Re: Who In Cincinnati

[Dave Elliott <dae@cbcosmos.att.com>]

Laura Plummer wrote:
> I don't have time to respond to the whole post, but I do wnat to say that 
> festival seating was only a part of the problem, and would have been fine 
> had they prepared in other ways.

Probably true.  I had been to one other festival seating concert prior to
this, and experienced the same exact thing on a much smaller scale.  The
venue for the other other concert was equally unprepared for what happened.

- very accurate description of the events deleted -

I was 22 at the time, and felt lucky to get inside.  It took all I had to
keep my wife-to-be upright in front of me.  Still, it didn't seem that bad
after we settled down for the show.  Coming out of the show, we encountered
a sea of shoes outside the arena.  It was an eerie sight, and one I'll never
forget.  We should have known then that something horrible had happened, but
we didn't find out until the next day.


Jim Jackson wrote:
>I don't believe that Pete's remarks to Greil Marcus in RS in summer, 1980,
>had any impact on any of the suits. A brother of one of the victims wrote to
>RS saying that it was obvious that Pete was a lying SOB and the bouquet of
>roses sent by the Who to his brother's funeral was simply gratuitous and not
>reflecting of any real sense of loss.  I think Cincinnati affected Townshend
>more deeply than he lets on--I have always considered it one of the pieces of
>the Who's demise (Keith's death and Pete's solo career being the other two
>major components).  Any agreement?

I would have to agree with this.  It certainly helped change my perspective,
and I would have to think that it had a big impact on the band.  Before that
concert, The Who were some of the central figures in my life and my life's
perspective.  Taking stock after the show, I came to realize that as much as
I liked the band and related to their music, they weren't THAT important.  I
certainly wasn't interested in risking my life for a chance to see them.

IMO one of the huge differences between It's Hard and the two Townshend
solo albums of the period (Empty Glass and Chinese Eyes) is the sense of
urgency attached to the music.  It's like Pete was saying what I had said,
"Hey, The Who isn't THAT important.  They are certainly not life or death
for me".  I believe that Cincinnati contributed a lot to that.

One of the profound disappointments in my experience with the Who was
discovering that Empty Glass did not contain a song about the tragedy.  It
was like Pete was publicly blocking out the whole incident, and was telling
me that he didn't care about what I had gone through.


Dave Elliott