Re: BBE vs. STH/Popularity

[Shane Matheson <smatheso@mustang.uwo.ca>]

On Tue, 28 May 1996, Mark Leaman wrote:

> You've caught up in the timeframe. When The Who came out, they were HM.
> AC/DC certainly were, and Rush was close if not there. Compared to now, no.
> But then again, is Zep now?

It's not the timeframe, it's my definition.  For me heavy metal is the
Black Sabbath school of loud heavy music saturated with faster lead style
guitar with a heavy supporting rhythm.  Hard Rock is the other heavy camp
with bands like Zep, the Who and the other bands I mentioned.  It's more
moderate rhythm and tends to have more anthem type songs.  In the early
70s anything with a hard sound was called HM, though from todays 
standpoint lumping the Who & Black Sabbath & Jimi Hendrix under the same 
label.  When Sonic Youth and Nirvana first came out they were called punk 
(1991: The year Punk Broke) yet I don't think many people would call them 
punk but a term for that type of music wasn't in use yet, so they were 
lumped in with the Sex Pistols and Ramones.


> I would argue WGFA, but you missed my point. Stairway is easy to play yet
> sounds hard, and that makes it impressive.

I got the point (I just ignored it), but before they know it's easy, they
choose that's what they want to be able to play.  (I personally chose PW)
Louie Louie is easy to make sound good but most people don't choose it to
be one of the first songs they learn (probably learn it by accident when
they mess up on Wild Thing) Heartbreaker & Whole Lotta Love are also songs
everyone I know who plays guitar can play and learned early on.  There are
several Zep guitar books out there (one for each album, one for the box
set, one for LZ GH, one for acoustic LZ ,etc ad nauseum) Right now there
are only 2 or 3 commonly available Who guitar books available (The Who
Anthology & The Who Score plus one I can't think of).  More people choose
they want to play LZ, and so more books are available to meet the demand. 
This is an extension of popularity, but considering new musicians come
from this pool, it is also musical influence)

> The Who's classic albums:
> 
> MY GENERATION (perhaps the most influencial album in Rock)

The song is classic, and can be had on any number of greatest hits.  For 
the sake of argument though, OK (it's from a largely developmental time 
and has some qualities that were later expanded upon)

> SELL OUT
> TOMMY
> LIVE AT LEEDS (still called one of the greatest live albums ever)
> WHO'S NEXT

No disagreement with any of these

> MEATY BEATY BIG AND BOUNCY (with a lineup like this, how could it not be
> classic?)

It's a greatest hits.  The Beatles 1964-1966 & 1967-9170 have on them 
many of the best pop songs ever written, they're not classics, they're 
greatest hits.


> QUADROPHENIA (the album that defines Rock)

Again, how can you argue with Quad?


> I would also question your SGT. PEPPERS reference, they sound completely
> different to me...and SO was at least in demo form (and partially recorded)
> before SPLHCB was released. SO is Rock, SPLHCB is Pop.

According to the liner notes for the new Sell Out the earliest recordings
that made it on the album were from July 1967 and the majority were from
October (including the commercials and commercial songs which were what
held together much the theme) Sgt Pepper came out on June 2 1967, and I'm
sure Pete & the boys heard the album that the Beatles had taken the better
part of a year to come up with more than a few times.  The Who did filter
the idea through Pete's pop-art sensibilities hence the apparent
commercialism but the similarities are too numerous to say there wasn't
very strong influence.  SP had it's psychadelic side with Lucy in the Sky
and others, SO had Armenia & ICSFM.  SP was largely melodic pop songs, SO
was generally more melodic than their previous releases.  SP had no gap
between songs, and they all flowed into one another as does much of SO. 
SP makes use of the runout groove as does SO.  SO has it's rock moments
but with songs like Mary Anne WTSH, Odorono, Tattoo, Our Love Was and
Sunrise I wouldn't call it a Rock album in the sense of TWSMG or what
followed.  Sell Out is the Who's response to Sgt. Pepper. 


Shane Matheson						MechEng/CompSci UWO

	"I smash guitars because I like them. " -- Pete Townshend