Re: The name game

[Alan McKendree <amck@thenetdr.com>]

>Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2000 09:44:05 -0500
>From: "Mark R. Leaman" <mleaman@sccoast.net>
>
>As Pete and Rog trade off vocals on this one, I read "Our name's the same
>but we still get seperate rooms." as they're all "faceless Rock stars" to
>the hotel staff, and from the same "name" (The Who) to those who do not
>bother to take the time to see them as individuals

"The band is just fantastic, that's really what I think,
Oh by the way, which one's 'Pink'?" :-)

This seems like a stretch as a song interpretation, though.

You sign your own name, and I sign mine
They're both the same, but we still get separate rooms.

seems pretty explicit to me (also, Pete & Roger don't trade off on these
lines or the ones immediately following; Pete sings them all), and it makes
more sense to take the simple interpretation that two people are signing
their actual names, which are the same, than to attempt to layer on
something about two band members each signing into a hotel as "The Who" (if
that would even be allowed) and being seen by the clerk as interchangeable
units in a group.  Occam's Razor applies here:  "Assumptions should not be
multiplied beyond necessity."

("Excuse me, Mr.
>Townshend, but you have a call." "I'm Daltrey, you twit! Townshend's got the
>nose." "Ar, fuck you Daltrey!" a scuffle ensues, and Keith takes the call
>"Yes, dear chap, this is Messer Townshend...").

Funny :-).

>Carolyn:
>
>But were they having problems this early on (apart from Pete having a few on
>tour)? There is no indication of this in any account I've seen. They were
>probably making or having Emma about the time this song was written.

Maybe they were, maybe they weren't.  I agree that I haven't seen any
evidence that they were. But I don't think we have to claim that Pete's
songs are so strictly autobiographical that he and Karen had to be living
out situations he wrote about in a song.

Alan
"It's not like bein' possessed or anything...it's just...*I* *do* *my* *job*."
   --Pete Townshend