First post to list.

["Alan W. Jankowski" <exakta66@hotmail.com>]

Hi:  Just want to sart off by saying this is my first post to the list-
I've been on it about a week but just realized which e-mail address to
post to.  This list seems to be the rowdy version of the Pete Townshend
list, though most of the members seem to be the same.  Anyway, I would
like to start off by saying I don't understand how anyone Who considers 
themselves a Who fan could have any dislike of 'Who By Numbers'.  Maybe
because it was the first Who album I actually bought (I was 15 at the
time-1976) or whatever, but the album contains some of Pete's best studio 
guitar work, extraordinary lyrics and though I admit some of the
subject matter requires a certain bit of maturity-I couldn't truly relate to 
say 'However Much I Booze' for some years, songs like 'How
Many Friends' could easily be understood by someone of any age.  Needless to 
say the album made me a Who fan and my next album was the
Berkeley boot 'Radio London' -back in the days when boots were $4 at
Englishtown flea market in NJ.  Songs like 'The Seeker', 'I Don't Even
Know Myself' (still one of my all time faves) and 'Young Man Blues'
really hit home to a 16 year old who previously thought the best album
in the world was 'Get Yer Ya Yas Out' by the Stones (though I still do think 
that is a great album, despite the anti-Stones sediment I detect).
Anyway, since I became a Who fan in '76 the first chance I had to see
them was in the front row at the Capital Theater in '79-I ended up seeing 
them 10 times in '79, once in '80 (CNE Stadium) ,8 times in 82 ,
anyway-you get the idea.  All because of 'By Numbers', which, though
I'm sure I'll get some disagreement, I feel is their last truly classic
album.  Next subject.  The Who play rock and roll.  Rock and Roll comes
from the blues-same chords, scales, timing, etc.  In fact, I would say
most musicians don't distinguish between Rock and Blues.  So The Who
do indeed play American music-they just do it better than anyone else-by 
far.  Next, and probably the most irksome comments I've seen posted
on this list by people Who suposedly consider themselves Who fans, is that 
there might be 'better' players than John and Keith.  When these
so called 'fans' mention that people like Allen Woody (that's a real
laugh to me, BTW) are 'better' than John, they certainly can't mean
John Alec Entwhistle.  If by 'better' they mean they know more scales
or something, maybe.  But I usually judge a musician by how they play.
I understand that technically it's quite possibly to know more about
drumming than say Keith did.  I am familiar with a variety of music.
I've seen Buddy Rich live because a friend of mine who is a drummer
insisted he was better than Keith.  But in my humble opinion, for all that 
is worth, Keith had more feel and style in his little finger than
all the other drummers in the world put together.  When it comes to 
musicianship, feel and style, and sometimes knowing when NOT to play are
more important than anything.  We've all heard so called guitar 'virtuosos' 
of the 80's and 90's that can play 4000 notes in ten seconds, but I prefer 
not to listen to them.  Technical proficiency does
not a musician make-at least not a listenable musician.  Lastly, I'd
like to compliment An English Boy on his choice of YMB from IOW as an 
example of being
the epitome of what The Who in concert.  My only disagreement is stopping at 
YMB.  Let any non-believers sit down and watch the whole
DVD-there isn't a dull moment in the whole video.
Regards, Alan W. Jankowski.