STACK NZ Jul #64

MUSIC

FEATURE

visit www.stack.net.nz

Pete Pushes Repeat Play Again Graham Reid gets into the head behind The Who.

A few years ago, before Christmas, I bought two rock autobiographies to read over the break. One was Rod Stewart’s Rod which was howling funny and charted the life of a man for whom booze, blondes and a bloody good time were written into the contract of being a rock star. So he obliged. The other could not have been more different, it was Pete Townshend’s earnest Who I Am which read like open- heart surgery on his emotional life and was mostly free of humour and good times. It’s an excellent book, but I concluded the reason Keith Moon in The Who became so outrageous was he had to fill the fun-gap left by Pete. The jury will always be out on whether Rod or Pete made the better music either in bands or as solo artists, but outside of The Who we might observe that

ambiguous lyric and a song he dedicated to The Sex Pistols and his own children, the implication being that the Pistols were part of The Who’s offspring. Disappointingly the compilation doesn’t include the finest song on Empty Glass , his beautiful And I Moved in which he poetically sang of his spiritual conversation. He’s never included it on any previous collection either. The collection opens with three songs from his solo debut W ho Came First (‘72): Pure and Easy which he described on the original album cover as a pivot for his fraught Lifehouse project, the raw acoustic folk of Sheraton Gibson and the rollicking, expanded and over-long demo of the Who’s Let’s See Action (also from Lifehouse ). It serves to remind that Townshend was always happy to share his working drawings of songs, especially on

Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes , ‘82), the furious Face the Face ( White City , 1986) and two new songs, Guantanamo and How Can I Help You . It’s a decent single disc compilation but, as with his autobiography – and his sometimes pugnacious demeanor in interviews – there are not a lot of laughs to be had with Pete Townshend, although some might say he’s having fun with us right now. Because just released – and no one asked for this – there is Pete Townshend’s Classic Quadrophenia , the classic Quadrophenia rock concept album from 1973 delivered by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Townshend, Billy Idol, Phil Daniels (the original Jimmy kid in the ’79 film version) and others. Do loyal old Who fans want to hear an orchestral version of a rock album? Does the R.P.O audience have any interest either? In truth the orchestral passages are very powerful. But tenor Alfie Boe’s Broadway-cum- opera vocals are pretty grating and lack the edge required to convey a story about teenage confusion, anger and angst. It does seem an odd and unnecessary album, and for a man who wrote, “Hope I die before I get old” – words which have unfairly dogged him and will appear in every obituary – Pete Townshend seems more and more intent on trawling through his past. Maybe it’s too much to ask of a man who recently turned 70, “Let’s see action”?

Townshend’s album were always more highly regarded, if way way less popular, than Rod’s. Pete Townshend makes the case for himself with a new compilation drawn from his solo albums (about half a dozen that are relevant, the ones to his guru he, and we, set aside). Only one of his albums made any wide impact, that was Empty Glass from 1980 and for the compilation Truancy: The Very Best of Pete Townshend he taps it for two of the most obvious songs; Let My Love Open the Door (a hit in the US and on movie soundtracks) and Rough Boys, a sexually

the Scoop album series of home recordings and demos. (He includes Y ou Came Back from that source.) Many longtime Townshend fans would argue his best solo outing was his most relaxed, the terrific Rough Mix (1977) with his longtime pal Ronnie Lane, bassist in the Small Faces/Faces. Pleasingly three from it appear on Truancy -- My Baby Gives It Away, A Heart To Hang Onto and Keep Me Turning – and you can feel the ease between them. Elsewhere are some memorable solo songs: Face Dances No. 2 (from All the Best

For more reviews, overviews and interviews by Graham Reid see: www.elsewhere.co.nz

JULY 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.co.nz

30