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| From | Gregory Sager <hochsalzburg@yahoo.com> |
| Subject | Re: Loud criticism of The Who? |
| Date | Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:10:53 -0800 (PST) |
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I agree completely, Michael. I don't have much patience with the idea that rock'n'roll is supposed to be High Art untrammeled by commercialism. Truth is, the Who never held themselves above advertising and commercial concerns; too many people see *The Who Sell Out* as a parodic statement, when it was actually an affectionate homage to pirate radio and the advertising jingles that made pirate radio possible. The Who recorded a commercial for the American Cancer Society in the late '60s ("Little Billy"), and I have no doubt that if they had been asked to record a jingle for the purposes of selling a product in a straightforward deal they would've followed in the wake of other bands such as the Jefferson Airplane and the Chocolate Watchband and done so.
The retroactive licensing that Townshend has given to various automakers and other companies for the Who's music is not an ideological deviation on his part. It's in keeping with who he has always been.
Gregory Sager
> Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:12:51 -0800 (PST)
> From: Michael Myers <mmyers1446@yahoo.com>
> To: audities@smoe.org
> Subject: Re: Loud criticism of The Who?
> Message-ID: <370103.51036.qm@web65611.mail.ac4.yahoo.com>
>
> interesting point..... I guess I'm from the "artists
> have to eat, and they own intellectual property that they
> can license in order to make money to live" school of
> thought... do you feel the same way about authors who sign
> agreements for their books to be turned into movies (that
> may end up being kind of Hollywood-schlocky)
> ? I'm really not trying to be a bear on
> this, but I'm always interested in what is at the heart of
> criticisms like this... I guess another question for
> you is AFTER Pete signed over the rights for Tommy to the
> Broadway producers and was finally able to see what their
> interpretation looked like, do you think he should have
> walked away from the contract if in fact he thought that it
> wasn't, what, rock'n'roll enough? just truly
> curious....
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: "lowtunes@aol.com"
> <lowtunes@aol.com>
> To: audities@smoe.org
> Sent: Fri, February 12, 2010 10:37:18 AM
> Subject: Re: Loud criticism of The Who?
>
>
> My thoughts: It's not that the Who didn't live up to
> "...hope I die before I get old." It's that they DID
> live up to their album entitled "The Who Sell Out".
> Whether it was the Broadway-ization of Tommy (anyone who saw
> it knows what I mean) or selling soft drinks or E-Trade on
> TV, Pete seemed not only to sell out quietly, but with
> relish. That's what eats at me, a long time fan, the
> most.
> Tony
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