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Daltrey Sings Townshend



I`d like to add to Mick Noland`s comments that in the Daltrey sings
Townshend shows Rog did some Who material that was relatively unfamiliar,
such as Imagine a Man and Song is Over, not to mention Townshend material
that he had never performed before (and was therefore taking chances with)
such as The Sea Refuses No River. So Rog wasn`t simply being repetitive...
Plus, he did them, and the more familiar songs, in a new way - with
imaginative, appropriate orchestral accompaniment and backing vocals, and
with the Chieftans on songs such as Baba O`Riley. This validated the effort,
quite apart from the quality of Rog`s singing on this tour. In fact, these
praiseworthy features were not quite all of it: the (instrumental) Overture,
which was a brilliant suite of Townshend solo and Who compositions, sounded
fresh and exciting to me. And let`s not forget the guest singers  Rog
featured such as the vocal powerhouse Linda Perry, and PT himself doing Who
Are You on solo vocal and guitar - to my knowledge the first time PT sang
the song in concert or was recorded doing it. If the Who put out an album of
new songs backed up by the kind of orchestral arrangements one hears on DST
(plus the great drumming of that album), it could possibly constitute the
mature masterpiece we all know the Who are still capable of producing.
Perhaps the live Quad at Hyde Park will sound like this, but a carefully
done studio effort would likely be more successful. This would be a Who
which synthesises the best elements of Quad, their earlier (electric)
guitar- oriented rock, and the savvy orchestrations of Street in the City,
New Song, Rough Boys and the DST orchestra. What a great idea! Now, if I can
only convince PT to do it the next time I run into him at the local
Starbucks.........Gary M.