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more After the Fire




Considering the points made by Mark, Brian, drjimmy, and Carla:

On Tue, 4 May 1999, Mark R. Leaman wrote:

> Bill:
> 
> All the points you make are true, but we also know how accurate Pete is
> when he does interviews.
> 
Yep, he does exaggerate and distort, and his powers of recall are poor.
I've often wondered why--insecurity?  an active mind that's always racing
from thought to thought?  too many drugs and alcohol over the years?  My
guess is it's a little of each.  With Pete you have to kind of go for the
general meaning and not sweat the details too much.

I wrote:

> >When Pete introduces it during the Deep End concert that was commercially
> >released, he says it's about "what was happening in Ethiopia and Africa
> >being like a fire
> 
Mark wrote:

> That's why he mentions "the sound of a Brixton gun," and Brixton is no
> where near Africa.
> 
I think this is a perfect example of him doing a little distorting in his
concert announcement.  The germination of the song idea was his
conversation with the man about Africa and the Live Aid concert, and he
ended up writing it about Brixton.  He was linking apartheid in Africa
with apartheid in Brixton, to give it a "home town" message that the
London Live Aid audience would relate to.  You know 'Apartheid isn't just
happening in Africa, it's happening right here too!'  The "we're all
living under apartheid" thing that Brian is talking about.


> >I heard a voice askin' "What happens after the fire?"
> 
> What happens after the band breaks up? I believe you'll grant me that The
> Who was easily likened to a fire. A brightly burning fire, no less.
> 
Sure, it's easy to make the whole "After the fire..." chorus about the
Who, or about Keith Moon, as Carla suggests.  The reason I don't think
it's about the Who is that I still don't think the verses have anything to
do with the Who, and it seems unlikely that he would be switching the
meaning back and forth from verse to chorus between The Who and apartheid.
Would Pete really compare something as trivial as his band's breakup with
the humanitarian mission that Live Aid was designed for?  I'll admit
though that Brian makes a good point about the fact that around this time
Pete was on the theme of comparing rock stars to WWII soldiers, so just
maybe....

I don't know if the Matt Dillon thing is a "Gunsmoke" reference, and I
haven't seen "Rumblefish."  I agree with drjimmy, who explained it better
than I, that it's some imagery meant to evoke "Home sweet home," and also
that the "black and white" and "no color in memories" is meant to be some
statement about racism.  Maybe that he grew up in (or near) a racially
diverse neighborhood and therefore learned not to see color.

> 
> >The night is hot and nothing's gonna stop this gang runnin' wild.
> 
> This gang might be Pete sprinting away from the band. "Free at last, free
> at last..."
> 
Hmm, that just seems too far-fetched for me.  I just think it's the
obvious:  a gang of people out rioting in Brixton.

> 
 I'd bet
> they're more popular now than they were in 1982.
> 
What?!?  Mark, go straight to the nearest psychiatric ward! :)  In '82
they were filling football stadiums.  "It's Hard" was top-ten in the U.S.
They were still one of the few most popular bands in the world.  Compared
to then, The Who are not even a blip on the radar screen now.

Take care everybody,

Bill