Re: Pete's guitar playing in 79 & 82

[Lev Polinsky <polinsky@husc.harvard.edu>]

On Thu, 4 Jan 1996, Mark Leaman wrote:
> >          That's an interesting comment. I find Townshend's playing in 
> >          79 to be some of his most inspired live work.  I really get 
> >          the sense that Rabbit added a dimension that allowed Pete to 
> >          experiment more with subtle riffs and phrases.  He didn't 
> >          seem to be in a position to do that on previous tours.  Now, 
> >          as for 1982, I dunno.  So much of what I've heard from that 
> >          tour, Pete sounds like he's going through the motions.  But 
> >          I tend to stay away from stuff from that tour because of 
> >          WHO'S LAST.  I still say that what I saw in Indianapolis in 
> >          82 was NOT represented on WHO'S LAST.  
> 
> Jim:
> 
> Townshend may have been going through the motions on the `82 tour...I won't
> argue that. But I do think his lead work was more accomplished than before.
> And the trend has continued through his latest work (that I've heard, anyway).
> And rather than listening to the `orrible WHO'S LAST, I take my `82 live
> material from the Toronto video (transfered to cassette, with the missing
> songs replaced from the Dangerous boot CD). It's MUCH better than WL ever
> dreamed of being...from performance to mix.
> In `89, Pete's guitarwork is certainly better...you can hear it in Eminence
> Front, Hey Joe, and I'm A Man very clearly.
> 
Is Who's Last not a prime candidate for a remastering?  There's two 
possibilities:  collapse the thing onto one disc and give it a better 
sound.  Two:  leave two CD's, but put in another 80 min. of material, 
from Athena and the other stuff they played from the latter-day albums to 
anything else that fits.  There's gotta be plenty of tapes, and a good 
double set would be more than enough to give a good representation of the 
Who live at the time.  And if they ever do this, they should try to 
locate more stuff like the LLR reprise on the second disc.

--LP