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RE: Funky Who



> I agree that The Who music is highly influenced by American black
> music--but
> it's a long way from being the same.  They never have had the
> background or
> experience to reproduce it accurately.

I'll go with one and disagree with two. The Who were highly influenced by
R&B but they, in the immortal words of Keith Moon, "Who'd it." They took
what James Brown and Tamla Motown were doing and went to another level,
re-interpreting it with volume, high-speed drumming and electronic noises.
That's what they meant by "Maximum R&B."

This is what separates The Who from many of their contemporaries. Eric
Clapton and, to some degree, The Rolling Stones were R&B "purists" believing
that their ultimate achievement and method of honoring R&B was to pass for
the original. This even went to using bad recording methods to copy the
sound of the originals; originals by the way where the poor sound quality
was a product of poverty and racism rather than artistic choice.

The Who ended their purists period around the time Moon joined (although
Roger tried to stay purist for another year). After that Townshend led them
farther and farther away from the "purist" position with pop music, the rock
opera, synthesizers, mixing jazz and rock, etc. That's why purist Keith
Richard is always a little disparaging of Townshend. He didn't stay with
"the one true way."

        -Brian in Atlanta
         The Who This Month!
        http://members.home.net/cadyb/who.htm