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PETE TOWNSHEND
RATING: 6
PLAY THESE: PURE AND EASY, EVOLUTION, THERE'S A HEARTACHE FOLLOWING ME
SKIP THESE: PARVARDIGAR
Although I've long been a Who fanatic, I've never been particularly interested in investigating Pete Townshend's solo career. Most Townshend solo tunes I've heard on the radio haven't particularly impressed me, and if you've read my Who reviews you're probably well-acquainted with my views on Pete's voice. He's not a horrible singer or anything, but I'm just not fond of his whiney voice, which, as American Idol judge Randy Jackson would say, "is a little pitchy in spots, dude." So it was with great trepidation that I downloaded Who Came First, the debut solo album from Mr. Townshend. And you know what? I actually like it. I'm not even that annoyed by Pete's singing. It's not the Who, so don't expect a full-volume sonic assault, or an album full of Townshend power chording or angst-ridden tunes. What we get here is just Pete, mostly on acoustic guitar, exposing us to the more "folksy" aspect of his songwriting. Pete plays the other instruments as well on the album, including drums, and the results are surprisingly good - Pete is no Keith Moon, but plays in a similar ramshackle style. He has some "timing" issues, but it's mostly pretty good.
The songs are all demos of songs deemed unsuitable for the Who, although versions of Lifehouse outtakes like 'Pure and Easy,' 'Time Is Passing,' and 'Let's See Action' would later end up on official Who releases. Surprisingly, Pete's versions of these tunes sound better than the Who recordings, mainly because the stripped down arrangements compliment the songs much better than the Who's bombastic readings. Also good is Pete's collaboration with Faces guitarist Ronnie Lane, 'Evolution,' a folk oriented tune which features Ronnie on lead vocals, as well as an interesting cover of 'There's a Heartache Following Me,' a Jim Reeves song. However, not everything is hunky-dory here. The worst offender is 'Parvargdigar,' which unsuccessfully merges Meher Baba-penned (Pete's spiritual advisor) lyrics with Townshend music to create the cheesiest, most pompous piece of "quasi-religious" crap I've heard in a long, long time. I'm sure that God is less than thrilled with it as well.
The latest re-issue of the album also contains six bonus cuts, all of them Townshend demos that could have easily fit on this album. They're good, but inessential. The most interesting of the lot is Pete's solo version of 'The Seeker,' with alternate lyrics. It kind of sucks compared to The Who version, but as an historical artifact it has some value.
BEST
OF PETE TOWNSHEND: coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking (1996)
RATING: 8
PLAY THESE: ROUGH BOYS, GIVE BLOOD, THE SEA REFUSES NO RIVER
SKIP THESE: A FRIEND IS A FRIEND
Currently the best Pete Townshend compilation out on the market, The Best of Pete Townshend is a an effective-but-slightly-flawed anthology that serves as an introduction the the former Who guitarist's solo career. Since the album spans Townsend's entire twenty year solo career, there is quite a variation in musical styles, but the eclectic quality of the collection is probably one of its greatest assets. All of his big hits are here, along with several key album-only cuts, as well as a few of Townshend's personal favorites. The obvious standout track is 1980's 'Rough Boys,' an - err, how to put this delicately? - unapologetic "coming out of the closet" type of song that rivals anything that Pete did with the Who. It even sounds like the mighty 'Oo, with typically-Townshend power chording, a swinging brass section, and an unbridled sense of energy that relentlessly drives the song along. Townshend's aggressive (and improvised!) guitar playing at the end of the track is fantastic, and definitely one of Pete's better performances on the six string. For a brief second I wondered why Pete wouldn't have recorded this song with the Who, but the I remembered that the likelihood of the blue collar hero Roger Daltrey agreeing to sing homoerotic lines like "rough boys, under the sheets" is almost non-existent, so the mystery was solved.
Other standout moments include 'Give Blood,' a ferocious rocker from White City that features David Gilmour on guitar, a song so good that it can't even be wrecked by the dated 80's production and reverb-laden synth lines. Ditto for Face The Face, a high energy brass-dominated tune with a pretty darn catchy chorus that sounds very much of its time, but it's still a clear winner. Most of the other tracks are also pretty good, including hits like the cheesy 'Let My Love Open The Door,' 'Slit Skirts' 'Pure and Easy,' 'The Sea Refuses No River,' etc. The only songs that truly grate are the syrupy faux-gospel 'A Friend Is A Friend,' a song so far out of Townsend's rather limited vocal range that he sounds like Aaron Neville on female hormone pills, as well as 'English Boy,' an ill-advised foray into the world of early 90's techno that it pretty much the crappiest thing Pete ever did. Overall, though, this collection is a good survey of Pete's entire solo career. Admittedly, a few of the songs suck, and the bonus "E-Coli" remix of Let My Love Open The Door' is completely unnecessary, but overall there isn't much to complain about on this album.
Related Pages: The Who