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Quad comments
Gary,
well, I suppose you knew that you'd have some response to these comments:
>It`s a flawed masterpiece, unlike Tommy, LAL and WN, which are nearly
perfect. Let me explain: >first, the album has, by and large, no visible
means of guitar support - a real problem for a Who >record. The guitars
we do hear on the songs are generally weak, e.g., on LROM they sound
light (for >the Who), and "patched in".
No visible means of guitar? Weak? HUH? How about "The Real Me?" Pete
is *slashing* his Les Paul through the whole song; and consider the
machine-gun opening of "Punk Meets the Godfather"... or the delicate
lead lines in "Quadrophenia" (the song) and "The Rock." Sorry, I respect
your opinion, but saying the guitar work is weak without at least
excepting "I'm One" is like saying OJ is innocent: you can believe
whatever you want, but the contrary evidence is overwhelming! Now, it
may be argued (not by me) that the *mix* of the guitars is suspect, but
there is NO shortage of absolutely *stunning* guitar work on Quad.
>The orchestration sounds contrived for the most part, and doesn't blend
well with the basic sound of >the band. (PT later got better at this,
e.g., New Song, or Street In The City).
First, if I remember my liner notes from Rough Mix correctly, Astley did
the string arrangements for "Street In the City," not Pete. As for Quad,
and the fact that the "orchestration" was Pete's synthesizers, I guess
we'll have to just disagree. I think it blends beautifully, and is the
most compelling and heartfelt orchestration since "Eleanor Rigby."
>The harmonies sound loose and ragged to me, and on many songs Daltrey
was clearly beyond >beyond his range.
Another statement without fact. Roger didn't miss a note in the whole
thing. I am constantly impressed with Daltrey's performance. Listen to
"The Dirty Jobs." Roger does things with the melody in that song that
are simply amazing. The list goes on and on with Roger's great moments.
I'd have to reprint the lyrics to 3/4 of the album to point out all my
favorite Daltrey moments.
>Mo was just okay, although I agree JAE was brilliant.
I'm not sure who Mo is, but Moon was extraordinary. Even Pete thought
so, and he' seen all sides of Keith's performances. Case in point: the
chorus to "Cut My Hair." How can you listen to that and then utter the
words "just okay..?"
We do agree on one thing, at least: John Entwistle's performance was
nothing short of brilliant.
OK,
KLW