Re: The Who Unplugged

[Lev Polinsky <polinsky@husc.harvard.edu>]

On Mon, 22 Apr 1996 Bogie3200@aol.com wrote:

> >On the one hand, I'd love to see The Who live and acoustic (at least to some
> degree), 
> >I'd hate to see another "Unplugged." Because Pete was doing it himself long
> before it 
> >became fashionable (as he said himself) and has never gotten credit for yet
> another 
> >innovation. If they were to tread on that much-traveled ground, they should
> at the least 
> >have completely new material for it. No old songs. They've done that, and
> done it 
> >again. A new Who album, live and acoustic, would be very welcome.
> >
> Mark, I'd LOVE to see a Who Unplugged that consisted entirely of new
> material, but in the alternative I'd also be thrilled if their set consisted
> entirely of Who songs spanning their career that were rarely or never played
> live, which could include much of Pete's and even John's solo material.  For
> example, I'd be interested to hear Roger sing "My Size" or Pete sing "Too
> Late The Hero" or maybe Roger and Pete share/swap vocals on "What Are We
> Doing Here?"  I wouldn't want to hear many of the same old songs (hey, what a
> great lyric that'd be) unless the arrangements were very different, along the
> lines of some of the Daltrey Sings Townshend stuff--which I realize you
> didn't really care for, but it seemed more because a full orchestra was used.
>  I'd want an Unplugged that would be just our three lads plus presumably a
> drummer (or two?).
> 
> Also, Gary M. Gillman asked a very interesting question:  "This would be
> interesting, in 
> particular, for JAE - would he care to play his lines on an acoustic bass
> guitar or upright bass?"  Who out there can make an educated guess?
> 
Last things first--considering JAE was one of the first people to buy the 
Washburn acoustic bass guitar when it came out in the early 70's, I think 
the answer is clear.  Now, what he would do to make that bass be louder 
than all the other instruments is unclear; actually, this may be a rather 
large stumbling block--JAE wouldn't want to be less loud than anyone 
else, and bass acoustics tend not to be the loudest instruments in the 
world...

Now, I think in order for the album to sell, they'd have to include a 
couple of classics, though it would be real fun if they prefaced those 
songs with New Song--"same old song...".  Since they'd have about an 
hour, the set would probably included songs like these:

<in no particular order>
Substitute
Who Are You
Pinball Wizard <--though not if we're lucky
WGFA
Behind Blue Eyes <--though not if we're lucky
Some people have said Blue Red and Gray, but that's unplugged to begin 
with.  Still, 'twould be nice to see it get more exposure.
Rael?
Sally Simpson?
Summertime Blues?
Since this is Unplugged, they could do something like Spoonful as a nod 
to Eric Clapton and a tribute to the Blues.  Especially since they've 
done the song before.
Doctor Jimmy?

It would certainly be an interesting experiment...

--LP.