Reviews Roundup - Pete Townshend

The Townshend Legacy 

Overview by Matthew Anthony Allair

    Song writer, guitarist and co lead singer of The Who, Pete Townshend is probably one of the most important figures from the 60s through the early 90s. Along with Bob Dylan, and Ray Davies, Pete didn’t have a McCartney for his Lennon, or a Jagger for his Richards, he mostly depended on himself, and as much as The Who’s John Entwistle wrote a number of songs, Pete was pretty much the creative driving force of The Who as far as content. In fact, he was so prolific that Townshend would sit on home demos away from The Who for his own uses. The trauma that Townshend faced with past managers Chris Stamp, and especially Kit Lambert, and with their disfunction as managers, helped seal the fate of his eighty's decisions. In spite of Bill Curbishley's role with The Who, Townshend mostly made the management decisions for his solo career. It was difficult enough that The Who themselves had been full of trauma. He didn't need anything else to add to his addiction issues. So, he started anew.  

    Pete’s writing just didn’t extend into some of the most insightful and incisive songs of the 60s, he wrote instrumentals, orchestral, and pure creative experiments that would carry over to his solo work. Some of Pete’s early solo albums were as much ‘accidental solo albums’, I could argue as the first two Phil Collins solo albums were ‘accidental solo’ albums. After a period, Pete would take longer and longer gaps between solo releases until he rejoined with Roger Daltrey to put over several albums under The Who banner, with Endless Wire and The Who.

    Yet much of Townshend’s solo work is fascinating, his evolution as a keyboardist, piano player, and guitarist, post Who, is notable. Some have argued that by 1980, Townshend started to save his best songs for his solo work, and while his solo catalogue is smaller, he has been prolific creatively.

Who Came First (1972)

    Pete’s first unofficial yet 'official' solo album came about due to a set of circumstances that that to do with bootlegs. Pete was signed to Track Records, and due to his devotion to Meher Baba, he had contributed tracks to two tribute albums to the guru, Happy Birthday and I Am. When inferior copies were circulated in the US, Decca asked Pete for permission to release the recordings, but Pete had other ideas, two songs from those tribute albums would be included, and tracks from the abandoned Lifehouse project. Those three Lifehouse songs were “Pure and Easy, Time Is Passing” and “Nothing Is Everything (Let’s See Action)”. The tracks from the Tribute albums were “Contact, Evolution” along with “Forever’s Not Time At All” and “Parvardigar” The remaining tracks were “Sheraton Gibson” and the other cover “There’s A Heartache Following Me”. The story about the album is more complicated when you consider the six bonus tracks added from the Ryko Records reissue in 1992, as well as the three remaining bonus tracks added in the Hip-O release from 2006. Those added tracks included “His Hands, The Seeker, Day Of Silence, The Love Man, Lantern Cabin, Mary Jane, I Always Say”, and the Cole Porter cover “Begin The Beguine”

    Regarding the Lifehouse recordings, Pete’s drums and bass are pretty basic, he wasn’t going to compete with Moon and Entwistle – part of his genius was always letting them put their own creative stamp in that band. Often the Daltrey vocals added more power, for example, to “Nothing Is Everything” solo recording. “Evolution” is a Ronnie Lane song that Pete contributed to – this wouldn’t be the first time they would work together. “Sheraton Gibson” has remained the most remembered and celebrated track from this period. Regarding the bonus tracks, there’s an undeniable charm to songs like “Sleeping Dog” and others. Of course, “Nothing” and “The Seeker” were recorded by The Who and released as singles, this was just his take.

Rough Mix (1977)

    Former Faces bass player, songwriter Ronnie Lane had originally wanted Townshend to produce his solo project and it turned into a collaboration. Yet Glyn Johns was brought in to produce it. During the period between The Who’s By Numbers record and before Who Are You and the record developed in earnest with an all-star cast of side players. Lane and Townshend played, guitars, mandolins, banjos, bass, ukuleles and vocals. Pete and Ronnie seemed to have a creative sympatico in the late 70s, and there is often a light feeling on many tracks. The title track and instrumental was co-written by Lane and Townshend. The bulk of the songs would be sung by the writer. Some of the all-star players included Eric Clapton, John Entwhisle, Mel Collins, Ian Stewart, Charlie Watts, with support from players like John “Rabbit” Bundrick, Boz Burrell, Henry Spinetti and Peter Hope Evans. Pete’s primary songs were “My Baby Gives It Away, Keep Me Turning, Heart To Hang Onto” and the two most known tracks “Misunderstood” and “Street In The City”. Pete did trade some lead vocal lines on a few Lane numbers. “Misunderstood” has a certain unique whimsy, and “Street In The City” has a certain lush introspection in the arrangement, and it’s not the last time he would work with arranger Ed Ashley. 

