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Re: Exquisitely Pissed - The Who Game

Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 08:51:42 -0400
From: "Schrade, Scott" <sschrade@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

> 'Tells me how I changed his past' - 'How Many Friends'.

I think it's *path* rather than past. If anyone wants to tell me
> how it's possible to change a person's past, I'm all ears.

Obviously, I thought the line implied that Pete, via his music, had
changed this boy *in the past.*  The boy is telling Pete about his
past, & how Pete affected it.  I don't think Pete wants to imply that
he traveled back in time & redirected the boy.  But it *can* be lit-
erally read that way.  Perhaps Pete could've stated it better.

Path?  Hmmmm....it *could* be path.  It fits.  And makes a bit more
sense while not destroying the meaning of the line.  Gosh, now I want
to go listen to the song & try to figure it out.

Arrgh. Thank goodness I could at least lay my hands on By Number easily. I always thought of it as "past", too. The first time I relistened to it I could think I barely heard an "st" in "pa**", but on relistens it might just have been cymbal, etc. But I remember figuring it out backwards when I first heard the album..."past" because it had to rhyme with "ass". And also, wouldn't Roger have sung "p-ah-th" if it had been "path"?

I go along with Schrade's explanation, above. Granted, it's a bit awkward, but to me that argues that Pete thought up the "is he really just after my ass" line FIRST (you know how he loves to shock us) and then had to come up with a preceding line to set up the rhyme -- and what we have is the best he could do.

Cheers,
--
Alan
"That's unbelievable, if that's true"
   -- Howard Stern, 5/25/00