Pete solos

[James Marshall Boswell <jboswel@emory.edu>]

I meant to respond to someone's posting awhile back  citing Pete's solo 
on "Love REign O'er Me" from the 1982 Shea Stadium performance as it 
appears on the "30 Years" video.  I'm glad someone brought that up.  I 
was all set to stop watching the video, figuring the best bits were 
already over (no Moon!), when suddenly Pete steps up and unfolds this 
beautifully crafted, lyrical solo worthy, I think, of a note-by-note 
analysis.  That's the kind of melodic intuition you only acquire from 
experience, it seems to me.  I was also glad I kept watching for the way 
the video made me rethink Kenney Jones, whom I always thought of as a 
splendid drummer unfortunately unsuited to The Who.  On record, yes, he 
does seem wrong--too controlled, maybe.  I had assumed that live he 
just kept a beat.  But in that extended performance of "The Music Must 
Change," in which what looks like a very drunk Pete Townshend runs The 
Who all over the map without a clear idea where he's going, Jones keeps 
up as intuitively as Entwistle, providing Townshend with a powerful 
driving center that--dare I say it?--Moon might not have been able to 
provide.  

Marshall