Re: FACE DANCES

["L. Bird" <pkeets@hotmail.com>]

>Always a big question for me, not because I'm such a champion of the album 
>(although, in toto, I like it better than Who Are You), but because I think 
>both the last two albums are routinely slammed for predisposed reasons and 
>not because people have actually listened carefully to them.

I've been really enjoying IT'S HARD just lately.  A couple of tracks annoy 
me (unusual for a Who album), but I've figured out to just skip over them, 
and then it plays much better.  For this one, they went back to the style of 
WAY, which is one of my favorite Who albums (no accounting for taste, huh?)  
It tends to sound underdeveloped, but there are some real winners on there.


>Here's the major complaints that have made about Face Dances:
>
>1) Pete's writing style:  Pete was then going for a complex, poetic style 
>of writing in which he said he was smashing words and images like he used 
>to smash guitars.  So the songs have strong images in them that are 
>complete non-sequitars (like "volcanoes exploding through snow" in "Music 
>Must Change" for instance; yes, I know it's on Who Are You).  This "obscure 
>and oblique" style of writing was very off-putting to fans who were 
>previously attracted to Pete's writing for its straight-forward 
>emotionalism.

Big one here.  I've just been saying that about "How Can You Do It Alone."  
I like the version they made up on stage better because it's more raw and 
immediate.  In obscuring the emotional heart of the songs, Pete has made 
them forgettable.

Is the key to writing for The Who?  In FACE DANCES they've followed Pete 
into the style of his solo albums.  They've spent some time developing these 
songs and (I think) caught Pete's new sound fairly well.  It just doesn't 
suit The Who.

Pete still has a tendency to write this way.  Is that what he means about 
not being able to write any more for Roger's (The Who's) voice?


>2) Keyboards handle a lot of the leads instead of Pete's electric guitar. 
>This was done because Pete was trying to protect his hearing but most fans 
>won't accept that.

No biggie.


>3) Kenney's much blander drumming style.  Face Dances made Kenney look bad 
>and it wasn't totally his fault.  Both Pete and John wrote their songs with 
>Kenney's style in mind (has Simon Phillips or Zac Starkey played "You 
>Better You Bet" in a style different from the way Kenney plays it here?

A mismatch.  It's what Pete was looking for.  It's Roger and John that don't 
fit.


>4) Roger's singing.  Not that it's bad singing from a technical sense, but 
>that he often "overacts" the songs.  For instance, even Roger said (as well 
>as Pete) that "Do You Steal My Money" was supposed to be a fun little 
>throwaway number much like The Who used to do on A Quick One or The Who 
>Sell Out.  But Roger sings the song with such force that it comes off 
>sounding like another stadium shouter and that kills the song's humor.  
>There's a definite lack of delicacy in the way The Who approach all the 
>songs on Face Dances that at times swamps the songs Pete gave them.  "How 
>Can You Do It Alone" really suffers from their "pound the stadium into 
>submission" approach.

I don't have much complaint about Roger's performance here.  Now and then he 
overdoes it, but generally he's caught the effect very well.  Apparently he 
enjoyed singing in the different style, too.  I think "Do You Steal My 
Money" is the best Roger track on the album.  He's found serious elements in 
the song and expressed them well--plus he stays on top of the bass.  On "How 
Can You Do It Alone" he doesn't, though.  Sometimes he's too light--is that 
the problem?

Speaking of bass, I sure do hear JAE on some of these songs.  Talk about 
heavy-handed.  ;)  Pete sings on "I Like Nightmares" and "Somebody Saved 
Me."  Theoretically these should sound like his solo albums, but John 
completely spoils the effect.  "Somebody Saved Me" is a great song, 
too--rates up there with the material Pete does solo.  He's very expressive 
on this one, too, but Roger might have sounded better against the bass.  For 
this style, John REALLY needs to turn down.

To be fair, the bass problem is probably in the engineering, but also it's a 
very simple bass line for John.  Bet this album bored JAE to death, and it 
seems like they could have worked out a better role for him in these 
songs--I love the ending to "You" where he almost has a solo.


>All in all, I feel that if you switched the songs on Face Dances with the 
>ones on Empty Glass, they'd still sound flawed on The Who album and Pete's 
>solo album would sound superior.

I agree with that.


>  In 1980 Pete as a solo artist had the greater flexibility to handle light 
>pop tunes, moody think pieces and flat-out rockers all on one album.  The 
>Who had lost almost all of that flexibility by then (both by the band's 
>choice and their fans' demands) and IMHO that's the principle problem with 
>Face Dances.

A fatal problem, as far as the studio album went.  Actually the songs aren't 
bad, but they don't take advantage of the energy that The Who produces, or 
the delicate expression that Pete achieves by himself.  Did they ever play 
more than "You Better, You Bet" on stage?


keets
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com