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Re: Feedback on "Feedback"... "A Quick One.."



I enjoyed your recent contributions regarding the origin of several of the
many now ledgendary and innovative Townshend/WHO innovations, and it put me
in mind of a humorous story from that early era which is not, as far as I
know, very widely known....

Back in '64 and '65, as everyone probably already knows, bands usually had to
play in these marathon gigs, featuring sometimes dozens of bands and abundant
6 minute "sets". The order in which the different groups appeared was
probably the most interesting aspect of these shows as it established a fresh
"pecking-order" with regard to how important or worth supporting any
particular group was (or wasn't).

It wasnt't at all unuaual, especially in the U.K., to have a host of unknown
groups down at the bottom of the list as the "opening acts", and then seeing
the greatest bands, like THE WHO, and even slightly lesser bands such as the
Beatles or the Stones,as the closing act or "headliners".

Each group, irrespectrive of it's relative fame or importance, got the same
amount of rehersal time (usually 15 minutes or so), and given the length of
the list, it would be rare indeed for one of the opening acts to even bump
into any of the headliners, whose style and guitar licks and everything else
they, more often than not, had blatently stolen and incorporated into their
own otherwise unimpressive performance.

So, into just such a situation walked a young Mod-IMITATOR named David Jones
(No, not the Monkee). The guy didn't have a lot of inspiration going for
himself to begin with, and so he decided to steal some from whatever he
considered to be the best band around. Well, at least his taste was good,
because he choose to rip-off a number of creative ideas, especially with
regard to his otherwise uninspired guitar playing, from..WHO else?? but, THE
WHO and PETE. And since David Jones was at the very bottom of the list, and
THE WHO were at the very top, his chances of getting caught, either in
rehersal or on stage, were minimal.

So the day finally came when little David Jones managed to wrangle his place
on the bottom of the list for a show that night, and he arrived at he
scheduled "rehersal" time, band in tow, and began to bang out a few
copies...er..."tunes", all the while doing such a fine job of copying PETE's
guitar style and riffs that he might as well have been a Dana Carvey style
impressionist.

Then, the unexpected happened. Poor little David was right in the middle of
his rehersal for that night's show when WHO should suddenly appear in the
theatre than PETE himself, et. al.

It didn't take Pete more than about 20 seconds to break off the conversation
he was having in order to give his full attention to the blatent rip-off of
his style and work that was, at that very moment, being performed by a now
terrifed David Jones, right in front of him on the stage.

The song ended and there was a stricken silence. All eyes (and ears) were on
PETE, who studied the hapless plagarist for a moment before speaking...

"Hey, there..." Pete yelled out, "That's a bit of a CHEESE-OFF then, isn't
it?!!!" (NOTE: When Brits say "Cheese-Off, they mean "Rip-off").

"Ah...ah....ah.....ah.." Poor young David Jones, having been caught red
handed, was at a loss for words and braced himself for the anticipated blast
of Pete's celebrated, and in this case well deserved, wrath.

Instead, PETE chuckled, shrugged his shoulders, and started toward the exit,
but not before making the following comment.....

"It's a bloody cheese-off, all right..." PETE looked directly at poor David.
"And I reckon that's the only way you could pump up your act enough to even
get on the bill, eh?"

More silence....

"Fuck it.." Pete smiled, "Everybody else in the bleedin' world is doing it to
me, so why shouldn't you?!!"

Before David to think of anything to say, PETE was gone, and a very
embarashed David Jones was left standing on the stage, both feeling and
looking extremely uninspired and talentless.

Perhaps, although this is just a guess on my part, that is part of the reason
why, shortly after this incident, that the artistic thief David Jones decided
to change his stage name, in the off chance that he might ever achieve even a
modicum of fame, from "David Jones" to "DAVID BOWIE".

So is there ANY era of any duration in the history of pop music (since 1964
at least) that was NOT attributable, in one way or another, to the artistic
prescence of Pete Townshend?? (Personally, I think not)!

Regards,

JB---2---The WHO!