punctuation debate; Face Dances

[William Spencer Watson <wswatson@indiana.edu>]

Alan wrote:

> > I think "may I be matched with you again" is punctuated by a "." not a "?";
> > it's a prayer, not a question, like "may God bless us every one" shouldn't
> > have a question mark.  Anyone else care to weigh in?

Mark wrote:
> 
> Alan:
> 
> In context with the rest of the song, my thinking is a question mark.
> It's more like a plea: "I know the match is bad, but God help me..." I
> don't think "God help me" would be here IN THIS WAY if it was prayer.
> Besides, while the Big G may be with us every day...I don't know about
> going out to eat and the other elements of the song...

I checked the lyrics on the album sleeve and there is no punctuation.
After singing it to myself a few times I came to this conclusion:  it
makes no difference whether a period or a question mark is used.  The
meaning is not significantly altered switching from one to the other.  If
anything I might be tempted to use an exclamation point!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

> 
> >  So, what's wrong with FACE DANCES ?

Mark wrote:
> 
> Derick:
> 
> The writing is among the weakest of Pete's career, he was trying to take
> the band to a more "Pop" sound, Kenny Jones is merely a good drummer,
> Pete seems to have misplaced his guitar on most of the songs...
> It's not bad compared to other bands, but for The Who it's one of the
> worst IMHO. AQO would be the other. The Who just don't do Pop well, I
> guess.
> 
I agree with most of this.  "Cache Cache," "Did You Steal My Money," "How
Can You Do It Alone" and maybe "Daily Records" are all pretty weak by Who
standards.  I sort of like the spare guitar sound but the drums are poorly
produced and poorly played.  Kenny has always struck me as sounding so
stiff, though I do think he sometimes sounded pretty good live.  I also
think AQO is one of the slighter albums.  Hell, I'll just rank them all
right now, the ten proper studio albums from best to worst:

1. Quadrophenia
2. Who's Next
3. Tommy
4. The Who by Numbers (always the most underrated)
5. My Generation
6. Who Are You
7. The Who Sell Out (I bet most of you would have this higher)
8. Face Dances (but it's my favorite album cover!)
9. It's Hard (plenty of decent songs, it's the production that's crap)
10. A Quick One (not enough good songs)

Anybody know what happened to Rabbit in '82 and why the temporary switch
to Tim Gorman?  I never liked that cheesy It's Hard-era synthesizer
sound....The best thing about The Who is that all of these albums are
good, even the last few.  

Bill Watson