(named for that long lost band who recorded "sell out", an ongoing online dialogue between jimmy eight cats and gihyb. geekr'y off the friggin charts)
gihyb wrote:
going back to your idea about artists you don't get, how about we start with an album i don't get? the who "who's next". to me, the who could have been the greatest rock band ever. "tommy" fucked it up. flashes of brilliance everwhere after (and during). townshend remains an amazing presence, and i loved his solo records (well, the 2 relevant ones in the early 80s and alot of quadrophenia), but the who ceased to exist to me once daltrey became (and it was pre ... whatever) robert plant.
jimmy eight cats wrote:
Robert Plant is a thousand times cooler than Daltrey, at least since Zep broke up.
I don't quite hate "Who's Next" as much as you and Jack do("Bargain" is one my favorite Who songs), but for my money it's not only the album that killed the Who, it's the album that launched classic rock, and therefore deserves infamy. Truth be told, for my money you can blame 90% of what went wrong with rock in the seventies on Townsend.
gihyb wrote:
the fact that alison krauss is killing wet dreams everywhere makes bob plant one cool MFer
bargain is a great song ... and i'm sure an argument could be made on some other planet that won't get fooled again has a certain resonance. on a side note, tell me something, what other "important classic" has as big a piece as shit song as my wife? that might be a topic. worst songs on great albums
jimmy eight cats wrote:
The problem with "Who's Next" is that's it's the moment where Pete Townsend starts writing about being a rock star, and worse about being in the Who. You can mostly divide the songs into two categories,the relationship songs-"Love Ain't For Keeping" and "Bargain" and the "I'm the guy who wrote that brilliant rock opera that changed the world and you should listen to me because I'm so much fucking smarter than the average rock star" songs. I think "Behind Blue Eyes" falls into that category. And Entwistle is Flavor Flav. Think about it.
gihyb wrote:
good point on the self-conciousness
i'd say entwistle is more like easy-e (ed. note- going to hell for that un).
3 comments:
Wow, you guys must think I'm a dolt: with the exception of "Love Ain't for Keepin" and the aforementioned "My Wife", that album is as awesome as rock music gets. And while I'm not down w/either of 'em, the above 2 could be considered high quality filler and would probably be hit singles for many a lesser band/songwriter. They're just not Townshend-level quality.
"Baba" and "Fooled"--and "Bargain" to a lesser degree--may have lost their potency due to airplay overkill, but I believe if one were to get zapped a la Men in Black and heard them today for the first time you'd be hard pressed not to rock out. ("The Song is Over" is my fave from Who's Next, btw. Yeah, I can be a wuss sometimes.)
As for "worst songs on great albums" The Beatles 'White Album' has about half a dozen! Ha!
Gotta agree with kj here. Airplay overkill probably has more to do with your lack of enjoyment. It might be hipper to say the NY Dolls albums are better, but you would be wrong.
My Wife is great live and on JAE's solo. It got bogged down on Who's Next although Moon's drumming is..wait for it..masterful.
The only songs on Who's Next I never really embraced were Song is Over and Getting in Tune, although the latter has started to grow on me.
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