Who v Zep; mailing lists; Tricky Day

[Rich Bogovich <rbogovich@yahoo.com>]

Kevin O'Neal wrote:

>  Everyone seems to have tried to change (with 
> varying degrees of success)....The Beatles, The 
> Who, Clapton,.....everyone, except Zepp. and The 
> Stones. 
> See some class/intellectual separation in these 
> two lists here?? 
> 	 Plus, I still haven't seen one piece of live
> footage of Zepp's that was any good.
> 	Getting back to intelligence and social
> class....there has always (in my mind) been a 
> separation between the two bands that tends to 
> go down social class lines.  I know this sounds 
> strange, but The who was a band that appealed to 
> the "intellectual" community, while Zepp was more 
> of a Jack Daniels/biker type band.............
> sorry, that sounds awful.......I really do like 
> the biker community....(my buddy Stu...aka
> "Stooooo" :)  is a HUGE Who fan and is married 
> to a HUGE Zepp fan who is a biker too.....makes 
> for interesting dinner conversation)....I can't 
> think of a better way to put this though (yes I 
> can hear the can of worms being opened).  Try and 
> see what I'm saying, not just the words.

This week's Onion (www.theonion.com), produced here in
Madison, Wisconsin, contains two Who references on the
same page (more on that in a minute) but there's also
a profile on the Mekons, one of the few surviving punk
bands from the 1970s.  The article begins by noting
that Brit punk bands arose from two disparate sources,
the working class (The Clash, The Sex Pistols) and art
school (Gang Of Four, Wire, Mekons).  In the case of
the Mekons, at least, the review seems to attribute
the band's intellectualism to those art school
origins. 

I suppose that this is what underpins The Who's appeal
to both "classes"--not only were Pete and Roger
fighting over who was the band's leader from an ego
standpoint, but there was a working class (Roger) vs.
art school (Pete) struggle going on as well.

As for those two Who references I mentioned, there's a
pullout quote from an interview with Tim Quirk of Too
Much Joy:  "The thing is, if you go out and say, 'Oh,
we broke up,' and then you feel like playing a show
later on, all of a sudden you're like The Who.  Who
wants to be The Who?  I want to be the Who in 1965,
not The Who in 1999.  I  think in a way it's more
respectable to keep going and sort of slow down."

There's also an article on the same page that purports
to describe just how strange Roseanne Barr's TV talk
show has become.  On the March 1st episode, it says
she performed "My Generation," "White Rabbit" and a
reggae medley of "Get Up, Stand Up" and "The Star
Spangled Banner," but would interrupt most of these
"with shrieking spoken-word rants about various
sujbects."  The Onion is a satiric paper but its
music/movies/TV/books section is usually devoid of
spoofs, so can anyone confirm that she actually did
this??

Phil McRevis wrote:

> I guess by "chat room" you mean a mailing list. 
> Which makes me wonder... with two Who lists and a 
> Daltrey list, *and* an existing Pete Townshend 
> list, do we really need another list?  It seems 
> it will just fracture a community even more 
> instead of bringing people together.

This is a valid point, though overall I think the
Roger, Pete and John lists (JAE's is little-used so
far) can be useful.  They can make it easier to keep
up with the Who lists by separating out some threads
that may not be of widespread interest.  And in the
case of Roger's and John's lists, I think they can
encourage fuller discussions of two guys who too often
end up in Pete's shadow.

>> Another Tricky day is one of my favourite songs, 
>> I just feel it did not do Roger's voice any 
>> justice.  In fact the whole song could have been 
>> recorded better.  I thought it just sounds poor-
>> audio quality
>
>I love Another Tricky Day but the best way to hear 
>it is the live version from The live in Essen Show 
>in Grughalle Germany.  It no longer a slow pop
>song but a fast rocker and I have always wanted to 
>hear a demo of this song but could never find one.  
>Despite the synical lyrics its probably the best
>song off of those last 2 albums.

Wow, yet another person extolling the virtues of
"Another Tricky Day"!!  I agree that it's the best of
the Kenney Jones LPs, though I greatly enjoy most of
It's Hard plus "Don't Let Go The Coat" and the Face
Dances bonus track "It's In You."

Roger sometimes sang "Another Tricky Day" during his
1994 tour, so he's obviously willing to add it to The
Who's setlist.  Maybe a bunch of us should send Pete a
petition asking that "ATD" be a staple of The Who's
encores this year!

Rich B.
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