Earvolution reviews Attic Jam SXSW

[Martin Bailey]

I said:

> >[Townshend closed] the show with what he believed to be the first ever
> public performance
> >of "I Can't Reach You" from The Who Sell Out.
>
> I've heard this quoted a few times now, but I don't think Pete was right.
> Didn't Petra Haden perform the whole Sell Out album live a few years ago?
>

To which JOELTLE515 said:

> well, maybe the first time pete performed it publicly, as opposed to the
> first "ever" performance of the song by anybody.


No, Pete really was talking about the first ever performance by anybody.
Perhaps this  is a better quote which  I could have referred to instead
(from Billboard http://tinyurl.com/25n23l ):

> [Pete] then closed the show with a spare voice-and-piano version of "In
The Ether"
> from the Who's latest album, "Endless Wire," and "I Can't Reach You," a
Who chestnut from the '60s that
> he told the crowd, "not only have I never played in public, nobody I know
has played this song in public."

But it's no big deal.  Pete just made an off-the-cuff remark without giving
it much thought, and got it wrong, that's all.  I'm sure that if he'd
thought about it for a bit longer he'd remember the Petra performance.

-MB