Re: Uppitty Rock Stars & JEB date(s)

[Alan McKendree <amck@thenetdr.com>]

At 18:53 -0700 10/12/1998, The Who Mailing List Digest wrote:
>Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 10:04:46 -0400
>From: Brian Steven Cady <cadyb@mindspring.com>
>
>The Times of London where a music
>critic [snip] again decries
>rock stars feeling they have to write beyond the three-minute single.  One
>of his statements is that "Tommy" will soon be forgotten while "My
>Generation" will live forever.
>
>This is rather a sore point with me.  I feel that the basis of this is an
>ingrained prejudice that WORKING CLASS ROCK STARS SHOULD STAY IN THEIR
>PLACE.  I also think that this prejudice and its effect of limiting rock to
>three minutes and three chords is why rock is nearly dead today.  What are
>your thoughts?

First, Brian, I share your pain (for non-US'ers: snide reference to one of
Bill Clinton's more widely lampooned catchphrases).  I'm amazed that 30
years after (some of) The Who's original fans derided their "rock opera" as
pretentious, a rock critic can publicly make this statement without being
laughed off the page.  It's more of the same bullshit that has dogged Pete
and The Who all their career from people who want to hear a greatest-hits
show rather than be challenged to think by new material and nwe directions.

Having said that, I should also mention that Pete, with his art-school
background, is certainly not a working-class rock star (at least as I, an
American, understand "working-class").  Rock may be of and from the working
class, but Pete's brought to it a remarkable intelligence and
sophistication.  As we all know, he turned out his share of brilliant
3-minute singles, but if "Tommy" IS "soon forgotten" and "My Generation"
remembered forever, it will be the people that have failed to live up to
the music and its implications, not the music which fails to speak to the
people.


>Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 18:14:01 EDT
>From: Daswer@aol.com
>Subject: Re:  The Who Mailing List Digest V5 #234
>
>Beau,
>Thanks for the heads up on the Entwistle show which I see has now been moved
>to Nov. 6.  [snip] I
>understand that Redondo isn't very far.

Don't know where you're getting your information, but Nov. 6 was never
posted as a Redondo Beach date on John's Web site..  In fact, Nov. 6 is
currently booked for Brewster's in Amarillo (along with a couple other new
dates in Albuquerque and Yucaipa CA.  OFFICIAL info is always available at
http://www.eden.com/theox.

Alan
Be sure to read _McKendree: A Burning Novel of Murder and Revenge_
by Douglas Hirt, ISBN 0-8439-4184-7  (available at www.amazon.com)