[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Cincinnati



Recently we were discussing Pete's reaction to Cincinnati, particularly
about writing (or not) a song about it:

At 7:53 6/21/97, The Who Mailing List Digest wrote:
>Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 11:25:27 -0500
>From: "Leo O'Sullivan" <Leo.O'Sullivan@globalone.net>
>Subject: Re: Cincinnati, WHODUNIT
>
>On Cincinnati,[snip]I don't know if he ever wrote a song regarding his
>feelings about the whole thing.  Maybe someone ele knows.

I've procrastinated on this but a bit of math I did at the time brought
this up, from Slit Skirts (released in 1982, don't know when it was
written):

The opening line:

"I was just 34 years old..."

Pete was 34 when Cincinnati happened.  This is a rare (the only?) instance
in which he specifically refers to himself at a specific age, indicating
something of great importance.  Given the time period of Pete's 34th year
(May 19, 1979 to May 18, 1980) I'd nominate Cincinnati as the top
candidate.

"Just" could underline that 34 isn't really very old to have to deal with
the proposal that 11 kids are dead because of you (actually, I'm not sure
there _is_ an age at which this would be easy to deal with).

"...and I was still wandering in a haze"

Given the initial premise that Cincinnati is under discussion here, it
seems this refers to Pete looking back on himself and thinking that he was
"wandering in a haze", blissfully self-absorbed in his own problems when
(for the moment) he was unaware of the accident.

"Wondering why everyone I met seemed like they were lost in a maze"

Backstage, others knew of the deaths but the band wasn't told until after
the show...those Pete met, while he was "wandering in his haze", seemed
stunned, and he wondered why.  Rereading his lines it seems more and more
like he's referring to a specific event when he was wandering and others he
met seemed lost.

"I don't know why I thought I should have some kind of divine right to the
blues"

It's a common problem to many, not just Pete, to think that their situation
is uniquely sad or hard to bear...but sometimes you get a clear
demonstration that others have it harder.

"It's sympathy not tears people need when they're the front page sad news"

It doesn't seem like too much of a stretch to see this as referring to the
family and friends of the dead, ESPECIALLY since Pete specifically
mentioned tears during the interview that caused him so much trouble later
on.  It could be a restatement of what he really meant when he said, "But
now, whenever a f***ing journalist asks you about Cincinnati, they expect
you to come up with a f***ing theatrical tear in your eye!"

"No one respects the flame quite like the fool who's badly burned"

WHO's badly burned?  I'd say they were.

"From all this you'd imagine that there must be something learned"

This fits.  Later we have:

"Recriminations fester and the past can never change"

In the context of the song, I think this refers to the woman and personal
relationships...but it's nevertheless true of Cincinnati as well.  In
looking over the rest of the song the only other thing I see that might
refer to Cincinnati is

"...I'm sitting at home just now
The big events of the day are past and the late TV's around"

The rest of it, far as I can see is a reflection on personal
relationships...but it seems plausible that Pete might interweave the two
themes, and give us (perhaps subconsciously) observations on how public
events affect private ones.  (It also seems consistent with Pete's later
writing that he wouldn't devote a whole song to just the topic of
Cincinnati.)  Could this be the reason that the lover in the song is now
"cooled and stifled"?

Alan

"When I'm on stage, it's not like bein' possessed...it's just...*I* *do*
*my* *job*."                 - Pete Townshend