Re: A good ol' fashioned debate! Or three?

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

>Of course, the details aren't important because basically it doesn't 
matter how Tommy "got there," he had to be seperate from society in 
order to become Pete's vehicle for social commentary.
>But you raise a point...violence in the story. OK, I agree with 
you...but apart from the killing of the lover (or father if you're 
talking about the movie version), which is the reason for Tom's 
withdrawl, there is none before he becomes deaf dumb and blind. Or am I 
missing a disc?

Not specifically, but think about how the story would play out in 
reality.  If you're going to be at all realistic, personalities aren't 
formed by just one event at one point in time.  It's a lifelong process 
of stimulus and response (though children are more malleable).  I had 
figured the withdrawal as a continuing process based on continuing 
violence.  PT starts the story with the murder and Tommy's reaction, but 
these could be a metaphor for the war and the injuries it dealt (to all 
concerned), making it quite a bit more than just a convenience to get 
into the social commentary. 
  

>> To date, DALTREY is still the best solo album Roger has released
>
>My vote would go to McVICAR.

Good album, but how many times can you let it go around in the cd 
player?


>Townshend's songs, from SO onward at least, have levels and more 
meaning than even he seemed to be aware of. For that matter, even My 
Generation and AAA were more than they appeared on the surface. 
>
>The point is that Pete is an intellectual, and even though I believe at 
times he did his damnest to keep it at bay so he could write some hit 
songs,

Uh-unh.  That's not intellectual.  It monsters right out of the 
subconscious.  The Id is harder to access as you get older, so PT has 
changed to a more meditative, intellectual style, but the work still has 
that same gut-level quality.


>it comes through. And I would never say that Lennon/McCartney
>weren't better music-writers (for the most part; Townshend definitely 
had his moments), and along with that I'd have to say Dylan is the 
greatest of the lyric-writers...but at the same time, I'd declare that 
Peter Townshend was the best at both together, 

You have to put Paul Simon in there somewhere.


>> tears people up.  Remember Carol O'Connor's public statements re his 
son's death and his suit against the drug dealer?  O'Connor says if you 
love 'em, go for it.
>
>But that's blaming the wrong thing.  To paraphrase: "Drugs don't kill 
people; people kill people." 

I'm not sure we understood one another.  O'Connor wasn't talking about 
his lawsuit, but about intervention in his son's life.  He says now that 
he should have locked the kid up. 
 

>Any other idea is ridiculous. Many, MANY
>people have been successful drug-users for decades, contributing to 
society and having happy and useful lives.

And some can't handle it at all.  I'm not sure it's entirely a matter of 
personality, or strength of character, either.  Sensitivity is beginning 
to look like it has to do with receptors in the brain, meaning drugs 
just don't affect everybody the same way.  We don't know quite enough 
about it yet, so it remains a difficult moral choice for the bystanders.  
I'd suspect that when somebody's thrity years old, though, it's too late 
to stop them.

keets



They are unable to publically admit
>this, given the current anti-intellectual climate (the same one which
>allows the GOP to entrap and railroad the President), but it is still a
>fact. Keep in mind that only the failures make the news, and that's a 
very
>small percentage.
>O'Connor was a good actor on AITF, but as a social commentator he shows 
a
>basic lack of understanding. I'd love to ask him why an alcoholic 
(which
>means constantly drunk) can hold a job in this country, but if someone
>smokes a single joint within 60 days (and not on the job but in their
>private life) he/she can be fired on the spot. And no one seems to 
think
>there's anything wrong with this.
>No WONDER there are so many Beatles fans!!!


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