Face Dances, It's Hard, etc.

[Jacksonjim@aol.com]

Ian, Fang, re:

>>Simply put, this album proves as tired as the band was (even >>with Keith's
problems) that the Who were nothing without >>Keith.

>I disagree... Is Pete "nothing" without Keith? Unfortunately, >without
Keith, we ended up with the wrong set of >circumstances that just made
matters worse... 

>1) Had Simon Philips been the drummer, the band would have >been better

Well, they would've sounded more Keith-like in terms of drumming.  

>2) Had Pete decided not to do a parallel solo career at the >same time, the
music would have been better.

This is ABSOLUTELY correct (IMHO).  The poorness of post-Moon Who music
(relative, of course, to their earlier catalog) was not Jones's fault, but
rather Pete's change in writing and focus.

>As for the drumming on "It's Hard", it's certainly a HUGE >improvement over
that on "Face Dances" 

Again, this is true.  I think Kenney felt much more at ease with the IH
songs, although he does his best drumming on the album on an Entwistle song:
 IT'S YOUR TURN.  What he provides for CRY IF YOU WANT is a definite
departure for the Who that still retained the guitar, which is why it's so
good. The drumming on EMINENCE FRONT is beat-oriented probably because of the
great bassline that Entwistle plays.  

I don't know about the rest of you, but my biggest complaint with post-Moon
Who ALBUMS is the deemphasis on the guitar.  I don't know if it stems from
Pete's hearing problems.  Probably more from Pete's growing indifference to
the Who.  The lack of strong guitar makes the weak songs that much weaker (I
think we'd all be more tolerant of FD and IH if Townshend had rocked out more
on the same tracks).

--Jim
and I don't mind it at all... I'm not sure if Keith
would have been any better. Perhaps different, but not better...