Re: other audio bits on Who's Next

[kt@einstein.exa.com (Ken Traub)]

    Date: Tue, 14 Nov 1995 00:39:58 -0500 (EST)
    From: Lev Polinsky <polinsky@husc.harvard.edu>
    Subject: Re: other audio bits on Who's Next

    On Tue, 14 Nov 1995, Mark Leaman wrote:

    > >I doubt it's the same thing, but there's a noise near the end of WGFA (as 
    > >the guitar calms down for the minute-or-so of synth preceding the Shout) 
    > >that sounds for all the world like a light switch getting flicked, and 
    > >which, even after a hundred times through it, made me turn my head toward 
    > >the light switch if I was listening through headphones.
    > 
    > Lev:
    > 
    > I wonder if you are referring to the acoustic guitar riffs Townshend used to
    > "keep time" on the synth track. They can also be heard on a CD version of
    > Largo Md. 12/73 (Pinball Wizard), so they must be part of the original tape
    > (which was used in concerts).
    >              Cheers                ML
    > 
    No, that's different.  I've known those for a while.  What I'm talking 
    about actually sounds like (you made me get out my 
    Who's Next CD) an errant knock of the drumsticks, almost completely on 
    the right channel, at 6:30.  Now, before the drum intro to the Shout, it 
    certainly sounds like the Who are once again walking up to their 
    instruments to start playing again (turn it up loud and you should hear 
    it.  But then, why would you want to listen to that album with the volume 
    turned down?).  It sounds like Keith settles into (or out of) his stool, 
    or chair, or whatever he sat on, and then there's a slight shuffling of 
    something or other about a second before the drum flurries begin.

You don't need the reissue to hear these: I've heard them on the box set
version, for example.  The organ track is mixed entirely into one channel,
with only reverb in the other channel (I forget whether it's left or right).
If you throw your balance control so you're only hearing the reverb channel,
and crank the volume, you can hear all these noises pretty clearly.  (The drum
mics are generally mixed into both channels.)

I always assumed they were just the normal sort of noises you'd expect around
a drum kit when there isn't the noise of a drum to drown them out.  I don't
think they are walking up to their instruments; I think during mixdown the mic
tracks were turned down during the organ solo, and then turned back up a
second or two before the acoustic instruments (drums) enter again.

Ken