Re: Empty Glass

["Schrade, Scott" <sschrade@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Good analysis Scott, just a couple of points ...

Ouch!  Points!  I hate getting stuck.

> Hmm, perhaps, but there have been delicate and dainty songs on Who 
> albums of some success - blue red & grey, for instance.

Yeah, I knew I was barking up the wrong tree with my "delicate & dainty"
complaint.  I do realize there are plenty of delicate & dainty Who songs
& that The Who are a better band because of it.

Still, for me, there's an admittedly cloudy division between dainty Who 
songs & Pete's "softish" solo songs- which I'm sure has been conditioned
over the years by my listening to dainty Who songs & soft Pete songs.

A clearer point I could've made would've been to say that EMPTY GLASS 
contains *too many* delicate & dainty songs to make a proper (whatever
*that* means) Who album.  (I may be barking up the wrong tree again!)

(I think I am barking up the wrong tree.  On rereading this I realized
that SELL OUT contains quite a few delicate & dainty songs.  And TOMMY,
too.  So, a preponderance of delicate & dainty songs on an album cannot
disqualify it as being a Who album.  I was wrong.  Cased closed.)   

> > "Keep On Working" - This one just says, "Solo Pete," to me. I can't
> > hear it as a Who song. Maybe. In a lazy, silly, "Dogs" sort of way.
>
> Naah, more like Now I'm a farmer!

Image-wise, sure.  I was thinking more along the lines of tone, feel, &
pace.

> > "Cats In the Cupboard" - I don't like this song & wouldn't want to
> > hear a Who version. You might disagree.
>
> Hey, we agree :-)

The weakest song on EMPTY GLASS, perhaps?

> > "A Little Is Enough" - Delicate & dainty again. Would it have been
> > a good Who song? I don't think so. It'd probably be another Who song
> > sung by Pete. Another song that says, "Solo Pete," rather than "Who
> > song that got away." IMO.
>
> Again, this is a song that we disagree with. I can hear in my head a 
> Who treatment of this song but I can't articulate it. Jaunty yes, but 
> I think in keeping with material on WAY and Face Dances.

I suppose.  It's just such a light & airy song, plus I'm not fond of it.
That's probably why I can't conjure a Who version.

> > "Empty Glass" - Who song that got away. Definitely. Drop the "doo
> > wop" backing vocals, though. Never did like those.
>
> Oh, no, don't drop the doo wop!

Oh, get those things OUTTA there!  Blech!  Almost ruins the song.  Very
nearly strips away all surrounding seriousness.  Bad decision on some-
one's part.

> Let's face it, it could be argued that many of the songs on WAY are 
> more like solo Pete songs, and for a Pete solo album done by the Who, 
> look at Who by numbers.

True, true.  You're beginning to prove to me that EMPTY GLASS *could've*
been a proper (whatever *that* means) Who album in its own right.

> No, I'd still argue that Empty Glass is a great Who album. Sure, there 
> are a couple of songs on it that might not translate more than adequate-
> ly into Who material, much as I think there are songs on WAY and WN, 
> for instance Love ain't for keeping which really for me aren't true Who 
> songs.

"Love Ain't For Keeping" not a true Who song?!  Sacrilege!  ;-)

> But, and in your analysis, you've nailed the concept - Empty Glass does 
> contain much material that would have worked significantly to making a 
> great Who record.

Yeah, but that was always obvious.  No groundbreaking theory on my part
there.  But you've changed my opinion.  I thought EMPTY GLASS was too
light to make a true Who album.  But that opinion ignores the evolving
nature of Pete's writing & its tendency towards delicateness (!) from
the mid-'70s onwards.  You've changed my mind.

But this inevitably leads to the unpleasant theory that Pete completely
fucked up The Who & sealed its fate when he signed his solo deal & tried
to juggle both.  Daltrey was right (again!) to be upset when he saw Pete's
better songs going on Pete's solo albums rather than Who albums.  Pete 
nourished The Who in the beginning & Pete eventually starved The Who at 
the end.  <sniff> 

> And of course, if you develop the idea as Jim did, into looking at the 
> overall picture with the songs on Face Dances, we have 19 songs to play 
> with, 

This is all starting to seem like an "Imaginary Tale" from a comic book!
WORLD'S FINEST:  "What If.....Batman Married Lois Lane!!!"

> Oh, then to have had the Who do pyschoderelict!

Wait, they gotta do CHINESE EYES first!  I wanna hear Daltrey sing "Comm-
unication!"


- SCHRADE in Akron

Every scientific truth goes through three stages: first, people say it
conflicts with the Bible; next, they say it has been discovered before;
lastly, they say they always believed it. 
	- Louis Agassiz (1807 - 1873)