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Re: Daltrey Sings Townshend



>So Rog wasn`t simply being repetitive...
>Plus, he did them, and the more familiar songs, in a new way - with
>imaginative, appropriate orchestral accompaniment and backing vocals, and
>with the Chieftans on songs such as Baba O`Riley. This validated the effort,
>quite apart from the quality of Rog`s singing on this tour. In fact, these
>praiseworthy features were not quite all of it: the (instrumental) Overture,
>which was a brilliant suite of Townshend solo and Who compositions, sounded
>fresh and exciting to me. And let`s not forget the guest singers  Rog
>featured such as the vocal powerhouse Linda Perry, and PT himself doing Who
>Are You on solo vocal and guitar - to my knowledge the first time PT sang
>the song in concert or was recorded doing it.

Gary M. (one of the many Gary M's):

OK, you know of course that The Chieftians and Pete didn't tour with
Daltrey...it was just that one gig (as far as I know). I don't know about
Perry, but I doubt she did either (and I hate her version of Dr Jimmy).
Secondly, adding an orchestra is hardly "doing familiar songs in a new way,"
in my opinion. It was like taking a Rock song and making it Easy Listening.
It was done better with the LSO on the symphony TOMMY. Making Reggae
versions would have been more authentic, actually. In any case, it's not
enough of a difference to validate the project. It's more of a softening for
the "older folks" who are now fans (and being one of those older folks, I
resent it).
And how damned many versions of Pinball Wizard do we need, really?
Performancewise, I can't find fault with Rog or the band. It's the concept I
dislike. It dilutes some of the most powerful and meaningful songs of our
lifetime. Not a good thing...IMHO, of course.


                   Cheers                   ML

"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."  L. Long