Empty Glass (1980)

    After Keith Moon passed, The Who were facing their embers, they soldiered on with Kenny Jones, another Faces alumni, but Townshend must have sensed the diminishing returns for the band, as I previously suggested, some would feel Pete was holding back his better songs for himself. In many respects Empty Glass was a tour de force and a massive hit. Chris Thomas, an alumnus of George Martin, was brought in to Produce. Musicians like John “Rabbitt” Bundrick, Tony Butler, Simon Philips, Kenny Jones and Peter Hope Evans were brought in, while Pete handled the guitars and many keyboard parts. The album loosely explored themes of the loss of friends, alcoholism, drugs and relationship problems. His self-reflection and self-confession had started as far back as 1975, but it was far more evolved by this point. 

    The opening track, “Rough Boys” was a shot across the bow that he hadn’t lost his edge with its cluster of horns at the end, it was the second hit after the significant “Let My Love Open The Door” became massive single. “And I Moved” was originally written for Bette Midler, who passed on it, but it raised eyebrows with some over the question if Pete was Bisexual. The excellent “I Am An Animal” was another type of confessional. “A Little Is Enough” would be another single, as well as the whimsy of “Keep On Working” Certainly, the group of “Boys, Animal, Moved” and “Open The Door” demonstrated a new range to Townshend. The title track, “Empty Glass” was another spry guitar number with interesting shifts. It also had other lively numbers like “Jools and Jim, Cats In The Cupboard”, and the pop rock blues of “Gonna Get Ya”. “Cats” features some great organ work in the mix. Pete sounded liberated on the album, and it would be the start of more bold risks.

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All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes (1982)

    The follow up to Empty Glass triggered a significant amount of critical controversy, which we will get into in a moment. Once again, it was Produced by Chris Thomas and retained some of the same players as the prior album, Tony Butler, Simon Phillips, Mark Brzezzicki, Peter Hope Evans and new faces like Virginia Astley. Pete played all guitars and synths like the Prophet, ARP and Synclavier. Some of the material were tracks not used by The Who, but it also reflected a willingness to be influenced by the new wave scene. There has been hints of this influence on Empty Glass, but it was more pronounced here. Pete might have been listening to the Stadium rock trends that were ubiquitous.

    In the same declaration of intent, the album opens with “Stop Hurting People”, a partly spoken tone poem with a musically rich chorus, bridge and ending section. The keyboards with guitars feel fuller, and the track hints at a more orchestral sound for the album. The great “The Sea Refuses No River” opens with a slow burn yet with a clever Harmonica line. The drums and percussion is far more inventive on the first two tracks. The lovely “Prelude” features piano, synths, acoustic guitar and a simple vocal that leaves the mental image of an old man lamenting the work. The spry “Face Dances Pt 2” is the most up number as it was the single and reached the top 20. “Exquisitely Bored” begins as a folk blues that is insightful about human nature, yet also manages a Reggae feel in places. The second half opens with a few more experimental numbers, “Communication” could have been a throw back to The Who, with another tone poem, the track has a similar feel to The Who's "Cry If You Want" from that very year. “Stardom In Action” is idiosyncratic yet lively, the same is true with the new wave feel of “Uniforms (Corp D’Esprit)”, the playful, yet insightful “North Country Girl” plays like a memory. The excellent “Somebody Saved Me” feels like a self-confession. The closer “Slit Skirts” is the most remembered track and the most likely single, the Joni Mitchell influence is hard to miss on the track. The maturity and honesty of the record makes this one fascinating. 

