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

A rambling treatise.Sun Dec 7 12:14:22 PST 1997




I have been wondering why there don't seem to be any Who tribute/cover bands. 
At least, I haven't heard of any in my neck of the woods, and would like to if
there are. But let me cogitate -

I used to be a fairly good guitarist, and what struck me about PT's playing is
that it is highly individual. He has a way of combining chords and notes that
I don't see much of elsewhere. As an example, there is his playing during the
verse of Bargain. Now, all he is doing there is hitting an A chord and letting
it ring, then hitting the top few strings a couple of times and dropping
quickly down to the A string hard and let that ring.  Very simple, but so
effective. He is one of those geniuses, like Keith Richards, who can play very
simple chord/note combinations, vary the timing and leave gaps.

This, I think, makes him hard to copy. What he does is often improvised (I
mean look at much of WGFA) and in his own unique style. I feel the same about
Keith Richards in his later years. Consider the guitar playing in Start Me Up.
It is improvised, with Richards and Ron Wood both fooling around on the
chords, adding little runs and trills. But in their own inimitable style.  I
can fool around with the chords and do runs and stuff just as well, but it
doesn't _sound_ the same, because I ain't Keith Richards.

Now, the thing about PT's playing is that technically it isn't difficult, but
very hard to copy, unless you're going to learn every note and play exactly
what he has played. I have this view about Keith Richard's and some others but
not about guys like Jimmy Page, Van Halen, S.R. Vaughan etc., or even about
Hendrix. They are technically hard but less stylistic when you consider their
total playing - lead and rhythm. When Page plays a chord he does it like anyone
else, but not P.T., somehow he invests his own style in everything. It is a
"totality". (Yes I'm aiming for a job at "Rolling Stone" :-) ).

So the first problem in putting together a cover band is to find someone who
can play like P.T., which is a very stylistic thing. Then of course you gotta
find a drummer like Moon and a bass player like Entwhistle. The problem with
Entwhistle is that, like P.T. he has a distinct style, and technically he is
difficult as well. As for Moon, I'm not a drummer so I don't know.

Then you gotta put them all together. "The whole is more than the sum of its
parts" applies particularly to the Who, IMHO. I mean, they're a _band_. 
Witness Entwhistle in the "30 Years Max R'n'B' talking about how he
intuitively knows where PT is going and can always stick with him.  You also
have the problem (or is it the same thing) that there is no single timekeeper
and "metronome" in the unit. Suppose I am a hot guitarist like PT but how much
experience am I gonna have playing in a band where there is no backbeat behind
me? I think you you have to develop your style within that context, which is
what the Who did.

All in all, putting together a cover band that is going to be good, is not an
easy task.



	Hugh Garsden
	University of Sydney