Re: Pete's guitar playing in 79 & 82

[WFang01@aol.com]

Mark, re:

> JT is merely OK (IMHO). I know from being at a show (not to mention boots)
that JT doesn't capture the strength of a single performance. This is also my
prime argument for a live TOMMY from a single performance.

May I punch a whole in that argument? The "Tommy" portion of "Join Together"
is all from the LA Amphitheater show, except for the parts that the "guests"
did, in which case they substituted those for the Radio City show. Having
everying come from one performance is fine, as long as the one performance is
good! Personally, I think the Radio City "Tommy" in it's entirety was a
better concert, but I think they felt people would feel "cheated" since they
played it over the air for free. As for disc 2, I have two complaints. Bad
mix on the drums and song selection. Again, nothing the "single performance"
would correct. 

As for "Who's Last" (or sir aptly named, "Who's Worst"), I would have
objected if they took the whole thing from Toronto (a single performance--and
a very weak one). I saw them in Orlando that year and they played their
hearts out--John was even wearing his "Too Late The Hero" outfit! Here we
have a case of bad song selection, bad mix, bad performances...

I do think that "Quadrophenia" or "Tommy" should come from one source, since
there should be a certain "flow" to either one of those. But if they want to
rape and piliage from other sources as long as they keep the mix and the
performances consistant, why not?

>Taken from many shows, it will lose something...I just know it.
>And WF, feel free to pass that along to "those in charge of The Who" if you
>like.

Mark, I stopped "logging" this "discussion" immediately prior to the faxes I
sent out to England. The message has been delivered, they've discussed it and
things are under consideration. It would be kinda foolish of me to "beat a
dead horse". When they get to the point where they start "production" on this
stuff, I hope to have some input, to ensure that things go in accordance to
what the majority of the people want and what is "marketable". However, I
disagree with your "taken from many shows" postion on two accounts. 1) The
stuff you think is out there, isn't. There's more live material in the hands
of the bootleggers than they have. They have no intention of using inferior
source material. 2) If they have some good material, yet it's in the form of
2 songs from this concert and 3 songs from that concert, but they're
interesting, good songs with great performances, should they be "ignored"
because now we're "breaking ranks"??? 

As we know, "a good chunk" of any Who performance is going to be "The Who's
Greatest Hits". Personally, I have no use for yet another of "the Who's
Greatest Hits". I'd prefer that they carve all that out and give us live
performances of different songs, or songs performed differently. In other
words, just like the ol' version of "Live At Leeds". Most likely, they'll
probably do a combination of both.

In the meantime, I think (or hope) I''ve made my points. The important point
is, that both are points at this point (a lot of "points" on this page) are
moot. And... at the very moment, I'm looking forward to hearing John
Entwistle in two weeks for the solo concert that I always wanted to hear and
enjoy, from "Heaven & Hell" to "Had Enough"...

wf