RE: Sun Dec 7 12:53:45 PST 1997

[Gary Lang <garylang@ccnet.com>]

"a drummer with a style more diametrically opposed to Keith's than Kenny Jones.
They replaced one of rock's most powerful, inventive and anarchic drummers with
staid, 50's-style, straight time-keeper, and as a result, ended up sounding just
like what Pete had always feared they would become- an cabaret act.  "

This is a collection of opinions that sounds familiar; the use of the phrases "time keeper" and the cabaret act quote are rather common. How much thought or listening has gone into this?

Here's the reason I ask. I'd seen Kenny Jones twice in the early 70's. He was FAR from being "just a time keeper". He was in fact the equal of Charlie Watts in kick and swing, and for some numbers was very much a Moon style drummer.

The truth is the _ENTIRE_ _BAND_ were jus ttime keepers after about 1975. Just watch the Pontiac Dome show or Shepperton footage, and compare them with the performance of "Water" on the Max R&B vidio. There is no comparison. 

If Jones had played as good as he played in 1974 with the Faces in say, 1982, the rest of the band would have looked pretty stupid and slow (except Entwhistle... he never flagged ever). Why saddle Jones with the burden of being as good as he was before when no one else but JAE was willing to be so?

All this refers to their work with the Who of course. Watching the Psychoderelict tape, it's clear that if Townshend's heart was in it, he could have been good all the way through 1989.

-g