Re: Last Two Albums (vs. WAY)

[Bogie3200@aol.com]

>>>Using album sales as THE measure of success can be a mistake.
>>
>>Not in this case.
>
>I don't really know what that response means.  You seem to be saying that
the sales 
>are proof enough that IH was a success and not a failure.  I, however, have
provided 
>you with ample evidence of terrific selling albums and artists that would
not be part of 
>any essential collection of a large number of serious rock fans. You seem to
hang your 
>hat on the fact that IH reached a high position (#8) on the charts but good
sales of IH 
>would be understandable in light of the fact that this was a legendary band
having built 
>a large following at the end of a long career. Also,  IH was released to
coincide with 
>the Who's farewell tour!  How could it not sell?

For starters, the tour setlist didn't include many songs from IH, so it
didn't get heavily promoted by the band itself.  Also by your reasoning,
shouldn't the double-LP from the farewell tour have sold well?  Instead,
Who's Last only reached #81 in the US.  I'm not convinced that there is a
correlation between tours and albums sales.  For example, my sense is that
the Iron Man didn't sell well despite coinciding with the sold-out '89 tour.
 And despite the fact that fans still flocked to see The Who in '89, the Join
Together boxed set reached only #180 a year later!  Also, there appears to be
no rhyme or reason regarding the sale of 45s when contrasted with the sale of
the LPs they were taken from (e.g., Quad hit #2 but Love Reign O'er Me only
reached #76).

>IH is better than" Who Are You?"  I could not disagree more.  WAY went 4
singles 
>deep, had arguably their best song in years (the title track), featured much
stronger 
>contributions from Entwistle and by the standard you seem to rely on most,
reached 
>#2 in the US.  IH, on the hand, was an album made because they had to,
managed 
>but two singles, featured Kenny Jones not Moon and had songs like "One
Life's 
>Enough", "A Man  Is A Man", "Why Did I Fall For That" and "Cry If You Want".
 I'd love 
>to have seen the look on RD and JAE faces when Pete offered up material like
this 
>(particularly "One Life's Enough") for the Who.

WAY produced only 2 US singles while IH produced 3, but I don't think this is
an important consideration anyway.  I like JAE's WAY contributions more than
his on IH (though I like them, too) but I firmly believe Pete's writing was
consistently better on IH, despite the greatness of WAY's title track.

>... Also, there are no plans, as you may know,  for a remastered FD or IH.
The folks in 
>England feel most Who fans know when the flame burnt out. 

Then maybe they should let somebody across the Atlantic take a stab, because
I think there is more than enough material from these two LPs, along with an
unreleased song like "Virginia" (or "It's In Ya" or whatever it's name is),
to make a really good remixed CD.  I noted previously that Rolling Stone gave
IH a very favorable review--do many people on this list think that they were
just swept away by Who hysteria?

Rich B.