Questions of the week

[Jeff Williams <jeffw@mxim.com>]

Sorry, I'm kind of a purist, and never really liked any of the solo efforts except Scoop was kinda nice, and
I kinda liked Rough Mix.  I really liked "What Would I be Without Your Love" Daltrey sang for the McVicar 
soundtrack (issat right?).  It was the return to a good melody, not written by Townshend, I think ( the diehards
can fill in the blanks here).  So, no, I need to NOT have most of the solo albums to have my image of the
Who intact.  Under a Raging Moon just sounded like Daltrey missed being in the Who, and the stupid drum
solo contributions remind me why I like Moon and not many others. I REALLY REALLY liked TWO SIDES OF THE MOON  
becuase it was the Moon-man.  Hey, interviewed for the '89 PPV Daltrey said to the effect: "My solo career is 
over.  I will only ever do anything I do with the Who.  Period".  Shows you what he thinks of solo stuff.


Re:  Bootlegs:  Well, the Who have been singular in putting out the rare shit (though, folks, I don't care who
you are or how many millions of hours of Who demo tapes you own, there is still a pile in the vaults from the
early Sixties you ain't never seen), and in fact the re-releases including rarities (Odds and Sods, 
Who's, Two's Missing, the "30 Years ..." box set, TKAA, blah blah blah is as big and important a body of 
work as the original albums.  So, the boots I consider important are the live ones.  Seems to me the ones
I have heard, Decidedly Belated Response, and the Fillmore East fall short of the performance/sound of LAL.
I went back and listened to Decidedly Belated, and the guitar sounded positively wanky.  The original album,
Townshend had the sound more finely tuned: not loud, distorted, but aggressive yet a clean sound.  It did
not translate well live.  I heard Fillmore once, in about 1979, so my memory is blurry, but I recall the
end of A Quick One was way drawn out, and kinda took away from the song.  Who's Zoo was a great boot, with
a smorgasborg of stuff to listen to.  Who's Live on the BBC was a great and pleasant surprise to me, with the
"new" (to me) songs.  

But the MOST IMPORTANT THING IS:  Bootlegs never did, and never will, affect in any way my buying habits
of "official" records.  Anyone who argues to the contrary is full of it.  PIRATED records, yes, BOOTLEGGED? c'mon
give me a f***ing break...