Re: Drinking with Rick James

["Jim M" <petenotped@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin O'Neal"

> Hey, you talkin' to me, or you talkin to Mark?

You.  Scott, too.

> Good.  Then, you also have to admit that with Pete's solo career taking
off,
> it generated much interest in The Who at the time.

I never said there wasn't.  Just not the most *ever*.

> And (here comes potential for tangent thread), IMO had Pete not been
> throwing a tantrum at the time, he, from a business and career standpoint
> could have really used the two to continue to increase interest in both.
> Instead, he sabotaged The Who, the vehicle that even *gave* him the
> opportunity to go solo.
> And, as a result, both ended up floundering.

Yes, PLEASE, can we move off in a tangent.  *Any* tangent.

Personally, and I've said this before, I really value Pete's solo albums.  I
think they're better than what we likely would have gotten from The Who in
that period, frankly.  We did miss lots of potential Who tours, though.
But, with Pete totally fed up with touring and his hearing problems forcing
him to compromise his playing, would that have really been what we would
have wanted.  I can see why you'd be angry, but I'd rather embrace the
wonderful music Pete made outside of The Who.

> (ouch, where did that long surprised anger come from?)

Supressed?

> Ok, there are clearly two sides to this debate.

And they're not that far apart.  Either '79-'82 surpasses '69-'72 in
popularity, or it falls just short.  Hardly as divided as, say, the Arabs
and Israelis!

> Obviously if one tour is completely sold out, than that would have to be
> taken into consideration.

Weren't they?

> >But, did the people who bought the albums actually *like* the albums.
>
> Irrelevant for purposes of comparison.
> Both eras could fall subject to that.

Huh?  You're not actually suggesting that people who bought Face Dances and
It's Hard may have *liked* them as well as people who bought Tommy and Who's
Next, are you?   I contend that a good many people bought those albums and
went to those tours, even though they didn't like what the band was doing as
much as they used to.  I bought a bunch of albums when CDs first came out
that I stopped listening to very shortly thereafter (hello, Steel Wheels and
Dirty Work).

Maybe we should take a step back and define the word popular.  I interpreted
the discussion as relating to this definition (again, m-w.com): "commonly
liked or approved <a very popular girl>"  You and Scott seem to be defining
it some other way.

What did Jon say again?  They spent their popularity capital.  That's
exactly what happened.

> Pass the chips.

Munchies?

 >Me too! CHART RATINGS, LP SALES, size of venues.
>
> Ummmm, JIM!

Yes?  Oh, I see, you're suggesting that because Mark and I disagree on this
point, that it means our shared opinion about which era was The Who's peak
is wrong, is that it?

You do understand that we're two people, right?

Jim M