Re: Getting the big players in on the act.

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

On Mon, 8 Jan 1996 WFang01@aol.com wrote:
> Mark, re:
> >They don't have to post, you know...they could just READ the Digest without
> anyone knowing that they are here. Then you could open the discussion in a
> direction that they are interested in...as you have in the past. Chris
> getting "pissed off" and Jon "having enough" lead me to wonder just how
> emotionally stable they are.
> 
> No, I think you missed my point. Do you really think they want to sit there
> and wade through discussions about "brands of Pete's beer" or "what mix of 'I
> Can See For Miles' is different than??? I'd say they are a bit beyond all
> this banter and would probably find it very boring. This stuff is for fans.
> Think about it!

I think your opinion of the people on the Who list is far too low.  Over 
the last few months, I've hardly seen discussion touch upon anything 
other than the content of (a) bootlegs and (b) future official releases.  
CC and JA can hardly be expected to comment on (a), but (b) is their 
job.  As far as 'what mix'-type questions; it's quite obvious that the 
people in charge of the tapes know as little as the rest of us; on the 
other hand, CC wrote a book that purported to explain many of the mix 
questions (it would be great if he put out an updated version after the 
re-releases are done; maybe not wanting to re-write that thing is making 
him subconcsiouly extend the re-mastering process...).  Again, I don't 
see why either CC or JA would be overwhelmed by such questions; if that's 
their fear, they should post a 'Hi, we're here' message saying that 
they'd really rather not answer those types of questions.

Also, what's increasingly coming out of this discussion is that these 
guys are, in truth, only slightly more qualified than we are to be doing 
the remastering; they are, for the most part, folks with full-time jobs 
who are doing this because they're fans of the Who who also happen to be 
friends or relatives of the band.

I think it only makes sense for these guys to reach out and find out what 
Who fans everywhere think should be on the re-releases, or, at the very 
least, explain the reasons they put things in or leave things out (e.g. 
Spoonful on LaL.)  Another welcome change would be a catalog, however 
slow in coming, of all the tapes of the Who available to the record 
company, as I think we've all said before, there are people here (myself 
included) who would volunteer to do this.

In the end, it comes down to a concept CC should, as an editor, know 
well:  a few extra sets of eyes to look over material can only help.

--LP.