Where has the melody gone

[Toby Elwin <t@arcticsolutions.com>]

Fellow Who fans,

We love The Who, fantastically - full stop.  But I want to point out a 
disturbance in the force I have been feeling since "The Iron Man" and now 
is firm in my mind after shelling out for John Entwistle's recent attempt 
of "Vanpires".  To put it simply, I think Townshend and Entwistle have lost 
their ability to create and write songs.

"Iron Man" and "Phsychoderelict" had some good spots, but too many of the 
songs offer too few good melodies, very few melodies - definitely not what 
was standard as recently as "White City".  After the "Phsycho" flogging, PT 
went to the label and insisted to end a contract for future albums and he 
is very resistant to write for The Who.  We all know his quotes as to why. 
PT has his own website where he can release new albums, but he only 
revisits his past now with rereleases and with The Who it has only been 
Tommy, Quad, and now Lifehouse for the past 11 years.

I was just listening to "To Late the Hero" - a good album.  Then I harkened 
back to JAE's contributions to "Who Are You" and I say this is good 
stuff.  But now I am embarrassed to listen to the CD's "The Rock" and 
"Vanpires" is total *$%*#.  JAE produced 4 solo albums within a decade in 
the 70's, since "Too Late the Hero" only two partially written attempts in 
two decades?  He only cowrites now, when have you seen cowriting in 
Entwistle stuff before "Too Late…"? and now he can not even fill one CD 
worth of material.  The best song on "Vanpires" is one he wrote in the 
70's, "Bogeyman".  Even the bass player hero we know JAE to be is muffled, 
his playing on the last too albums are all to standard schlock only live it 
is brilliant.

Every artist, be they poet, author, or musician goes through creative 
spurts, creative ebbs and flows.  I was a music major at college and I now 
only too well that at times there is nothing in the tank.  So, I think the 
only hope for a Who album rests on Roger Daltrey and I am not sure I want a 
new album.  Daltery always was resistant to offer songs to The Who because 
the caliber of PT's was so high, he said.  Now he has been at the forefront 
of offering songs and his last solo album had him increasing co-songwriting 
chores.  I think he is left with the gas in the tank.  The Who need each 
other's creative challenges to produce the best in themselves, bottom 
line.  Away from each other it is less together it is grand.  No new PT 
album since the mid-90's JAE's are too painful to discuss and nothing new 
from The Who since '82.

PT and JAE have nothing that recently you can hum and sing and yell at the 
top of your lungs about, nothing to whistle or inspire...there are no good 
melodies left for them.  I can only take solace in the fact that Paul 
McCartney has lost and Eric Clapton revisits the blues and rarely writes 
his own music for an entire album regardless.  All the greatest jazz 
musicians rarely wrote, but interpreted and created and let's not even talk 
about the 65 million album selling Monkees.  I would still pay to see The 
Who live any day any where as I did with Miles Davis and Tito Puente.

I open this for discussion and I look forward to what we think about my 
craziness, my disappointment and trepidation for a future of The Who.  I 
hope there will be few flames, but some creative ideas as to my theory