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Re: The Who Mailing List Digest V6 #276
Alright: enough of this aging stuff. My first who concert was in 1970
(I think), (a lumbering mess, in which the show was side one of live at leeds,
all of tommy, and then side two of live of leeds). I was 15; I made my
mother take me because I had no transportation - it was festival
seating, and as soon as we got through the gate, I cleverly "lost" her -
leaving my mother alone for four hours at who concert. Meeting up
again at the car in the parking lot, her only comment was "I think
I am deaf for life".
which gets me to the who and aging. At my current ripe old age of 45,
I truly like that the who get older. Part of getting older is learning
to use your energy more wisely. Baseball pitchers switch to knuckleballs.
Dancers emphasize timing and restraint. I don't want my rock and
roll heroes pretending that rock is only about youth. Keith Richards
had this great quote when asked "will you still be doing this when you are
70? - he said "you wouldn't ask John Lee Hooker or B.B. King that question".
On Townshend's mostly forgettable recent live CD (it pales, to me,
compared to the San Francisco Fillmore shows a few years back), there is
one moment that rises above all - during "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere " he
says "we thought we'd live forever...". I break out laughing everytime -
grateful that I am given the chance to get older and watch some of my
anchors move along with me. Honestly, "Who would have known" that
"hope I die before I get old" was insightful from *both* sides of the coin?
James Sethian
Dept. of Mathematics
UC Berkeley
sethian@math.berkeley.edu