Re: Lifehouse

[Rich Bogovich <rbogovich@yahoo.com>]

I had written:

>> it's quite conceivable to me that people could
>> prefer Pete's "Music Must Change" and "Sister 
>> Disco" demos to The Who's versions.  Normally 
>> I'd presume that the involvement of JAE and Moon 
>> would easily tip the scales in favor of full band 
>> treatments--and of course, when a song can benefit 
>> from powerful vocals, as is so often the case, 
>> Roger is unmatched.

And Brian replied:

> Listening to those and some of the other demos, 
> one of the things that struck me was that it 
> isn't that some songs are too personal that makes
> it better when Pete sings them.  "I Don't Even 
> Know Myself" is very personal but it's much better 
> when Roger sings it than Pete.  What I think makes
> the difference is that Roger doesn't do "irony" or 
> "tongue-in-cheek".  

Hmm, a very interesting point.  The first song that
came to mind was "However Much I Booze," which
probably supports your statement.  I couldn't think of
Roger singing ironically, and the closest example that
came to mind of him doing "tongue-in-cheek" is "Now
I'm A Farmer."  Maybe "Melancholia" at the opposite
end of the "tongue-in-cheek" spectrum.  But neither
has deep meaning. 

> He does straight-forward emotion and does it 
> incredibly well.  But when it's a song that has 
> an ambiguous emotional meaning, Pete usually does a
> better job than Roger.  When I hear Pete's "Sister
> Disco" it's hard to tell if he's joking or not. 
> Roger leaves no doubt he isn't joking and that
> strips the song of some of its meaning.

And neither of my examples above are contrary to your
point, either.  I'm trying to think of any of Roger's
solo songs that might apply, but nothing leaps to
mind...

>> so far I consider the 1999 version of Lifehouse 
>> to be a disappointment.  It could grow on me, 
>> however (though I'll always want more music, and 
>> wish The Who's versions could've been> included)...

> From hints Matt Kent's thrown at us on Pete's BBS 
> and hints from Pete's notes it seems that this is 
> how "Lifehouse 1999" was written.  Jeff Young
> came over to Pete's and they had long talks about
> how the plot should go and personal parts of Pete's 
> history (and present circumstances, apparently).
> Then Young went off and wrote a straight play.  
> Pete then shoe-horned the songs into the play.  
> So it appears that Pete had less to do with the
> writing of this than we thought.  As I said on 
> Pete's BBS, I'm just glad to know he had nothing 
> to do with writing the dialogue.  I think the
> dialogue is awful and the acting is not much
> better.

Ah, so just as Ken Russell and Oliver Reed left their
indelible stamps on Tommy...!   : D

Thanks much for shedding light on this, it truly
helps!  Now I can view that 1999 product similar to
how I look upon the Iron Man album project--a less
than satisfying result because Pete was working with
someone else's story.

Rich
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