Re: Who by the numbers and Face Dances

[Brian.Cady@turner.com]

     >>Can someone please explain to me why The Who by Numbers and Face 
     >>Dances
     >>always get such bad reviews?
     
     Here's my thruppence and sixpence:
     
     The Who By Numbers is very admired (it got rave reviews when it came 
     out) and not unpopular (it went platinum).  I admire it also, but like 
     I admire Dostoyevsky.  He's great but I'd never read him for fun.  The 
     album just strikes me as too painful and depressing for the word 
     enjoyment to ever attach itself to it.
     
     Face Dances is routinely slammed by the critics (not that I give a 
     s*** about them).  What Pete did was write a bunch of personal songs 
     in a new style and split them up between Empty Glass and this album.  
     You can see why he did it.  He loved making Empty Glass and it got 
     great reviews.  But the material didn't work with The Who's now 
     ingrained style.  Plus the better songs were on Empty Glass and that's 
     not all Pete's fault.  Pete tried everything to get Roger to record 
     "Rough Boys," but Roger refused because of its homosexual content.  
     Foolish, Roger, foolish.  But some of the problems stem from the bad 
     production and I'm going to hold my final opinion on the album until I 
     hear Andy MacPherson's new remix.  Apparently he's done a lot of work 
     on it.
     
                        -Brian in Atlanta