Scoop (1983)

    If you want to see a bold move, the compilation of Scoop would have been a surprise after his second album. Complied by the alias ‘Spike’ Producer Helen Wilkins put together this collection that featured home recording and demo material from as far back as 1965 featured such future Who numbers as “So Sad About Us, Squeeze Box,” Piano from “Quadrophenia” as well as “Bargain” and “Behind Blue Eyes, Circles, Magic Bus, Cache, Cache” and “Love, Reign O’er Me”. A lot of the experimental material was fascinating as well, “Brrr” “Zelda, Politician, Dirty Water” a Piano vamp on “Tipperary”, and such tracks as “Melancholia, Things Have Changed”, and “Popular” which was re-written as “It’s Hard” on the Who album, the moody “Initial Machine Experiments” from a Yamaha CS-80, “Body Language” was another similar voice experimentation from the Chinese Eyes sessions. “You’re So Clever” was another electro track submitted for Bette Midler. After the country dobro of “Cookin’”. The last half couldn’t have been more audacious in it’s range, “Mary” was a lovely ballad from the abandoned Lifehouse sessions. After the noddle of “Recorders”, you had the psychedelic feel of “Goin’ Fishin’, a clear nod to Brian Wilsom, then the jazzy “To Barney Kessell” and the playful “You Came Back”, even absent drums – it was a delight.

The album featured extensive liner notes from Mr. Townshend that offered a glimpse into his creative process. This would not be the first of these compilations, but the generous offering must have been interesting as a next release. Pete almost played just about everything on these recording, including bass and drums with a few notations. What makes the recordings so inspiring is that Townshend isn’t just recording demos, he is often using the technology to experiment with audio effects or microphone positions to leave the listener with an immersive experience, there’s real artistry within the craft.

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White City (A Novel) (1985)

    His next album had a loose narrative within a number of the songs that takes place in a low income West district of White City and a circle of youth struggling with survival and their dreams as well as racial tensions. The accompanying film directed by Richard Lowenstein about an aging rock star with concerns about South African Apartheid that does a charity concert for his former neighborhood growing up. All of this is where the ‘novel’ idea applies, but the album works as a standalone full of great songs. Townshend managed to release three singles from the album “Face The Face, Give Blood” and Secondhand Love”. Once again the album was produced by Chris Thomas. Some newer faces supported Pete on the project. David Gilmour played guitar on “Give Blood” and guitar on the co-written “White City Fighting”. Once again, John “Rabbit” Bundrick, Tony Butler, Mark Brzezicki, Simon Philips, Peter Hope Evans returned along with Pino Palladino, Phil Chen and Clem Burke. Pete just played Guitar.

    The opener, “Give Blood” has some powerful guitar work from Gilmour, and was a plea for non-violence and world peace, it was also a top five single in America. “Face The Face” was the other top 30 single in the US, a modern yet retro swing number with horns that reconnected with Pete’s father’s big band jazz background. The bright and poppy “Brilliant Blues” managed to be reflective about maturing. Pete might be one of the rare rockstars from the 60s who realized he needed to grow up. The poppy “Hiding Out” manages to have a world music influence. The driving blues of “Secondhand Love” had an updated edge and released as another single. The edgy “Crashing By Design” had the most pop new wave feel on the album. The lovely, and partly acoustic “I Am Secure” is deceptive,  it opens with a heavy two chord groove before it shifts to the proper acoustic song. The aforementioned “White City Fighting” has a compelling guitar figure by Gilmour before it becomes lively. A reflection that the character childhood life wasn’t rosy as was remembered. Pete also adds some great extra lead guitar in the last half. The closer “Come To Mama” has a slow, instrumental build before coming to life in the second half with the vocal. A surprisingly solid album, and not surprisingly it did well.

