Scoop Stuff

["Scott Schrade" <schrade@akrobiz.com>]

> I've been away for awhile, but upon catching up on the list, what is this s#!t 
> about it being November before Scoop 3 is ready?  How long does it take to
> put old demos together?

> Want to say hey to Mark and Schrade, and everybody else that I met in Atlanta 
> last summer. 

Awesome Jon Dawson!  There you are!  Thought you were being The Lurker.
Lurking low & high.  Yeah, SCOOP 3 will be out next Winter.  Pete wants to go
sailing all Summer.  Sometimes ya gotta wait.

I bought the June 1983 issue of Trouser Press Magazine off e-Bay & discovered
an Ira Robbins review of the original SCOOP album.  Here 'tis:

    For years Pete Townshend's demos have circulated illicitly on bootlegs & 
    underground tapes. The nascent version of Who songs, lost treasures &
    instrumental film scores offer fascinating insights into the development of
    Who music. Twenty-five of these recordings are legitimately issued for the
    first time on SCOOP. But what could have been a significant album for Who
    fans instead is diffuse & frustrating.

    An "official" Townshend demo album has long been rumored; at one time it
    was thought the Who's entire repertoire in demo form might be issued. The
    double album SCOOP includes a scant 10 Who songs, & far from the most 
    interesting batch. Townshend has assigned the important task of auditioning
    his tape library & selecting tracks to (quoting his own liner notes) "someone
    who is in no way a Who fanatic": a woman named Spike. Thus Townshend 
    hopes to achieve his goal of making SCOOP "a fine example of how home
    recording produces moods & music, innocence & naivety (sic) that could be
    arrived at in no other way."

    There are some treasures in this trove: "Popular" (overhauled to yield "It's
    Hard"), "Circles," "Magic Bus," a snippet of "So sad About Us." There are
    also some previously unknown titles of quality: "Politician," a Motownish 
    rocker from the '60s; "Things Have Changed," a wonderful 1965 pop num-
    ber; & "Mary," a LIFEHOUSE track that has appeared on bootlegs.

    But there's also some real dross: a guitar chart dedicated "To Barney Kes-
    sell" (sic), "Body Language" (an out-take from Townshend's CHINESE
    EYES), & a pair of rejects from FACE DANCES, "Dirty water" & "Zelda."
    Prudent trimming would have made for a much stronger single album.

    Who fans will have to own this record. They are bound to be disapponted,
    though, that so much great material was left off in favor of these duds. Town-
    send is not pitching himself at Who freaks, whom he has already sewn up;
    he remarks derisively in his sleeve notes that they "will probably welcome this 
    record to add to their stockpile of obsessive memorabilia."

    Townshend obviously agreed to SCOOP's release but seems to have cared
    little how it turned out. His motives, then, must fall somewhere between ego-
    tism & self-indulgence - if we discount profit. Works in progress can flesh out
    our understanding of an artist's mind & methods; these doodles prove merely
    that musical talent isn't immune from mediocrity. Thanks for the scraps, Pete.

    - Ira Robbins
      Trouser Press Magazine June 1983


- SCHRADE in Akron