Re: The Who Mailing List Digest V6 #44

["L. Bird" <pkeets@hotmail.com>]

>> I haven't quite made up my mind (it changes with the wind, of 
course), but I may decide this is The Who's best album--based on the 
quality of the actual music, that is
>
>Must disagree strongly with you here. QUAD has the most mature, most
>complex and innovative music Townshend ever did with The Who. Solo, he 
had moments (like The Shout) where he may have excelled, but as far as 
entire albums go...

Have you actually listened to the music behind the lyrics on "Who Are 
You"?  PT continued to develop the structural complexity after Quad.  
It's hard to compare "Who Are You" with the next two albums because the 
sound and the style changed so radically, but by the time 
"Psychoderelict" came out, he seemed to have the complexity and the 
style pretty well integrated again.  It's true that "Who Are You" 
doesn't have the scope Quad does, but the individual songs are easily 
comparable.  I think if I wanted to recommend PT as a composer (rather 
than a songwriter) "Who Are You" might be the album I'd use.  I haven't 
completed any kind of definitive analysis of this idea, but give me 
time...


>> P.S.  I agree--nothing half-assed, and Sister Disco is gorgeous
>
>Nothing "half-assed?" My first impression when I heard WAY was: "Three 
years for THIS???" Since I will leave out the Entwistle songs in this 
debate (although the fact that there are THREE on a single album means 
PT didn't come up with the material!), I'd have to say that Love Is 
Coming Down is certainly "half-assed" compared to other PT songs and New 
Song, as mentioned, deals with a subject better dealt with elsewhere. 
This leaves only four "Who quality" PT songs out of 9. Not a very good 
score for such a great songwriter, at least IMHO.

My impression is that it's an excellent piece of work.  Why, 
specifically, do you think the two songs above are poorly done (other 
than that PT expressed the same idea in more than one way)?  And I like 
JAE's songwriting.  Why does more of his songs reduce the quality of the 
album?

keets


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