new Who album coming!

From the Guardian Unlimited article:

I don't believe this has been reported elsewhere, so...

 

I guess for us old farts who were around when Keith and John were still alive its easy to sit up on the top of the mountain and look down on something that will never be again. Lets face it, The 'OO are dead, long live the Who (2) Lets give the young ones a chance to experience a new Album and tour....

 

The Who died right around the release date of "It's Hard" and its first (of many) farewell tours.
Sorry, but R.I.P.

 

It is disgraceful that The Who continued without Doug Sandom.

When should we expect the obligatory "Who's Left" joke on this thread? We've already had the lazy comparison to Paul and Ringo reuniting the Beatles.

 

The new album should be called it's nearly impossible...lol

 

I think they're beyond middle aged
but who cares?!
hope they release it on vinyl

 

Regardless of what you all think, it is still The Who, and I will be there!


Evan

 

Tis true that they have had plenty of "farewell" tours. Quite the publicity stunt often used by the dinosaur bands. This Who fan would prefer to remember them the way they were back in the day and not like this. :thumbsdn:

 

They have had plenty of tours. But how many have actually been billed as "farewell" tours?

 

1982 definitely was for It's Hard.

 

Is Zak back with them? I thought he had flown the coop.

 

That's one...

 

I thought the stadium tour where they started out with the first 10-12 songs from Tommy was one too. What was that: 1992?

 

No, I've said it many times before, but Pete Townshend for all practical purposes IS and WAS the Who, at least after the first pair of albums. Listen to his demos for the band's material on the three Scoop albums, and the demos on Tommy Deluxe. He had everything figured out, down to the detailed arangements and simply showed the others what to play. It was a shock to me when I first heard these demos to realize how little Daltrey, Entwhistle, and Moon actually contributed to the basic sound of the music. They embellished it and gave it more power, but not more than that, except for the songs Entwhistle wrote, of course. Sorry to rain on the parade, folks. I hope Pete does a good record, but this isn't a full scale return as the article says. After this album, there won't be another, unless it's a live concert recording.

 

The brilliant suggested title from another earlier thread was "Who's Left"

 

Thank you for fulfilling my prophecy from message #29.

 

My reaction to the release of Scoop was quite different. To me, it was confirmation that, notwithstanding the brilliance of his work, Townshend demonstrated the enormity of his ego by essentially telling the world exactly what you said in your post: "I AM the Who- listen to my demos." By doing so, he also told it, with remarkable sensitivity, that the remaining members, two of which still alive and kicking, were meaningless, This statement, of course, is belied by anyone who saw the Who during their heyday- each member was integral to the success of the group, a fact confirmed by the artistic and marketplace success of Pete's subsequent classics like Psychoderelict and The Iron Man.
I'll bet that McCartney has a few demos in his drawer that contain drumwork for which Ringo gets credit and guitar solos commonly thought to reflect the artistry of Harrison. That he resisted releasing them to the public, notwithstanding the bitterness of the events of 1968 and on within the group, evidences a humility and sense of respect for his clearly estranged bandmates that Mr. T seems to lack. Anthology would have given him a perfect opportunity to correct the record, as Pete chose to do with Scoop, Volumes 1-3. Notwithstanding his flashes of ego and occasional orneriness in books and interviews and in the McCartney-Lennon dust-up with Yoko, Paul resisted the temptation, which was pretty classy. Mick and Keith also undoubtedly have some interesting tapes that we'll never get to hear that debunk the belief that their other Stones contributed to the band's catalog.
I truly appreciate The Genius of Pete Townshend. Nevertheless, I'll respectfully pass on the reunion. In 1982, Pete told an interviewer from Musician that he was touring with the Who for the money, and the performance that I saw on that tour bore that out. 2002 was pretty much more of the same. I suspect that this upcoming effort will also be for the dough and by the numbers.
I prefer to remember seeing them in the 1960s and 70s. You couldn't take your eyes off of Keith- he was amazing. Daltrey spun around, whipping the microphone like a lariat, while Entwistle just stood off on the left like a rock, ripping off his amazingly melodic bass riffs and Pete windmilled himself across the stage. Sure looked like a collaborative effort to me. You shoulda been there.

 

Zak toured last year with Oasis, and this year he's back on board for the Who activities.

 

I don't understand your point. McCartney's "demos" would have him playing every instrument. That was the point, each member had home equipment to record demos on. Ringo wouldn't stop by to lay a track down, or George a solo.... Most of the early demos are simple piano/acoustic/vocals, with maybe a second vocal or simple percussion overdubbed. The later, more elaborate ones had a bit more overdubbing...the Harrison Birthday Session on 2/69, he plays piano, guitar, bass, simple percussion and vocals. More famous, is Paul's demo of Come And Get It where he is properly credited on Anthology 3 as the sole performer. Of course it's nonsense that they perpetuate the myth that he recorded the entire piece in 30 minutes...but what the heck.

As far as officially released material goes. McCartney plays drums on Back In The USSR and Dear Prudence, both recorded when Ringo temporarily quit the group. He was a one-man band on the short Wild Honey Pie, again uncredited at the time. I agree, that it wasn't commonly known that he played on those songs, but it's also untrue that McCartney overdubbed his own drum tracks, thereby erasing Ringo's after recording sessions were over...didn't happen. He also plays drums on Ballad Of John And Yoko....this time Ringo was filming Magic Christian and was unable to attend this hastily arranged recording session. The only other song I believe he plays drums on, is the group demo of No Reply, on Anthology 1. It sounds like him, Ringo was unavailable due to tonsilitis....and it was recorded after temp drummer Jimmy Nicole "passed his audition" to tour Australia and New Zealand. It's probable that he rattles the tambourine on George's demo of You Know What To Do....recorded at the same session. So I'm not sure what you meant by your opening statement...can you elaborate???

