Daltrey Sings Towhshend

["Gary M. Gillman" <garyg@inforamp.net>]

My ideal Who line-up and sound would be PT, Rog, JAE and Moon playing as
they sounded in 1969-1970 but, for the reasons we all know, we can`t hear
them live that way today, so I think the idea of using imaginative
orchestral arrangements and other singers troupe-style is a great way to
have the spirit of the Who still with us on stage. This was PT`s argument
for the `89 tour, and he was right. Anyway as some posters have said the
Who`s sound evolved constantly in their career, becoming more complex and
relying on extra musicians and tapes for the live shows, so they were never
static anyway even as a four-piece.  The Who`s music and PT`s best solo work
are strong enough to bear all these different treatments, so that to me
Pinball Wizard, say, sounds totally different on the studio Tommy,
LSO-enhanced version, the Tommy soundtrack from the New York stage show (
produced by George Martin and a superb rendition of Tommy - Martin would be
perfect to produce that late Who masterpiece I envision, BTW), the DST
version, the `89 reunion version, etc. One can only quarrel to the extent
one thinks these efforts all sound the same or use bad musicians but this is
clearly not the case at all, although obviously some people won`t like, say,
a Linda Perry ( I thought her version of 5.15 was great - powerful and
ballsy). Personally I think Steve Bolton was not a strong addition to the
`89 tour, but overall the performances on that tour were strong - the
Overture on Join Together is my favourite live version of this song with the
possible exception of the Overture on Pure Rock Theatre........Gary M.