Re: "What if...INDEED!"

[JB2TheWho@aol.com]

MIKE - 

Sorry, I believe I hit a wrong button and may or may not have dispatched this
note in an unfinished form, a conclusion supported by the fact that AOL just
sent it back to me...Sorry for the redundancy...here's the full version./

 In a message dated 97-06-08 15:30:22 EDT, wolfson@allegheny.edu writes:
 
 << 
  SEPTEMBER 1978: the who release a statement similar to the one led
  zeppelin would release two years later. "the who cannot continue without
  keith moon". besides, the band wasn't functioning with keith either.
  
   >>
 Mike,
 
 that's an excellent chronology you presented -- thanks...
 
 One comment...on the statement I cited from your note (above) re: "thre WHOP
 can not continue without keith moon....."
 
 This would have been a difficult if not impossible statement for the band to
 have made for this reason....
 
 By that time, poor Keith had deteriorated so badly that he wasn't exactly a
 full partner in every WHO endeavor for at least a year of 1.5 yrs.
preceeding
 his death, so such a comment would have ripped to pieces a lot of the stuff
 the band had done in the sad months leading up to Keith's demise!
 
 This, at least, is what TOWNSHEND told Phil Collins, when Collins called
 immediately upon hearing the news and begged PETE for the job as drummer for
 THE WHO....As Phil tells it, and he and Pete went a ways back and were
pretty
 tight, PETE explained to PHIL that KEITH had been so out of it for some time
 that Kenny Jones had ALREADY been covertly doing a bit of unspecified
 "filling in", which was why Kenny Jones already had the job the day after
 Keith died, which otherwise astonished and bitterly dissapointed Phil
 Collins...
 
 Now that would have been something to ponder...THE WHO with Phil Collins as
 drummer...For those who saw the tape (or saw the actual show as I was lucky
 enough to do) of the TOMMY 1989 performance in the tiny UNIVERSAL
AMPITHEATRE in L.A. with the 5 "Guest Stars" (Patti LaBelle-"Acid Queen",
Steve Winwood - "The Hawker" - Billy Idol - "Cousin Kevin" (He was
OUTSTANDING!) - Elton John - "The Pinball Wizard" and PHIL COLLINS as "Uncle
Ernie" (Noteable, Keith's role!!), it's obvious that Phil Collins has far
more than an average or opportunistic understanding and "elan" for the music
of THE WHO!, and a real love for the legacy of THE WHO.

(For a rock star of his stature, and this was late in 1989 remember, to
appear on stage - later on video - wearing only a loosely fitting robe,
blacked out teeth and boxer shorts as he performed "Fiddle About" was in and
of itself remarkable). From my vantage point, in the second row center, he
seemed to really connect with Pete and Roger in a number of ways not
discernable in the video.

As PETE himself said at the end of the show (I don't recall if this was
included on the film that was released or not), "He tried for a long time to
replace Keith Moon until we realized that Keith Moon just could not be
replaced..but he is a "prescence" , even here tonight."

And just to finish a great TOWNSHEND quote for good measure (And I paraphrase
here but only slightly, a problem attributable to the senility one must
expect from some 45 year old gheezer like myself

..."And so we may not look very much like the old WHO, we may not sound very
much like the old WHO..we may not perform very much like the old WHO..but for
whatever reason, we still have the bloody "cheek", the unmittagated gall, to
call outselves..." Townshend paused and leaned into the Mike and shouted the
final two words.."THE WHO!"

Thanks again for some interesting thoughts!

Regards,

JB 2The WHO!