[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Where were you when Keith died?



From: "Schrade, Scott" <sschrade@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Unfortunately, I was probably listening to a KISS album with headphones &
missed the news entirely.  I was only 11 at the time &, to be honest, if
I heard the news story it wouldn't have affected me that much because I
wasn't into The Who in '78 & wasn't even really conscious of them.  Sad,
I know, but that would change.

Liike Scott, I was not a Who fan until after Keith died. I do remember when I heard about Keith dying, though. I was in my room and a DJ on the radio mentioned his death and played Who Are You. I don't know if that was the day he died, a month later, a year later. I knew the song and liked it enough to file away that it was by "The Who" and their drummer had died, but I had no idea if the song was a year old, or ten years old. I had heard of the band before and probably knew some of their songs, but this is the first thing I could identify them with.


I must have converted to Whodom quickly because within a couple of years I had all the albums and found myself outside one of their concerts with $200 in my pocket looking for scalped tickets for me and my sister. We walked up to a transaction going on where someone was buying a pair of tickets for $100. As the guy is handing over the cash, my sister shouts "We'll give you 200 for the pair." I think to myself, "We're dead." I hand over the money, we get the tickets. The would be concert goer sulks away harmlessly and we walk into the Worcester Centrum for my first ever rock concert.

The cool thing about getting into a band after they've already been around for a long time is that they have all of this material sitting there that you can discover at your own pace. With The Who, it seemed like an unlimited library of classics and under appreciated gems. Of course, it only took me a couple of years to find out there was an end to it. I kept buying the rarity albums and the double greatest hit albums with one or two songs I didn't have (remember Hooligans?). I bought picture discs and import albums (Gigantes Del Pop; actually, that was a gift) that didn't have any new songs on them. I bought all of Pete's and many of Roger's solo albums, but none of John's. Scott mentions the strong album and concert sales during this period as proof that Who fans accepted Kenney. In my case, and the few other Who fans I knew, that's not the case. I was happy he was there because he allowed the band to carry on, and I never would have seen them otherwise. But, honestly, they could have put anyone back there, and I'd have gone. It was the rush of discovery of all that great music within such a short time that kept my fire lit and still does, to this day.

Jim M

_________________________________________________________________
Try MSN Messenger 6.0 with integrated webcam functionality! http://www.msnmessenger-download.com/tracking/reach_webcam