Re: More lyrical sparring

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

> > Who really is the Pinball Wizard?
>
>Well Tommy *became* the pinball wizard after defeating the local champ, 
>right?

Tsk, tsk.  It's Pete.  ;)  The deaf, dumb and blind kid that leads the 
masses.  He has this amazing, meaningless gift that people admire, until 
they turn against him in the end.


> > I'd say the music took longer than the lyrics,
>
>Well, here I can prove you wrong.  The lyrics were still being finalized up 
>to the recording.  Pete's demo has:  "Even on my *usual* table....." where 
>the final version has:  "Even on my *favorite* table....."  Slight change, 
>I know, but evidence still
>that tinkering & *care* were going into the lyrics.

You can hear it's a better choice, easier to sing.  But too much of that 
kind of shifting would have spoiled the meaning.  I'll refer back to "How 
Can You Do It Alone," one of my favorite examples of Pete tinkering with 
lyrics.  The live version bonus track is the best cut on the FACE DANCES 
album.  From there, somehow Pete got to the sanitized, eviserated version 
that appears on the original album.  The feel and the meaning are completely 
different once it was intellectualized.  Which of these was more appropriate 
for The Who?

Like I said, there are folks that feel the sanitized, intellectualized 
version is better.  Emotion somehow seems unacceptable in art these days, 
like it's childish, or feminine, and unsuitable for adults.  It's hard to 
find artists that will take the risk to present really touching or painful 
material.


> > For example, there's a noticible difference in polish and complexity 
>between "A Quick One" at Monterey and at the Rock and Roll Circus.
>
>I agree but that's due to *practice* not any thought-out reconstruction of 
>the song.

I suspect they've thought it out.  They've shifted the singing parts and 
come up with some harmonies that seem rehearsed.


> > We also got to hear "Crossroads Now" develop last summer.
> > That was actually a wonderful experience, BTW, to hear it form up out of 
>nothingness.
>
>Slight as it was, you're right, it was nice to see.  A little morsel of 
>creativity.

Not just a little morsel.  I thought that was a major composition on Pete's 
part.  It followed the structure of some other things he's done recently, 
but developed very differently with The Who.  I've got a couple or three 
videos from the tour, and you can hear faint elements of that final 
Manchester version, like little ghosts of it, that Pete plays here and 
there.  Then during the break, they put it all together.


> > We're getting back to the nature of genius here.  When you're a genius, 
>it's there for you.

>I disagree here.  Many "geniuses" in all fields go through periods of great 
>difficulty where they find it hard to create.  Sure they sometimes have 
>flashes of brilliance where creation comes easy, but that's not always the 
>case.

Does it seem that it gets harder as it gets older?  We had that discussion 
here a while back, too, and lots of people seemed to feel it didn't.  It 
does seem that major artists go through periods, and maybe they have to 
shift when they get to a point like that.


>I was thinking more along the lines of the earlier lyrics having more 
>thought put into them & the later lyrics being rushed.

"Eminence Front" and "Baba O'Riley" are pure genius, and anyone who doesn't 
have that gift could think forever without coming up with anything similar.  
This is not something the frontal lobes produce.  It happens deeper down, 
and trying harder or spending more time on it doesn't make it happen any 
faster or any better.

I will agree that it likely takes a while for Pete's ideas to form up and 
then suddenly they click, but I don't think the man sat down and thought, 
"I'm going to write a song.  I'm going to use a work archetype here, and a 
man/woman archetype there and a play on words here at the end," and then 
carefully chose the wording to present these ideas.  He thought, "I'm 
planning a piece where people journey through a wasteland in search of 
oneness with the universe.  I'm a farmer out in the wilderness and I need to 
start off on this journey.  Out here in the fields..."


keets

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