Re: The Who Mailing List Digest V4 #124

["Leo O'Sullivan" <Leo.O'Sullivan@globalone.net>]

David & David: Yes, the "little green amp"! But as I noted several
digests back Dave Davies stabbing his little green amp didn't give us
feedback but something infinitely more important.  Feedback just came
from the massive build up of amps that Pete, Dave Davies, and Jeff Beck
(and Hendrix) started.  The impaling of the green amp gave us amplified
guitar distortion which IMO is the origin of hard rock, heavy metal and
punk.  The significance of feedback as a musical device is minimal in
comparison; only Townshend, Beck and Hendrix made any real contribution
to music with it anyway.  I heard the original recording of "Rocket 88"
in Sun Studios when I lived in Memphis and took the tour (I thought it
was Ike Turner's song?  I could be wrong).  I'm happy that such a great
tune is considered the first rock and roll song.  It certainly sounds
like rock n roll.  Dave Kipp may have tossed out "rock n roll" as a
generic term here, because we all know R&R was invented long before the
Kinks.  Which person invented feedback is the big mystery that I believe
is unprovable, despite Pete's obvious early mastery of it.  It just
can't be nailed down with dates or witnesses, etc.  We only have the
claims of each party.  But who invented guitar distortion is a matter of
record.  In boardgame terms it was: Mr. Davies, in his room, with the
sewing needle.  Thank you Dave!
	Pete acoustic: Andrew's got an interesting topic.  What other songs
could Pete do live on acoustic.  I personally would like to hear some of
his less heard solo stuff done acoustic in concert.  I'd kill to hear
"My Baby Gives It Away" and "Street In The City" unplugged.  What I'd
prefer not to hear acoustic anymore is acoustic WGFA.  I love this song
probably more than any other rock song, but if ever a tune was meant to
be played strictly electric it's this one.  Unplugging this song is
musical castration.  There are plenty of Who tunes that still rock
without amps, but WGFA was designed to blast you out of your seat. 
Don't turn it into a cute singalong.  It's blasphemous!  Anyway that's
just my opinion.  
	Citywatch and Kevin wrote:
>>>Live at leads
>
>>PLEASE!!! "leads".  Do me a favour.  I hope for your sake this is a
>typo.  A quick lesson:  LEEDS is a city in ENGLAND (you know, the
>country the Who come from), more specifically, the north of England
>(Yorkshire).  Believe it or not, there are more than 2 cities in
>England (i.e. not just London & Liverpool).  You should pay more
>attention in your geography classes.  Do they teach non-North
>American geography there?? I wonder.

>We are regularly treated to studies that show that many Americans
are incapable of finding their own country on a map of the world, so
it is not clear that they teach North American geography either. At
least not successfully.   

My question is, why does a simple typo turn into an American bashing
exercise?  Are you guys being facetious or just plain nasty?  Whatever
geography you both learned was obviously at the expense of your social
skills class. 
- --Leo