Re: IH > WAY, A Farce

[SlipKid@gnn.com (Ian Derby)]

>I notice you didn't post this, for whatever reason, so I'm doing you the
>same courtesy.
>I must disagree about TATTOO YOU. I think it's half a good Stones album,
> but
>songs like Start Me Up (recycled Brown Sugar which is recycled JJFlash) and
>Waiting For A Friend bring it down. I DO like that album, but I don't think
>it's nearly as strong as IH.


You don't like Waiting for a Friend?  Sonny Rollins is playing sax man!!  :) 
It reminds me of the "decent Stones era", which of course it's an outtake 
for Goats Head Soup.  I love this album, Slave, No Use In Crying, Neighbors, 
Tops, Heaven, Little T&A and the above are great to me.  Compare this album 
to Undercover and you wonder where the band received their frontal 
lobotomys.  


>No, that was someone else. I never said anything about One Life.


I know, but I didn't see you knock it either.  That song gets under my skin. 
 

>
>>Guitar and Pen was supposed to be overblown, that is the Gilbert and 
>>Sullivan philosophy.  
>
>And it doesn't work well for a gritty band like The Who, especially when
>they were running on three cylinders.

That's two cylinders and two drunks mind you.  And IMHO those two drunks did 
ok.  


>
>>As for whiny strings I don't hear it.  I think they do very well in Had 
>>Enough thank you very much.  If you want whiny strings I suggest you
> listen 
>>to Phil Spector's view of the Beatles.  WAY is no where near that stage.
>
>Oh yeah, I've got that. I don't like it there either. The strings dilute
> the
>songs, whereas Pete should have been challenging the Punk bands. Listen to
>the song WAY and imagine Had Enough done that strong. It could have been.
>

In Pete's mind he was handing the torch over to the punk bands, giving up 
perhaps but he must've seen something in a 20 year old musician which 
mirrored his own life at that age.  I'll say this about Had Enough, listen 
to Roger's voice.  It still contains the passion, the feelings of anger that 
Pete wanted expressed in his songs.  On IH and yes FD, Roger doesn't have 
it.  If Roger sang Cry if You Want in 1978, it would've been 10 times more 
powerful.  




>>Did You Steal and How Can You are GREAT songs and two of my favorites. 
> Now 
>>I see we are totally polarized.  I love this album for some reason,
> moreso 
>>than I did 15 years ago.  It certainly shows more life than that dead
> tired 
>>glazy eyed followup.
>
>I see it as the other way around. FD was an obvious attempt to change their
>sound...and it didn't work, so they went back to what did work...and did it
>well.
>


What I really like about Did You is the break in the middle, it was new and 
fresh, and it sounded like something the Who would do.  That's why I love 
that song.  As for Did You, I'm a bassaholic and frankly I love that 
bassline.


>>IH was a last gasp from Townshend's "snickers bar" quick fix.  I see
> songs 
>>like How Can You and Did You Steal My Money from Face Dances as fresh and 
>>innovative (disco beat, and excellent bass line included) where nothing
> like 
>>that is to be found on IH.  Yes Pete was vigorized by Keith's death, but
> he 
>>left his passion on Face Dances and subsequent solo albums.  It's Hard is 
>>nothing but a sterilized corpse while WAY is a band in pain with feelings.
>
>Ian, I'll never understand why you like those two songs. To me, they're
>beneath The Who and Townshend in particular. He's a guy who can write
>something incredible (Brilliant Blues or Amazing Journey, take you pick of
> a
>period) and something as empty as those two pains me. I assume he was
> trying
>to be humorous...if so, someone should have given him a nudge. "Hey, Pete.
>Not funny, man."


But compare those standards to IH.  How???  It's Hard (the song) would've 
been better as Popular.  I've Known No War is good but Roger doesn't sing 
with passion.  One At a Time as I've said before is ruined thanks to CBS.  
Eminence Front is a song that is trying to hark back to Who's Next but 
falls short.  Cry If You Want is probably the best song on the album, but 
compare it to the WAY (the song).  WAY was the last WHO album where Pete 
still had the home run. 


>Of course, we are totally at odds here. I see WAY as a stumbling feeble
> last
>gasp, whereas IH was at least a professional album with good performances
>and lyrics. Why does it sound passionless? You can put that down to the
>Johns porduction. Listen to WN, which has been described at "almost too
>sterile." But one thing is for sure: they weren't stumbling.
>

Actually I think Glyn Johns did the best he could with IH.  But the band 
was sterile in sound, as they showed on the '82 tour.  Who's Next certainly 
isn't sterile, it's the Who at their best, because the Who were peaking at 
the right time.   WBN certainly isn't sterile and that's another Glyn Johns 
production.  It was the band.