The Who- 30 Years Of Maximum R&B

[JJ88]

Interesting how this box only had a track each from those two 80s albums. Face Dances in particular has some of the worst music they ever put out. I also can't stand 'Athena' on It's Hard.

[kid_runningfox]

About Townshend's bad playing in 79/80, you remind me of the Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea, which what? December of 79? Anyway, on the double album, The Who are given an entire LP side, and I think three of the four songs made it into the concert film. Anyway, during See Me Feel Me, Townshend mangers to totally lay an egg of a clam filled guitar solo. It's amazing to me that it made it into the official releases (unless the the performance in the rest of the concert was even worse, I've never heard the full set). Th efirst time I saw that, when I was like 10 years old, it gave me the impression that it was commonplace/acceptable for bands to play that badly in front of a paying audience (I guess in a way, it was commonplace, depending on which band you're talking about, which ever era, and exactly which musicians).

I actually love the concert for Kampuchea, even though it has Townshend in full-on pissed arsehole mode. Most of his playing is actually pretty good, bar the odd musical derailment, and the band as a whole has an energy to it that they'd progressively lose over the next couple of years. In his biog, Who Am I, PT says that he actually loved playing with The Who at this point, even though he was beginning to crack under the strain of trying to cope with the guilt of the band continuing post-Moon. Musically, however, he's said it was tremendously liberating to bring in the extra musicians and be able to rely on a drummer who wouldn't go off the deep end, either musically or behaviourally. As to the full set for the concert for Kampuchea, I managed to download a pro-quality video of the full concert from Youtube a while back. Had a quick look and I can't see it. If I can access it via VPN using a UK server I'll post it here.

[kid_runningfox]

Interesting how this box only had a track each from those two 80s albums. Face Dances in particular has some of the worst music they ever put out. I also can't stand 'Athena' on It's Hard.

Funny, I've always seen Face Dances as a much superior album to It's Hard. Not only do I think much of the material on the former is better, but the band at least sounded like they still cared, which they certainly don't on IH.

[JJ88]

^I don't like either to be honest. But I find Face Dances to be horribly over-produced and to have some real howlers like 'Did You Steal My Money'. 'You Better You Bet' and 'Another Tricky Day' are good, the rest is mediocre. The live version of 'The Quiet One' on the CD is good.

It's Hard is of the same calibre but at least sounds better, and I like 'Eminence Front' more than most of Face Dances. It's by far the best track of the time IMHO.

I think a decent album could be made out of the two, but no more than decent. Rolling Stone fawned all over It's Hard on release...very regrettable!

[GuitarGeek]

[QUOTE=JJ88;618498]

^I don't like either to be honest. But I find Face Dances to be horribly over-produced and to have some real howlers like 'Did You Steal My Money'. 'You Better You Bet' and 'Another Tricky Day' are good, the rest is mediocre. The live version of 'The Quiet One' on the CD is good.

For me, it's Another Tricky Day, You, and The Quiet One that make that album. You in particular features some sweet 8 string bass work. You Better You Bet and Don't Let Go The Coat are ok songs, but the rest sounds to me like songs Pete deemed not good enough for his solo records.

It's Hard is of the same calibre but at least sounds better, and I like 'Eminence Front' more than most of Face Dances. It's by far the best track of the time IMHO.

I like Eminence Front, except for that terrible guitar tone Townshend has. I thought the version they used for the video (which was an actual mock live performance, I believe shot and recorded during the tour rehearsals for the 82 tour) was much better, with a much more bitchin' guitar tone.

But there again, for me it's Entwistle's three songs are the best of the bunch. One At A Time in particular is a great rocker. Always thought they should have played that one live. As for Townshend's contributions, Athena and Why Did I Fall For That were both clunkers, but the rest of the songs I think are at least reasonably good.

I think a decent album could be made out of the two

,

Yeah, I agree too. The Entwistle songs alone would make a great half an album. Then if you could remix Eminence Front, giving some girth that anemic guitar tone, throw in I've Known No War, It's Hard, Cry If You Want maybe One Life's Enough, I think that would be a pretty happening record. Maybe not Who's Next quality, but still very enjoyable.

Rolling Stone fawned all over It's Hard on release...very regrettable!

Well, what do you want from tin eared record critics?! I seem to recall they also thought The Final Cut was shit hot too. I could write an entire book, maybe even an encyclopedia listing all the great records that were dissed by either Rolling Stone, Sounds, Melody Maker, or the Enemy...er, I mean, the NME, or any other publication that hired the services of a record critic. And you could probably make up another encyclopedia out of all the loser records that that those same twits thought were amazing.

And let's not forget concert reviews too, those are sometimes pretty stupid too (there's a bunch of them in one of the Pink Floyd books I have...I can't believe some of the stupid thigns some these idiots say about the 70's era Floyd shows they had the privilege of attending)