Good news in that I think I fixed the computer issue. I've ripped iTunes 7 from my computer's very heart and thrown it to the ground before lighting in on fire. I've installed 6 back on here and everything seems to be running a lot more smoothly. I'd have liked to check out the gapless playback feature, but it's something I can wait for. In any case, I was up late last night assembling the mix, and it's looking pretty good so far. I've got it set up and am combinc a bunch of sources for segues right now. With any luck it'll be up on friday. I'm still trying to find an easier way to host it than sendspace, but right now that's not looking very likely.
Aftre I crawled out of bed this morning for a second time, I was stirring my gallon cup of coffee with a silver spoon. It's not like I have more than one silver spoon, and regrettably, this one was accidentally stolen from the Union League of Philadelphia, but it was something that made me think of The Who's "Substitute". Not really sure why it didn't recall the theme song from "Silver Spoons" (click it. seriously), but I stopped questioning the erratic behavior of my memory a long time ago.
Anyway, my love of The Who predates my love of both the Stones and the Beatles. Back to a time when I thought you could only really like one of those three bands. Of course that's complete bullplop, but I was young and was easily goaded by British music rags. Anyway, The who was probably the first band that I ran out and bought everything I could by (we already owned all of Springsteen's albums, and I'd heard enough shitty Pink Floyd to know that they had pleny of sour moments). and pretty much up until It's Hard before I found a weak spot. That's right, I even liked Face Dances. But that's not the point. I was always so amazed with the band that had more diverse personalities than the Beatles and were still the hooligans that the Stones were always pretending to be. I still love the story Pete Townshend tells about how he basically let Roger Daltrey become the singer of the band because he was terrified of him and thought he'd get beat up f he didn't. The Who is the sum of Pete Townshend's boarding himself up and working out his personality issues, and trying to get over having grown up with a big nose (seriously! read an interview with the man), Roger Daltrey's trying to be seen as an artist and a heartthrob, John Entwhistle being supremely talented and fucked up in the head at the same time, and Keith Moon being completely fucking bananas. I'd tell one of the thousands of Keith Moon stories here, but it seems unfair to tell one without telling all of them. Keith Richards is similar on the breadth of stories about him that make up so much of my conversations, but with Keith it there's a theme of having a sense of honor (strange, I know) and eccentricity. With Moon, there's nothing but complete shenaniganism. I still crack myself up thinking about him living next door to Steve McQueen in Malibu. I don't know, read his Wikipedia page if you're that curious. Someday I'll get to the Keef stories.
Anyway, on to Live At Leeds. It's probably my favorite live album in history, and certainly one that captures a band at their absolute pinnacle of sheer and raw power. They just fucking destroy everything there. I generally skip the live performance of Tommy, because there are about 40 of them widely available on CD. It's still a great version, but after listening to it so many times, you tend to dread hearing it as much as the band dreaded playing it by that point (something like 3 straight years). Anyway, these songs are amongst my favorites, and all of them can only truly be enjoyed at ear-splitting volume. The great story about "Happy Jack is Townshend shouting "I saw ya") at the end of the track when they originally recorded it. The story varies from source to source, but the one I always knew was that while they were recording the harmonies, Keith kept trying to sneak into the studio to sing with them. Since he was known for his godawful singing voice (amply documented on his godawful solo album), they kapt kicking him back out. After some point he just started popping his head up in the recording booth's window and making faces just to make them laugh so they'd have to re-record it. On the take where they finally nailed it (they made Moon lie on the floor), a little head popped up in the corner of the window and Pete pointed it out, "I saw ya!". The damage was done, but the take was too good to give up, so that became the final track and from then on, they had to include the line. Wow, I guess I did tell a Keith Moon story. Whoops. Shit, and I wanted to talk about how ahead if it's time "I'm a Boy" is and how it was related to their later works, but that's for another day maybe. or tonight. We'll see.
Still, to this day it amazes me that this is three people playing instruments here (I know, the voice is an instrument, blah blah blah). It sounds like an army. I can't think of a trio that god that much out of their instruments other than Nirvana. and don't even bring up Cream. Fuck Cream. Yeah, I said it.
"Young Man Blues" (live) - The Who
"Happy Jack" (live) - The Who
"I'm a Boy" (live) - The Who.
Buy the Tommy-less remasterd version of Live at Leeds here.
oh, and in other news, it looks like we've invaded Iran. Smart move, assholes.
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