Deep End, Live! (1986)

    Pete assembled a stellar band to promote White City, and did a series of charity concerts, and his appearance Brixton Academy in late 85, it was a mix of solo material, Who classics and various covers. Aside from Pete on guitar and vocals, it featured Gilmour on guitar, Simon Phillips, Chucho Merchan, once again John “Rabbitt” Bundrick, Jody Linscott, Peter Hope Evans, and the Kick Horns of Simon C. Clarke, Tim Sanders, and Roddy Lorimer. The show held a high quality and vibrancy. The track “After The Fire” was a Townshend original that featured on Roger Daltrey’s Under A Raging Moon. The numbers by the Who were “Behind Blue Eyes, I’m One, Pinball Wizard” and on the extended issue, “Magic Bus, Won’t Get Fooled Again” The covers included a new take on “Eyesight To The Blind” The solo tracks included, “Stop Hurting People” and “A Little Is Enough”, the other covers new takes on “I Put A Spell On You, Save It For Later” and “Barefootin’”. Much of Gilmour’s input is supportive but he has his moments in the spotlight and virtuoso Evans has a few moments to shine. There’s a certain freedom and interplay within the band. The live “Save It For Later” differs from the studio take that was included as a ‘b’ side. In later interviews Townshend would comment about his ambivalence about performing live yet the feel of the material has a fun, spry spirit and worth a listen. 

Another Scoop (1987)

    Sales from the first Scoop compilation must have done well enough to justify another two disc collection, of course, Pete had already reached iconic stature at this juncture, so that helped. Producer Helen Wilkins came back to oversee the project. Once again, it featured a wealth of demos for who material. “You Better You Bet, Pinball Wizard, Happy Jack, Substitute, Long Live Rock, La-La-La Lies, Christmas, Pictures Of Lily, Don’t Let Go The Coat, The Kids Are Alright” and “Call Me Lighting”, a drum less track that has some good guitar, bass, and decent guitar leads for 64. But the most impressive aspect is the originals, many from his home studios, and others are proper sessions with an orchestra that were shelved. To Begin with, there’s the incredible piano ballad “Brooklin Kids” and the acoustic “Praying The Game” from 78,  all arranged by Ted Ashley, the idiosyncratic “Football Fugue” or the evocative “The Ferryman”, three tracks that were shelved and one is puzzled as to why. 

    Just looking at the instrumental synth material. “Prelude: #556” sounds like an outtake from Vangelis ‘Blade Runner’, technically, “Prelude: The Right To Write” as an orchestral synth piece that was impressively put together. The moody “Baroque Ippanese” is a light electro percussion and synth piece, and “Cat Scratch” is a complex blend of electric percussion and random synth patters that is evocative. “Ask Yourself” is an adventurous instrumental and vocal that harkens back to ‘Eminence Front’, that takes a surprise shift. The vocal cover of Porter’s “Begin The Beguine” is lovely, and he even took a stab at a Sinatra flavored number with “Never Ask Me”. The laid back “The Shout” with light percussion, acoustic and Piano was an interesting summation of where he was before 85. The poppy “Girl In A Suitcase” may be a little out of his range vocally, but quite good.

The range makes this an impressive collection. 

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The Iron Man (1989)

    This is more a full project collaboration than a Townshend solo album, the project was inspired by his interest in the Ted Hughes tale of the same name from the late 60s and he wanted to build a narrative concept. A noble idea that featured an all star cast of singers and musicians. The first thing that was notable is the addition of Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle under the banner of The Who, for two songs. Plus the appearance of a blues legend like John Lee Hooker on several tracks or jazz piano legend Nina Simone on a track. Other songs featured Simon Townshend and Deborah Conway. Aside from Pete other musicians were Simon Phillips, Charlie Morgan, Chucho Merchan, John “Rabbitt” Bundrick, Peter Beachill, John Barkley, Patrick Clabzrv, and Pat Halling. 

    The premise is fairly straightforward, a Giant metal robot rises from the oceans, settles on a beach and befriends a boy named Hogarth, who after being frightened befriends the bemouth . Hogarth witnesses the machine fall, shatter, then put itself together again, before heading back to the sea, in a panic the boy runs, and later finds the Iron Man eating whatever scrap metal he finds. The boy runs to his father and the local farming community digs a hole and try’s to trap, but the machine isn’t tricked. The boy has to lure him into the trap with a metal bribe. After which the boy feels guilt after he starts to develop a connection with the metal man. The machine is freed and Hogarth leads him to a scrap metal yard. The machine starts to deal with waste problems. At the start of the tale, there has been a star in the horizon the grows closer, it is a massive space dragon that lands in Australia, nearly covering the continent, it demands living things to eat or it will destroy the planet. Globally military efforts fail and Hogarth asks the metal man to be their champion, and he agrees.  They face each other in the ordeal of a challenge by fire. The dragon gives up, and it is learned he was attracted to the negative things on earth, the dragon’s original purpose was the create celestial music, the creature is sent back into space and the Iron Man becomes a hero.

