Re: Tommy

["Gary M. Gillman" <garyg@inforamp.net>]

At 12:50 PM 3/23/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Gary, re:
>
>> In contrast, the first time I heard the reissued LAL, also in a car, I
>loved it...
>
>Is there any other way to enjoy the Who more than when "Going Mobile"???
>(well... maybe on stage...) I had the same reaction to some of the "changes"
>on "Tommy" (ie "I'm Free", "Sensation", "We're Not Gonna Take It") but on the
>whole it sounds SO much better, that I "just gotta get used to it"...
>
>BTW, is your's a Canadian copy, or "other"?
>
>-wf
>
>
WF,re
I had not been able to locate the new Tommy in Toronto; my wife was in the
U.S. recently and brought it back for me. I see what you mean about
listening in a car, but I meant that if one listens to a record from
well-separated speakers, and is positioned closer to one of them, the effect
may be different than if one is listening exactly from the centre. For
example, when I listen to Let`s See Action, I like to sit much closer to the
speaker that has the guitar track because the other channel has a loud
banging piano, which irritates me: I want to hear PT striking those
electric guitar chords! In a home system one can also vary the volume of
either speakers. My car system lacks this feature, however. Moreover I am
usually the one driving when playing CD`s in my car. It has speakers in the
front doors and in the rear corners. So the left-side speakers were
projecting the main electric guitars on the two tracks I mentioned, and they
STILL sounded unusually low to me. When I play Pinball Wizard from, say,
Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy, the power chords on the aforementioned tunes are
much louder (which I happen to like). I fear this feature, at least on those
two songs, may have been lost in this new Tommy. But I liked the Overture a
lot, and still haven`t heard most of the album, so I need to give it more
time. BTW I really liked Richard Barnes` notes in the booklet: they were
honest, accurate and well-expressed. Note how he states that in his view the
lyrics to Tommy, interesting as they are, are subordinate to the music and
thus Tommy is not principally a great story but is certainly a great rock
record.........Gary M.