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Re: Who's Last




> Can someone please put my mind at rest- did Roger's voice really sound that
> strained as early as 1982? It seems unbelievable that 16 years later his
> voice has actually improved as opposed to getting any worse. The whole
> album is so badly recorded too- not a patch on the live tracks on Face
> Dances and It's Hard from around the same time. I simply can't explain how
> a band of the Who's stature could release this as their farewell album, as
> though none of them actually cared at all for the band, and all it
> achieved.

Tom,

I don't think you're imagining things--his voice had gone downhill
probably as early as '79 or '80.  In my opinion he reached his lowest
point in '89, or maybe '94 with Daltrey sings Townshend.  After that, I
don't think his voice actually improved, but he knew his limitations
better and made less errors in judgement.  He finally learned to avoid the
high notes he had no chance of reaching anymore.

Who's Last, piece of crap though it is, at least had a couple redeeming
features:  a pretty good Magic Bus and also Dr. Jimmy.  Otherwise though
it's a mess--horrible sound quality, too much crowd noise, unimaginative
song selection and generally mediocre performances.  I remember one critic
harping on the fact that the record included the attendance figures for
the tour, as if the Who had to justify themselves by showing how many
tickets they'd sold.  I don't know anything about who chose the material
for the album.  To be fair to the Who, it's not like the whole tour was
bad, so I can only guess that they must not have recorded many shows.  I
think there's a pretty good chance none of the band members really had
anything to do with the album.  It wasn't released until '84 and at that
time they were as estranged as ever and probably didn't care about it
much.  Maybe it was just product that needed to be delivered to satisfy
Warner Brothers?

Bill