RE: Who let the Quad out?

["Brian Cady" <cadyb@home.com>]

Here's a slightly connected subject.

It occurred to me yesterday that before the rock era there was no such thing
as a "definitive" version of a song. Songs were just songs and everyone
covered everyone else's in a variety of different arrangements.

But with The Beatles and going forward from there, this definitive version
thing starts. Lots of people have covered "Yesterday" but they're not
covering a song written by Lennon/McCartney, they're covering The Beatles'
Yesterday.

One of the weird things about Who covers is thinking of the songs as songs
rather than Who performances. Pre-rock, there would have been no set
performance of Quadrophenia just as there is no set performance of any
opera. But now, this new version is forced to look over its shoulder at how
The Who performed it.

Why is that? Talk amongst yourselves.

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