Re: The Who With Horns, Horrible

["Ian M. Derby" <csc2imd@cabell.vcu.edu>]

I'll make this short and to the point.

The last good/great Who tour in the US was 1979 (early 80).  The
fire and passion was still there.  I thought the horns on 5:15 for
that tour were a welcome addition, including Rabbit on organ.  
Barring the incident in Cincinatti I think at the time they thought
they could go on without Moon.  But whatever it was it became a
mirage.

The fire and passion was completely missing in 1982.  The band was
tired, Pete especially.  They wanted to close it out and simply walk
away.  Unfortunately this led to further embarrassment trying to
erase this tour from the memories of fans.


The 1989 tour has some highlights, I think there was some passion
back into their music.  Songs like "Substitute" and "I Can't
Explain" were very solid.  This tour is only as bad as a contrived
Rolling Stones tour.  You know what's coming but you like it
anyway.

Though many say "it was the money", "they needed 8 extra musicians
to sound good", this tour was much better than '82.  But in truth
they didn't need the extra musicians.  When the Who played at the
'88 British music awards (just the four of them) the passion was back 
and even if they used KJ again it would've been a better tour.  


Here's a question I've been meaning to ask:  There is no doubt that
Zeppelin became bigger after the breakup than when they were
around.  Do you think had the Who ended it with Moon's death that
(like all other dead rock stars) they would've gained popularity out
of the way the band broke up?  Instead of seeing the uninspired
performances from '82, we'd have a lacking but still heroic ending
to the band in WGFA.  


ok, this wasn't short and to the point.  I always seem to type more
than what I intend to say.