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Various interesting facts



As I promised a few days ago, here are miscellaneous facts about The Who I
stumbled upon while reading through many of their biographies this month.  I
think it's safe to say that most or all would be considered "little known,"
and several even relate to recent questions or comments posted by various
people.

Four of the biographies where I encountered these facts were Richard Barnes'
Maximum R&B, Chris Charlesworth's Townshend--A Career Bio, and books simply
entitled "The Who" by John Swenson and by Gary Herman.

Many of these facts were of special interest to me because to the best of my
knowledge they don't appear in Ed Hanel's excellent (and fairly thorough)
1982 discography.

1.  The first song Pete wrote, at age 16, was entitled "It Was You" and,
according to Barnes (p. 8), was the only High Numbers recording with Dougie
Sandom on drums, with Barry Gray as engineer.  Hanel acknowledged this demo's
existence (pp. 7 & 148) but didn't provide details.  Hanel listed a UK 45
cover of this song by The Naturals, but Barnes said the 45 was also released
in America.  Hanel made no mention of a cover as a B-side by Mersey-siders
known as The Fourmost, but both Charlesworth (p. 27) and Barnes noted this.

2.  Speaking of covers, according to Barnes (p. 125), at the Knebworth
Festival after Keith Moon's death Todd Rundgren joined The Tubes on stage to
perform "Baba O'Riley" and "The Kids Are Alright."  This reminds me, I recall
Sammy Hagar covering "Baba O'Riley" during a concert that was shown on MTV at
least a decade ago.  Does anyone have these covers on tape?

3.  Many fans have wondered about possible bonus tracks if/when By Numbers
and Who Are You are reissued.  On page 124 of Barnes's book, he mentions a
song called "Choirboy" that was being recorded for Who Are You, but "it
wasn't working out.  Pete said that he'd get another demo together over the
weekend at Goring and came in on the Monday with a 24-track demo of Music
Must Change."  Does anyone know anything more about this song?  By the way,
Pete's liner notes for "Never Ask Me" on Another Scoop say that he carefully
constructed the song as an alternative ballad for Who Are You, but "it wasn't
used by the band."  Does this mean they never tried to record it?  (And on a
largely irrelevant tangent:  I became excited when I noticed that the cover
of my Another Scoop cassette refers to a song entitled "Vicious
Trouble"--hey, an unreported bonus track, I thought!  Sadly, just a misprint
of "Vicious Interlude.")

4.  We've recently seen a handy list of movies featuring Roger and there's
been lots of talk lately surrounding a possible movie about Keith, but I
don't recall anyone ever mentioning a movie that Keith was in entitled
"Countdown."  Hanel listed four movies that Keith was in (p. 154) but this
wasn't one of them!  However, Keith talked about it in the December 21, 1972
Rolling Stone interview.  It was either his first or second film, and
featured Harry Nilsson, Ringo and maybe Peter Frampton.  "I do some
drumming," Keith said.  Has anyone reading this seen this film?

5.  John Swenson said that Pete was recording "four new songs" for the
Quadrophenia movie, and "enlisted the help of ex-Faces drummer Kenney Jones
on the soundtrack" (p.128).  Does anyone know what that 4th song was?  The
issue of just how "new" Joker James really was had been established in the
Hearst Corp.'s "Eye," Sept 1968 issue (as noted in the Who newsgroup early
this summer by my good friend Bill Bedzyk).  Slightly different lyrics for
that song, along with some for "Join My Gang" and additional lyrics for
"Rael" were printed in that issue.  I've never actually seen it, but Gary
Herman (p. 159) described it.

6.  Swenson noted (also p. 128) that Roger's solo song "The Prisoner" was
about John McVicar, which makes sense but I don't recall anyone else noting
Rog's earlier interest in this famous convict.

7.  According to Charlesworth (p. 66), when The Who recorded "Little Billy"
in Los Angeles, they recorded a second song for the American Cancer Society
entitled  "Do You Want Kids, Kids" and Pete also recorded and later regretted
a U.S. Air Force recruitment ad.  Does anyone have copies of these?

8.  Before Tommy, Charlesworth (p. 67) said Kit Lambert talked about a studio
album to be entitled Who's For Tennis, which never materialized.  Does anyone
know what songs were intended for this album?  Talking of unfinished
projects, I know that Quads generated "I'm A Boy" and Siege demos surfaced on
Another Scoop, but does anyone know of other songs (if only titles) that were
supposed to be part of these concept albums?  I won't even ask about what the
song order was going to be for Lifehouse! 

9.  Charlesworth reports (p 15) that Pete's paternal grandparents wrote comic
songs, and one, "Bathing In The Briny," became a "pre-war [WWI?] favourite on
the piers of Southern England, a sheet music 'hit' of the day."  Years later,
their son and Pete's dad, Cliff, played on many records, and "made at least
one recording in his own right, an instrumental tune called 'Unchained
Melody,' part of a film score by Alex North, which EMI's Columbia label
released in 1955" (p.17).  I suppose his grandparents' sheet music would be a
rarity, but do any of you own Pete's dad's 45, and/or know of any others he
released under his own name?  I was planning to propose a new tour entitled
Daltrey Sings Entwistle, but now I'd like to see Daltrey Sings Other
Townshends (including Simon, of course).

10.  I'm saving the more trivial for last, but I know there are others like
me who like to track down covers of Who songs (partly to provide good
laughs):  Hanel lists a Jennifer Warren as one of several who've covered "See
Me, Feel Me," but Gary Herman (p.158) shows her as using the full title,
"We're Not Gonna Take It."  By the date of Herman's book, it's clear that she
recorded this prior to Quadrophenia's release.  Because both Hanel and Herman
use the same spelling but provide slightly different information, I'm
becoming convinced that she isn't the Jennifer WARNES who sang that Dirty
Dancing duet.  No wonder I've had trouble finding this cover!  Has anyone out
there succeeded?

On an unrelated note, Mr. Herman, who I must point out misspells the last
name of rock's  best bass player, makes reference (pp. 27 & 130) to a 1964
book about mods entitled Generation X.  Gee, I had assumed that the mass
media (or whoever) created this term in this decade.

Well, there you have it--potential fodder for dozens of postings.  Of course,
I know that from time to time there are discrepancies or errors in Who
biographies (e.g., did Jimmy Page play on "I Can't Explain" or not, and if
so, to what extent?), plus Pete either has a faulty memory at times or tells
inconsistent tales or both, so I'd encourage corrections or clarifications.