELSE was produced in an acid age for an acid audience. It was
>>meant to sound unusual (the same goes for FACE TO FACE), and IMHO it worked
>>very well. VGPS is warmer, naturally...again intentionally. But soundwise,
>>it's pretty clear we have an amateur at the helm.
>> 
> Ray denies in his new book "X-Ray" that Something Else had anything
> to do with the "acid age".  In fact it was how he really 
> didn't budge from his writing of natural surroundings and
> interpersonal relationships.  I don't see the production of SE to
> sound intentionally like say "Piper at the Gates of Dawn".

I haven't gotten that far in X-Ray yet (just got it), but I would have to
say that Davies notwithstanding, that album is certainly acid-oriented. Lazy
Old Sun. End Of The Season. David Watts. Death Of A Clown. And so on...
Which is not to say it sounds like PIPER. There are many completely
different types of Acid Rock...from The Beach Boy's Good Vibrations to
Hendrix. You might want to pick up a copy of the excellent XTC CD (under the
name Dukes Of Stratosphear) CHIPS FROM THE CHOCOLATE FIREBALL for a virtual
primer on `60's Acid Rock. And even then you wouldn't get the entire story.
Even The Turtles did some acid music...

>> > I do have the gold disk TOMMY. Sure, it has more depth. But that is not 
>> >what was released in either the USA or the UK in 1969. I've always been
>> >disappointed in Lambert's rather limited production of The Who, and TOMMY 
>> >is the prime example. I would still have to say that Davies was a better
>> >producer.
>> > Of course, it may be down to what each of us prefers, productionwise.
>
> I'd like to get an original Decca copy of this and see for myself.
> Knowing MCA's shoddy work on Who's Next (the bargain basement LP
> version that many of us had to live with).  I'd like to think that
> the original LP has a depth that resembles the newer gold disc.

I had the original TOMMY, but in those dark days the stereo I had wouldn't
have made a difference clear. I will say this: the Gold Disk sounds as good
or better than any copy I've heard so far. I'm hoping they will do as much
for TOMMY in the remix as they did with Glow Girl on SELL OUT (the original
of which had similar production values, even with Entwistle fleshing it out).
           Cheers                   ML