Saturday Night's All Right

["Jim Sigel" <drjimmy_mrjim@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I listened to a song the other day from The 'Oo that I've always loved, but I
don't know much about the recording of it or why they even recorded it all.
I'm talking about their cover of Elton John's "Saturday Night's All Right For
Fighting", henceforth referred to as "SNARFF" throughout the remainder of this
utterance.  It's a blistering version and one of the few cover songs, from any
band, that is better than the original version in my opinion.  I wondered what
you all think about this particular song, because for me to say that it's
better than Elton's original version, it reeks of my powerful Who-bias.

However, I'm not convinced that it's still biased for me to say that The Who's
version is better because I look at other cover songs by the Who and the
originals still stand up on their own for me.  Take "Summertime Blues" for
example.  Even though I'll always prefer The Who's version, I absolutely love
the original Eddie Cocharan (sp?) tune too.  Or "Shakin' All Over" if you
will.

I think Daltrey blows EJ off the map with his performance of SNARFF, and Pete
and John's contributions are scorching.  I think it's a fantastic cover of the
song, complete with medley.  What I don't know about the song is why they
recorded it.  I know it was for the EJ/BT tribute album, and I know the Who's
connection to EJ, but for a band who doesn't get into the studio very often
(and we all know THAT'S the understatement of the year), it's surprising that
they would come out of "retirement" to record a cover song.  Does anyone know
the background of this recording?  And who played drums?

I think I'm going to go put it on now, as I get ready to perform my civic duty
and go to my second jury duty visit in a week.  I just love those Entwistle
bass runs over the chorus...

Jim in Colorado

PS - Only got to say SNARFF once though.  I like the sound of it - "SNARFF"...
Rolls off the tongue.