Re: The Who Mailing List Digest V5 #238

[Brian Steven Cady <cadyb@mindspring.com>]

At 10:42 AM 10/15/98 -0400, Michael wrote:
>Ray Davies has made quite a few statements over the last fifteen years
>which show to be a bitter old man.  He went as far as to state publicly
>that he was angry that other "big name groups" of the Kinks' era were
>playing stadium tours (this was in the late eighties), while the Kinks were
>playing 3000 seat shows (and not selling out).  I know many Who fans that
>appreciate the Kinks, but they also recognize that they are several worlds
>away from the Who.  Ray Davies is probably bitter that the Who can pull off
>a stadium tour of Tommy almost 20 years after its release.  Obviously, it
>was not soon forgotten.

Yes, both Ray and Dave Davies are a bit upset that the Who's two rock
operas did so well while their works remain cult items and they bank
everything on thinking that if only they had gotten "Arthur" out a few
months earlier they would have beaten "Tommy."

Admittedly, I love the Kinks' work.  It's very different from the Who, much
drier and ironic and wittier, but I have no doubt that had "Arthur" had
come out earlier than "Tommy," "Arthur" would still be a cult album and
"Tommy" would still be considered "the first great rock opera."  I think
Ray put it best when he said, in reference to his failed "Arthur" single
"Shangri-La," that "pinball" is a better word in a pop song than "lavatories."

Still his works are very good and I, for one, prefer "Lola vs. Powerman" to
the similarly-themed "PsychoDerelict."

The Who, by the way, have been very gracious about this.  Pete always says
The Who ripped-off some of their sound from The Kinks, has always freely
admitted that "I Can't Explain" was a Kinks ripoff and the one time that
The Kinks opened for The Who in 1969, The Who treated them with great respect.

Oh, and I still think that "Who'll Be The Next In Line" was written as a
message to Shel Talmy about his production of The Who's "I Can't Explain."
"(The) Who'll be the next in line,
(The) Who'll be the next for heartache,
(The) Who'll make the same mistake I made over you."

And indeed they did.

>Quadrophenia was the favorite album of more than a dozen of us.  There is
>and will always be a demand for more than 3 minute singles.

Not if modern rock critics can do anything about it.

			-Brian in Atlanta