Johns & Talmy @ SXSW

[IISheds@aol.com]

I just returned from the South by Southwest music conference in Austin, and
wanted to report on a  couple of Who-related items.  

Both Glyn Johns and Shel Talmy served on panels during the conference.  Johns
was a last-minute addition to a panel of producers which included, among
others, Allen Toussaint and Roy Bittan.  Johns was very entertaining and
humorous.  He came across as being quite affable and talked a lot about his
influences and the state of recording today.  One particular statement he
made, which I found quite interesting, was that the three records he was most
proud of were Who's Next, Rough Mix, and the first Joan Armatrading record -
no mention of all the Stones records he did.  He also talked some about the
making of Who's Next - most of which is public knowledge.  He said that he
didn't have any involvement in the New York sessions, and that the Stargroves
session was Pete's idea.  He added that WGFA was the only track from
Stargroves used on the original album (which I think is stated in the liner
notes).  No mention was made about the remastering of Who's Next, although he
spoke negatively about the idea of remastering in general.  He made himself
available for meet & greet after the panel concluded.

Talmy was on a panel with Arthur Brown, Al Kooper, Stan Lynch, D.J. Fontana,
Doug Sahm, and Jerry Williams, which was basically a panel on reminiscing
about the old days.  Brown and Kooper pretty much dominated the discussion -
Talmy sat at one end of the dais, wearing sunglasses, and barely spoke at
all.  He was asked how he came about working with the Who, and said it was
because of his previous work with the Kinks.  He said Townshend wrote "Can't
Explain" to purposely sound like a Kinks song.  He mentioned that the Ivy
League were used for backing vocals, and that Jimmy Page did not play lead
guitar.  He also added that Moon was his best friend in the Who.  I wanted to
ask him about remastering My Generation, but time ran out before my turn came
up, and Talmy was out the door as soon as the panel concluded.

I also noticed that Ira Robbins was scheduled to serve on a panel about
writing music books, but it conflicted with another panel discussion I needed
to attend.

Talmy's address, phone number, and fax number (I assume these are office
numbers) are all included in the SXSW directory.  If anyone is interested in
writing/calling/faxing him about the My Generation masters, let me know and
I'll email the info...

John