    With some of the more abstract ideas in the second half of the tale, it makes sense that Townshend would be attracted to it. Many of Townshend’s songs have a philosophical bent to them on the project. Most of Pete’s solo vocal tracks are  “I Won’t Run Any More, A Friend Is A Friend, Was There Life,” and “A Fool Says…” John Lee Hooker’s vocals are “Over The Top, I Eat Heavy Metal:” The Who perform “Dig” and “Fire”. Simon Townshend sings “Man Machines”, and Nina Simone performs “Fast Food”, there’s also the more ensemble of “All Shall Be Well” and “New Life / Reprise” with Townshend, Deborah Conway, Chyna, Nicola Emmanual. “Fire” is a cover of an Authur Brown song, and it’s a little heavy handed with the standard 80s production. The album is strongest with the more introspective songs sung by Pete. In many respects, the idea of the album reminds me of the 1969 Jesus Christ Superstar album that acted as a template for the later Broadway show – well get back to that in a moment. Yet the absence of Producers Chris Thomas or Glyn Johns was notable as Townshend was the producer. There was a lack of quality control that the sure hand of an outside producer could have helped with. The album was reviewed poorly as people didn’t understand it. But stage musicals were on the way for both Tommy and this project.

    The concept paid off as a theatrical staged version debuted at the Young Vic in late 1993 and ran for several months. The story didn’t end there as Hollywood decided in 1994 to develop the story for an animated feature. While Townshend’s work wasn’t used in the finished film, The Iron Giant, directed by Brad Bird, and written by Tim McCanlies, was Executive Produced by Townshend, and became highly regarded as an animated film. 

Psychoderelict (1993)

    What’s interesting about the bulk of Pete’s solo work is that he wasn’t doing concept records for most of it. There may have been general themes, but most were individual songs. It makes it fascinating that he went back to the narrative concept, and while The Iron Man may have seemed a focused outlier, he had committed to this approach with this album. Two versions of this album was released, the full narrative scope and a ‘songs only’ release. It was structured more like a radio play, and while it doesn’t reach the heights of  Quadrophenia, it does share a similar ambition. The album was produced by Townshend and it faces the same issue as the prior album, it needed a Chris Thomas or Glyn Johns to exert the extra quality control, but indeed there’s a greater focus than on the prior album, just a few choices drop the result down. 

    Aside from Townshend, the album featured many of the standard players, Bundrick, Brzezicki, Hope-Evans, members of the Kick horns, and a wide roster of musicians, singers and voice actors that helped the project along. Some of the guitar work doesn’t sound characteristic as Townshend wasn’t the only player, as Phil Palmer and Billy Nichols did play on the album. Perhaps this was done to compete with the popularity of alternative rock players at the time, hard to say. I had to listen to the music only version as well as the full album to access it.  The story has to do with an aging rock star with addiction issues, named Ray High, who get’s cynically used by his manager and a critic to revive his career, and bring back a long abandoned project to keep his relevance, in the process Ray gets entangled with a underage girl*, actually the critic, a teen, and that leads to murky  and questionable waters. In time, the critic takes credit for a hit song Ray wrote. 

    “English Boy” is the strongest cut on the album and not surprised it was the single.  “Let’s Get Pretentious” is the second best number. “Meher Baba M3 and M4” as instrumentals take nods to Who’s Next and Who Are You. “Early Morning Dreams” has some nice vocal harmonies, “I Want That Thing” opens with some in depth keyboard work before it edges into a 60s nod. Some light drums and bass drives “Outlive The Dinosaur” along with some funky acoustic. Some gothic organ leans into the laidback “Now And Then”, it features a strong chorus, The pop leaning “I Am Afraid” is pensive, but some great bass work anchors this. A false start sets up the up-tempo “Don’t Try To Make Me Real”. The next number, the laid back blues of “Predictable”  has some nice harmonies. The heavy and up-tempo “Flame” features another great lead vocalist. The keyboards of “Meher Baba M5” take a variation of the accordion from “Squeeze Box” with some clever over lapping synths. The closer takes a nod to 60s 12-string electric with “Fake it”. 

