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The great debate (By Numbers vs. Who Are You vs. It's Hard)
Hello Fellow Who Freaks,
This is an interesting thread, so I decided to step forward from the ranks
of the lurkers.
It is difficult to compare the three albums for me because the subject
matter between them is so different. Who By Numbers had an underlying theme
of Pete getting older and playing a young man's game, about being a rock
star and trying to please your fans while still trying to sound original,
and Pete's (and John's) discontent with the entire record industry. It
dealt with a business that can chew you up and spit you out as quickly as it
embraced you. It dealt with self-destruction. I think that the lyrics
spoke louder than the music.
Who Are You's underlying theme was about the changing face of music and The
Who's efforts to change with it. I think that, at times, it suffers from
the "Daltrey power vs. Townshend's deep, introspective lyrics" problem that
plagues many Who songs. It doesn't make them bad, but sometimes the
Townshend deomos have more impact because HE was singing HIS lyrics and HE
knew the kind of emotion that HE wanted to express in the songs. Get a copy
of the demos for Who Are You, or listen to Scoop and Another Scoop-you will
understand.
It's Hard was more of a socially conscious collection of songs. It was
Townshend saying "this is my view of the world and the cold war now." The
deep, introspective material wound up on "Chinese Eyes."
Granted, It's Hard cannot compare to Who's next, but it was also a different
Who. It was a 40 year old Townshend vs. a 25 year old Townshend. In 15
years, everyone's views change.
For me, deciding on which album I want to listen to boils down to what I
want to hear them sing ABOUT. The Who made music that forced you to listen.
-Joe
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