Just in time for the 6th annual Final! Tour! Of! The! Who! comes this rather droll analysis of the farewell music tour.
"It's a cheap capitalist ploy is what it is!" Styx guitarist James "JY" Young says with a laugh. Although, he concedes, it's easy for a band to talk itself into retirement. "It's natural to be at the end of a run of shows and think, 'Man, I don't think I can do that again.' "
Styx, currently on tour with Peter Frampton, isn't ready to retire. But when the time comes, the classic rock band will probably bid adieu once, twice, maybe three times, the manager says, tongue firmly in cheek.
It's things like this that have thus far kept me from picking up tickets to see these shows. That, and I'm generally rather happy to see such luminaries as Alabama going off into that good night.
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments
1 - Tom Johnson
I hadn't seen anything about the Who claiming this, or any of the previous tours, were "the last." There was speculation on the last one, due to the obvious loss of Entwistle, but even they said it was unsure - and rightfully so.
As for skipping these shows? Skip Styx, but if you've got a lot of change around, go see the Who - whose 2002 show, which I caught in Las Vegas (comped $300 tickets, baby!) is still one of the best shows I've ever seen.
2 - Casper
Actually, Tom, I can remember a number of their tours over the last decade or so when it was annouced that "this one is the last one." I didn't link to it because it seemed intuitively obvious to me. I'll look it up later when I get home.
3 - Vern Halen
Yeah, but can anyone really think this is THE WHO! Not really, no.
I think The Who should get together with the rest of the Beatles - The Who has no rhythm section, the Beatles' have no guitarists. "Ladies & Gentlemen! Will you please welcome - THE WHOOTLES!"
4 - Lono
speaking of farewell tours, I just saw Eric Clapton play this weekend in Dallas. This is a pretty impressive feat since he 'retired' two years ago. The issue is best handled by the wonderful movie 'Summer School' (which I just did a big piece on two weeks ago) where Shoop's Rolling Stones shirt gets ripped by a goat. His reponse is this "hey man, that was the Stone's first farewell tour back in '78, this is gonna be worth something!"
5 - Tom Johnson
I don't particularly care if it's billed as "The Who" or "Pete & Roger" - it's still a killer show. They'd likely play the same songs as in a Who show anyway. Of course, the tickets might be slightly less expensive, but you know how it would be billed on promotional material - a small font size "Pete Townshend & Roger Daltrey present the music of" and really, really big font "THE WHO." The label doesn't matter . . . the music does, and the performance does. And it is good.
6 - Eric Olsen
good one Vern - the "farewell tour" label is now just another euphemism built in to the marketing. I trust no farewell short of death (and THAT doesn't even do it in the case of groups - they just replace the dear departed. At least The Dead had the decency to change their name.