As it turns out, one more time than I previously thought. Look, it was a silly idea, so much so that my partner sneered "You have so many versions of the same songs," as she rolled her eyes and I forked out yet another lot of money for the DVD above. For 30bucks, you sort of go "well honey, it's $10 per disc and I'll probably never see them live..."Life is full of bad rationalisations. :)
As the years go on, I find it deeply ironic that I was a Japanese kid who grew up in Sydney in the 1980s that happened to like a band that constantly sang about white working class English kids growing up in Post WWII England. Theoretically, I should have had very little in common with the substance of their corpus. Even the kid who introduced me to them back in Year 10 probably doesn't listen to them much now, let alone go out and buy 3 disc-set DVDs. It's life. People move on; I'm the abnormal one who seems stuck on this stuff. What can you do?
The discs are NTSC and 4:3 so really, the picture quality is some what lacking. That's about the first and last disappointment. It's 3 discs, but mostly from 2 different post-Kenny Jones era of The Who. That's right, there is such a thing as a "post-Kenny Jones era" of the Who. A number of drummers have sat in for The Who since the death of Keith Moon, and the most maligned would have been Kenny Jones. Honestly he's actually quite good when you listen to him on 'Face Daces' and 'It's Hard'; it's just that he's decidedly not Keith Moon. With the distance of time, it's quite forgivable. In fact I really like his work on songs like 'You Better You Bet' and 'Another Tricky Day. Kenny was no slouch.
The Tommy disc in the set comes from the 1989 reunion tour in which Simon Phillips (of '801 Live' fame) sat in on drums. This tour yielded the 'Join Together' double live album. The 'Quadrophenia' disc comes from a mid-90s incarnation of The Who featuring Zak Starkey on drums. Yep, that's Ringo's boy who got his first drum kit from Keith Moon - who, amazingly duplicates the entire corpus of Keith Moon's pinnacle work, live. You could say I bought this disc just to see what this incarnation of The Who was like at playing 'Quadrophenia' live, and in all honestly, it's a lot better than I thought.
The third disc consists of them banging out the classic hits 'My Generation' 'Substitute', then a rave up on Won't Get Fooled Again'. Painfully predictable, obstinately obligatory, enduring, endearing and incredibly tired. It's never as good as the version on 'The Kids Are Alright'. Even the most recent studio album featured a bonus live disc with them winding their way through this stuff. Hell is yet another bonus recording of 'Won't Get Fooled Again', but hey, I never, never, never, ever say no.
So 'Quadrophenia', What Gives?
A little bit of historical perspective here... Of all the Who studio albums with Moon on drums, the most difficult to reproduce live for The Who was Quadrophenia. They tried to tour with these songs with taped backings, much as they had done with 'Who's Next', but the tape machines kept breaking down and the frustrated band eventually abandoned the prospect of playing a 'Quadrophenia' show after only a handful of outings. By 1975, the Who stripped down their arrangements back to basics and 'Who By Numbers' is a very stark album in comparison to the preceding two majestic recordings.
Thus, playing 'Quadrophenia' live is one heck of a technical challenge, much more so than 'Tommy'. When you see this DVD, you see just why. Apart from the core 3 members, there are 12 other musicians listed in the credits. PJ Proby and Billy Idol appear as guest vocalists, Pete's younger brother Simon handles the Electric Guitar work, and 3 guys get credits as keyboard players, with a horn section and a percussionist to boot.
Quick impressions: Simon's a daggy player. His guitar playing is really disappointing; so much so I felt "I coulda done better!" - which is not what you want to feel watching it. Zak Starkey on the other hand amazes from start to finish. Every drum fill, every roll, every Moon nuance from the original album is recreated lovingly in his playing. It's actually quite mind-boggling, but there it is, he's like a reincarnation of the man himself.
The music flies along much like the album. The video vignettes explaining the story seem a little redundant if you know the album, but the show was prepared for a largely ignorant American audience so you have to just take it in and ignore the bits you know. After all this time, it seems unlikely there would be Who fans anywhere on the planet that didn't understand their Mod roots, but there you go.
Tommy Can You Sell Me More?
The Tommy disc is less rewarding, partly because these performances are familiar from the 'Join Together' album. As great as Simon Phillips is, he actually doesn't mesh well with The Who. His fills are his own and his feel actually makes the music feel more 'up and down'. Where Zak Starkey recreates the natural ebb and flow, and the swing in Moon's work, Phillips' playing sounds more clinical and uninvolved. Where you expect Moon's fills, you get expert Phillips fills instead and it's quite alienating. The horn section in the 1989 incarnation actually adds a swinging funky feel than the Memphis/R&B feel that John Entwistle had arranged.
Once again, somebody else handles the bulk of the electric guitar work. Steve Bolton is a boring guitar player. He is efficient, clinical and really uninspiring - the opposite qualities to what I find in Pete's own playing. Of all the people they could have hired, why this guy? It's that bland.
I don't know which rock they found him under but it's a good thing he didn't stay. Where Simon Townshend is 'no great shakes', Steve Bolton is 'vanilla'. Well, I don't like my Who songs in vanilla.
I remember being so grateful that any incarnation of The Who were touring back in '89-'90 but over the years, I've come to dislike the 'Join Together' album. It sounded tight and modern for its time, but it hasn't survived the years. The really great live set after 'Who's Last' (It sure wasn't) is actually the 2000 Royal Albert Hall fund-raiser concert. The Tommy disc is therefore a documentation of that era more than anything else.
This all got me to think about how much of The Who's stuff is out there yet to get?
There's 'the Vegas Job' DVD out there yet and I think there's some other DVD doing the rounds. Then there's the boxed set of remastered recordings. I still haven't got 'Who Are You' on CD - I held off on that a while back, and now it's nigh impossible to spot at JB Hi-Fi. I might have to Amazon that one in.
Life goes on. I guess I just keep buying this stuff.
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