    If anything, the narrative helps take away from some good songs, the same problem would face David Bowie with Outside two years later. 

Scoop 3 (2001)

    The third, and allegedly, final of the two disc compilations of demos and released recording, The album was released and offered directly from his website, seemingly to by- pass record label issues Many of the songs were from The Who, “The Real Me, No Way Out (However Much I Booze), Sea And Sand, Eminence Front, Did You Steal My Money? How Can You Do It Alone,” Or “Theresa (Athena)” or “Variations on Dirty Jobs” or cuts from his solo albums. The German version of “Parvardigar”, “I Am Afraid, Tough Boys, Iron Man Recitative, Outlive The Dinosaur, Man and Machines, It’s In Ya”.

    Often it is the unreleased material that has been delightful, another acoustic version of “Dirty War”, another track from the White City, “Commonwealth Boys”, a number with a driving beat, guitar and piano and an ‘outside’ piano section. “Theme 15, 16 and 17” is a variation on a synth instrumental, curious, but not essential. The acoustic “Marty Robbins” is a plaintive and lovely little number. “I Like It The Way It Is” is from the same 78 Ted Ashley session, a self-admission of a man who doesn’t want to change his habits, more stunning work. “Collings” is another acoustic number. At times Pete is a vastly underrated acoustic player. The self-explanatory “971104 Arpeggio Piano” is a vibrant, digital piano and synthesizer sort of prelude. “Maxims For Lunch” is an electronic blues pop, and guitar, that has a certain whimsey, painting a picture of a slice of life moment. “Wistful” is another acoustic blues number with a few nice Jazz dynamics. “Lonely Words” sounds like a polished, country flavored ballad with some nice organ work. 

    “Prelude 970519” is a nice and brief Piano synth piece. The Synth string based “Iron Man Recitative” is another song narrative that retains the child like quality of the tale. “All Lovers Are Deranged” is a very different version from the David Gilmour take from his About Face album, this is far more pop and melodic. “Elephants” is a moody, blues based, synthesizer groove, interesting layers. “Wired To The Moon, Pt 2” is another atmospheric piano piece with a vocal improvisation. “Poem Disturbed” is a live piano and synth moment. Lastly, there’s “Squirm Squirm” is a charming acoustic and vocal number, it’s child like quality is similar to ‘Sleeping Dog’.  The compilation does a good job representing where he was at, even if some of the material doesn’t have the same dynamic as the prior Scoop albums.

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Compilations (1996 – 2015)

    Honorable mention must go to the Pete Townshend Best of compilation from 1996 under the subtitle of ‘coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstrightsmokingfirestoking’, from the Psychoderelict track “Uneasy Street’. The other compilation Truancy featured the scathing blues number “Guantanamo” and the lively up tempo number “How Can I Help You”. Pete’s rededication to The Who as a duo with Daltrey lead him back full circle with Endless Wire and The Who album. As of yet, there’s no new solo material beyond what has been issued.

    He's showing his age anyway, perhaps he has nothing left to say, we shall see. 

Included is a great recent Townshend interview.

*Let’s address the elephant in the room, the accusations about Pete’s distribution of child porn material. As part of Operation Ore, a major investigation on child sexual abuse images conducted between 2002-2003, Townshend accepted a citation from Metropolitan police, to which they stated “it was established that Mr. Townshend was not in possession of any of any downloaded child abuse images,” Yet Townshend was on a sex offender register for five years, beginning in 2003, once admitting he used his credit card to access a website that had child sexual abuse images, which he had accessed as research for a campaign against child sexual abuse – specifically, to prove that British banks were complicit in channeling in channeling the profits from pedophile rings, and keep in mind this is long before the Jeffrey Epstein scandals (Or Prince Andrew). The authorities could not prove that the website accessed involved children, and no incriminating evidence was found on his personal computer. I have little doubt it was well intended from Pete, and yes, it was foolish for him to not gone through proper channels or organizations that were fighting against child trafficking. This is, in addition to his admissions in his book Who I Am, of having bisexual feelings, or his record of infidelity with women. The art bleeds over into the artist.