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Not always .

This has always been one of my favorite pics of Pete.."This Guitar Has Seconds To Live"

Looks like we've been fooled again.

"meet the new boss
same as the old boss"

That's where the "membership stores" like Costco really got going: they could, through a legal fiction, sell at below the set price. When the law changed, they lost (at least some of) their advantages, and quite a few (anyone remember FedCo?) went Tango Uniform. Costco (or, as it was here, Price Club) was one of the survivors.

Well, if the Court votes price fixing back in then I guess a lot of Wally Worlds will turn into Sam's Clubs.

Won't Get Fooled Again

There's nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
...
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

(For those who don't recognise it that's from "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The (Mighty) Who. Very, very apposite on this story I feel...

[...]
If you want to follow me,
you've got to play pinball.
And put in your earplugs
put on your eyeshades
you know where to put the caulk

Hey you getting drunk, so sorry!
I've got you sussed.
Hey you smoking Mother Nature!
This is a bust!
Hey hung up old Mr. Normal,
Don't try to gain my trust!
'Cause you ain't gonna follow me any of those ways
Although you think you must

Guests:
We're not gonna take it
We're not gonna take it
We're not gonna take it
We're not gonna take it

We're not gonna take it
Never did and never will
We're not gonna take it
Gonna break it, gonna shake it,
let's forget it better still

Tommy: Now you can't hear me,
your ears are truly sealed.
You can't speak either,
your mouth is filled.
You can't see nothing,
and pinball completes the scene.
Here comes Uncle Ernie to guide you to
Your very own machine.

Guests:
We're not gonna take it
We're not gonna take it
We're not gonna take it
We're not gonna take it

We're not gonna take it
Never did and never will
Don't want no religion
And as far as we can tell
We ain't gonna take you
Never did and never will
We're not gonna take you
We forsake you
Gonna rape you
Let's forget you better still.
[...]

however, I found this page searching for your lyrics as I've never heard them before... even more amusing given our current discussion context...

I'm not familiar with the smell, but I do know the sound of old T-Rex.

Ah, the logical fallacy of thinking that because that you don't like today's music, it means nobody else does.

Dicto simpliciter? Well first, I didn't say that I didn't like "today's music", but I did say that a lot of it is boring and uninspired. The bands the top the charts are the ones that are easy to promote, i.e. sound like last week's chart toppers. What precentage of "hit music" is actually unique?

This is Slashdot, where people think The Who is still a relevant band.

"I hope I die before I get old" sounds a little funny from someone so damn old, but you know what? This song is particularly relevant today.

If today's music is so crap, why do so many people pirate it?

1) I made no mention of pirating. 2) Just because it is pirated doesn't mean it's not crap. In the hay days of Napster people were downloading & resharing gigabytes of music they never even listened to.

You're implying piracy will go down if they make good music

I made no such implication... but I would be willing to bet that lowering the price of CD's would lower piracy.

So in summation,

1. You've really done nothing but attack me and what you think I perceive as good music.
2. You've ignored half my argument ("it's the price, bung hole").
3. You throw "piracy" around to bolster your arguments, even though (with the exception of CD singles), album purchases have been on the rise for the past couple of years! (as reported and linked from /. more than once).

That's Pete TownsHend

> "Baked beans are off, all we have is SPAM!"

Almost makes you wish we had internet spam back in '67, when the Who released their Sell-Out" album. (See album cover at upper right on that page.)

The Who did it first, with 1967's "The Who Sell Out." The album featured ads (performed by the group) inbetween most of the songs for products like Heinz Baked Beans, Rotosound guitar strings, Odorono, etc.

And here's another mystery monolith that appeared in England a few decades ago, but apparently didn't get a proper stream of respect from its discoverers.

--

The Who's Magic Bus

If i would have known it would be posted on Slashdot I could have pointed you to an article 3 months ago. I keep up on all the Who stuff on Odds and Sods, The Who's Internet fan club.