One final thing, McCartney can't release solo demos of Beatles material....unlike Townshend, his contract forbids this....Same reason Yoko couldn't use any of John's Beatle-era demos on his Anthology releases, and why the producers of the Lost Lennon Tapes...had to stop playing them on the show. Townshend's demos are HIS demos, not the groups'....he owns the rights to release them under his own name if and when he so chooses. Ron

 

The performance was collaborative. The writing and basic sound were not. Sure, Townshend is an egotistical arrogant bastard and a rude insensitive a**hole. So what else in new in the rock world? He has even had the nerve in his time to diss the Beatles as not very good and Bob Dylan as silly. I hate him for that, but at the same time the music speaks for itself and the genius can't be denied. But he too has been a spent force for many years now, and he even knows and admits it. So now the reconciliation with Daltrey and the mutual respectfulness is a good thing. Let them play, I'll give it a listen and I wish them the best. Why would you pass on something before you even hear it and give it a chance?

 

Maybe I haven't been paying attention, but it never occurred to me that the Scoop series was an attempt to diminish the other members. I find the entire series to be a very richly rewarding compliment to original releases. I also thought that Pete has frequently stated the importance of the 'oo as musicians and what they added to his songs. I never thought that he trying to show that he could've done it all without the Who and it would've been just as good. I'm sure he also realizes the importance of Entwistle's persona and talent, Daltrey's vocals and stage presence, and Moon's theatrics and personality to the overall group's success and appeal.

I think the better analogy would be the Beach Boys. Sure, Brian had most of the talent and didn't need the others to make the music. BUT, Mike was focus of the band on stage, and all the girls loved Dennis. The Beach Boys were that whole image, not just one guy's songs. Without the other guys, I don't think we'd know who Brian Wilson is. I think the same is true of Townshend and he MUST know that.

 

You're misunderstanding what he said. He doesn't mean that George and Ringo played on Paul's demos. His point is, McCartney could have released demos which proved that he, not George or Ringo, thought up a certain guitar part or a certain drum part, but he never did.

(However, as you say, at that time Paul didn't make detailed demos like Townshend.)

 

As usual, Chief, you say it best. I think the Who were Pete's vehicle for expression - and the main one but not the only one. I think it's significant that we didn't hear any more from the Who when Pete felt he wasn't able to write songs in that vein or for that vehicle anymore. And, he still continued to write good solo material. IMO, it wasn't just a trial baloon for a solo career. It was a different kind of music not appropriate for the Who as a group. He was writing differently, so it had to come out a different way with different collaborators.

The story is very interesting to me and is both similar and different to the Beatles'. The High Numbers and then the Who were originally Daltrey's band, but Pete sort of took over on the strength of his writing and the other members' growing dependence upon it, as their career developed.

In the case of the Beatles it was John Lennon's band. He invited a more musically talented person, Paul McCartney, to join, even though he knew he would have a strong rival within the group. He made his decision to strengthen the band and make the best music possible, rather than to remain the star and focal point. As it turned out, McCartney effectively took over the group after Brian Epstein died, based on his drive, ambition, and aspirations, more than his musical dominance. Because, in fact John and George were potent musical forces equal (John) and becoming nearly equal (George) to Paul. Titanic ego clashes resulted, just as you might predict in a situation like that. But they were more like a democracy than the Who were, of course.

 

Yea, I may have misunderstood his point, but I thought it was important to say that McCartney Beatle-era demos were, for the most part, very simple. Listen to Pete's demos of Tommy, or even earlier one's...his drum parts, bass patterns and vocal inflections were often copied by the others in their studio versions. It doesn't diminish the other Who members contributions whatsoever. Neither does stating that Paul often told Ringo what type of fills to play, Ticket To Ride and Day Tripper for example....this is done in bands all the time. Also it's important to note that Townshend's home demos were quite elaborate, he was bouncing tracks between two reel-to-reel decks and mixing them into stereo as early as 1964!

To my friend Harold, Pete didn't so much diss the Beatles as complain about the twin-track (stereo) albums. He was right!! In comparison, they did sound fairly pedestrian. But Pete was cheeky enough to intimate that the Beatles "quality" was not so great. The vocal-only channel had tons of echo-bleed....the instrumental channel was often poorly balanced, and that dreaded echo-bleed from the vocal channel makes listening difficult at times. I can imagine Pete sitting in his Bulgravia apartment dissecting and analyzing the Beatles stereo records and wondering what all the fuss was about.

Listen carefully to what he says in that early interview segment seen in The Kids Are Alright.... He first says that groups staying away from quality is a good thing. Then after the interviewer questions him about the Beatles having a certain kind of musical quality, he demurs, then softly answers that he and John were listening to a Beatles stereo album (with vocals on one side, and backing tracks on the other) and that without the vocals the backing wasn't that hot,...if I'm hearing him correctly...he says they "aren't flipping loud" Apparently this is a good thing, as he had just stated quality is no good to begin

 

I think Pete looked at demos as much more than just "demos". He seems to regard them as much as a part of his artistry as his non-demo work. I think that as a writer, Pete viewed the writing of a song as writing all the parts too. McCartney went this direction over time, particularly in the late Beatles years, and with Wings. Unfortunately, we don't have many McCartney demos to review, and the ones we have are usually more simple. However, we know that in the past when Paul got to the studio he already had pretty firm ideas about arrangements and parts. My impression is that he has significantly modified this approach over the last 10-15 years.