Re: "What's hard is making it feel hard" P Townshend

["Mark R. Leaman" <mleaman@sccoast.net>]

> My problems were more of a coneptual nature.  Sending The Who our to
attack
> disco was, even then, like using an atom bomb to kill a rabbit.

Brian:

Excellent use of imagery, my lad! Although I must say that given the band's
humor I was willing to accept lessor subjects. I mean, better comment on
Disco (and I will also admit it was nice to have an anti-Disco song period,
although I'm not forgetting Zappa's Disco Boy) than Mama's "squeeze box."

> okay John song and drown it in strings for no apparent reason.

That goes to what I said before, that instead of a "roots-type" (read:
Punk) album, they made more of the music Punk was protesting. Slick,
comfortable Rock music. WAY, with the exception of the title track, is in
no way a dangerous album. Nor an innovative one.

> that was John's 8-string bass.  Here I'm going to be controversial and
say
> that I would like John's later Who songs if he hadn't overkilled them
with

Even the IH tracks? Because I felt they were perfect.

> So for those of you who really dislike Face Dances or Its Hard -- would
> you rather listen to "Heat Wave", "Bucket T", "Barbara Ann", "Silas
> Stingy", "Doctor Doctor", "Cobwebs and Strange", "I Need You", etc.,
> instead of FD/IH tracks?

Phil:

I for one love Silas Stingy and I Need You, don't find DD too bad, and
think The Who's version of Bucket T beats the Hell out of Jan And Dean's. A
car horn solo...brilliant!

> Who By Numbers was another album that took a while to grow on me.  I
> think I bought that studio album last when I was catching up on what
> had come before I was paying attention.  It too grew on me.

I thought it was weak (and it is compared to QUAD) but came to appreciate
it later, when WAY disappointed me and even more when I got it on CD.
Compared to the other albums which came out in 1975, it's quite good. I
also saw that tour, my first live Who experience.
I will say that IMHO WBN was the first album which held no innovation, and
no Who album which followed contributed. That is another of my problems
with it. After QUAD, the band only made good music...not great, influential
music.

> Also, Maybe these albums seem weaker to the masses because the best
material
> was going towards Empty Glass and Chinese Eyes.

Kevin:

Definitely true, although it goes along with Pete's disinterest in the band
at this point.

> symphony.  We've yet to hear instrumentals from The Ox

LB:

It's there an instrumental on Mad Dog? It's been a while since I've played
it, and if you've heard it you know why. I do know there's some Van-Pires
instrumental tracks, but am not sure if they were ever released.

> I know.  My whole, original post wasn't very fair, but hey, we're having
fun !

Scott:

That's true.

> Well done, Mark !  You solved the theorem !!  Wasn't so hard, was it?

What's hard is making it feel hard.

> I just get the feeling that he hadn't quite "settled in" to all of the
songs.

More like he was too drunk to sit still through an entire song. At least,
according to reports.

> His playing sounds as if the songs were still relatively new to him.

Yeah, he'd forgotten hearing them ten minutes earlier!


       Cheers                  ML