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Re: covers in general



>  
> > 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.

I think Marsh is referring to the last verse when it's done in a
higher key.  I believe a few early Kink songs had this trait.  

BTW listen to Johnny Thunder and tell me if it doesn't remind you of
a certain section from "Overture".  If Pete came up with that on his
own, I find that a stunning coincidence.  Anyone want to come up
with things Ray has done that sound similar to the Who?  I know
there's a song a UK Jive that sounds almost like My Gen.



> 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...

End of the Season was written long before they recorded SE, and
again I see the song as a wistful look in time.  Just like Sunny
Afternoon, never mistaken to be acid oriented.

Death of a Clown is about Dave Davies coming to grips with
marriage. His days as a playboy are over and it's time to drink up
one last time.  Without the opening piano, the song sounds rather
plain.

And David Watts is a song I NEVER thought of as acid based.  Let's
Spend the Night Together comes to mind immediately.

The only song on that album that does without a doubt have a acid
touch is Lazy Old Sun, so I'll give you that one.  But remember
this, Shel Talmy was the producer and unlike the Who really bullied
Davies into what he wanted.  So Shel might've been looking at SE to
compete with Sgt Pepper or Piper, but Ray probably had other ideas.
If I remember from the book they recorded the album so fast Ray
wasn't pleased with the outcome.  Notice his only produced song on
the album is very ordinary (Waterloo Sunset).


> 
> 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).

Well, again I'd like to hear an original pressing on a modern system
(or back then a high end system) to see how it sounded.