Hi All,
Thank you all for chiming in. In my post to Rabbit's tribute page,I paraphrased what John had said to me which is: I just don't want people to forget who I am. That's obviously not a problem.
I certainly agree that Who's Next and Quadrophenia are the real WHO landmark albums but let's not forget Tommy. It is truly remarkable to listen to these three ablums and hear the difference in John's style and approach to the instrument. While being the anchor on nearly all of Tommy, John peaked his head through the lead instrument door on Who's next with his riffs on Bargain and Won't Get Fooled Again but he literally kicked down the lead door on Quadrophenia. Face it, how many of you put on Quadrophenia for the first time and were lulled into tranquility by the opening track of ocean sounds, rain, faint background singing and finally Roger starting the song acapella then, like a freight train, John hits his first riff in The Real Me....The first time I heard it I just thought, OH MY LORD WHAT HAVE WE HERE!!!!
To date, my personal LIVE favorite is STILL Live at Leeds (yea, ok, they didn't give John the bass break in Substitute but rarly did in those days) but listening to that incredible free-for-all jam on My Generation truly shows how John could fly by the seat of his pants while keeping the other three members of the WHO in line.
Thank again, I'm glad that John is so fondly remembered.
Stoney
PS: For all you 8-string fans, don't forget to listen to Success Story from The Who By Numbers I'm not sure that Pete played anything on that song.