{"id":27427,"date":"2024-06-10T05:30:44","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T09:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=27427"},"modified":"2024-04-11T07:48:37","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T11:48:37","slug":"take-five-great-deep-dive-tracks-from-pete-townshend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/10\/take-five-great-deep-dive-tracks-from-pete-townshend\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Five: Great Deep-dive Tracks from Pete Townshend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pete Townshend is widely acclaimed for many things; at or near the top of that list is his songwriting for The Who. But also worthy of praise \u2013 and further investigation \u2013 is Townshend\u2019s solo work. Beginning with 1972\u2019s <em>Who Came First<\/em>, he has released six intriguing solo albums. That count doesn\u2019t even include <em>Rough Mix<\/em>, his 1977 collaboration with Ronnie Lane, his nine live albums, three compilations, three boxed sets or the several albums he made dedicated to his spiritual master, Meher Baba.<\/p>\n<p>But even within Townshend\u2019s primary studio albums, there\u2019s a wealth of great music to explore. Perhaps most well-known among the tracks on those records are Townshend\u2019s five charting singles: \u201cRough Boys,\u201d \u201cLet My Love Open the Door,\u201d and \u201cA Little is Enough\u201d (all from 1980\u2019s <em>Empty Glass<\/em>); \u201cFace Dances, Pt. 2\u201d (from <em>All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes<\/em>); and \u201cFace the Face\u201d from <em>White City: A Novel<\/em>. Another track from <em>White City<\/em>, \u201cGive Blood\u201d was a popular and oft-played video on MTV.<\/p>\n<p>Look beyond the hits and you\u2019ll discover many other great songs on Pete\u2019s solo records. Here are five great deep-dive solo tracks from Pete Townshend.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe Sea Refuses No River\u201d from <em>All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes<\/em> (1982)<\/strong><br \/>\nComing on the heels of the Platinum-selling <em>Empty Glass<\/em>, Townshend\u2019s third solo album was met by confusion from fans and mixed reviews from critics. But time has been kind to the album, which is now accepted as an important work from one of rock\u2019s premier songwriters. Like many of the album\u2019s tracks, it does stuff a lot of words into a pop melody, but \u201cThe Sea Refuses No River\u201d \u2013 a rare co-write with Townshend\u2019s guitar tech Alan Rogan \u2013 features some of Pete\u2019s best lyrics as well as a stirring, breathtaking arrangement.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jOghvUdWEB0?si=6VJqUeKNlJrH-Fv1\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cCrashing by Design\u201d from <em>White City: A Novel<\/em> (1985)<\/strong><br \/>\nThough not truly billed as such, Townshend\u2019s 1985 album was essentially a soundtrack album for a long-form dramatic film he made, one in which he appears but is not the main character. The fictionalized story is set in a \u201ccouncil estate\u201d (aka government housing project) near where Townshend grew up. \u201cCrashing by Design\u201d features great vocals and searing guitar work.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lSrfHfFj8OE?si=N3l7txd2wsCholz_\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cFire\u201d by The Who from <em>The Iron Man: The Musical<\/em> (1989)<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2017\/05\/04\/arthur-browns-fire-still-burns-part-1\/\">The Crazy World of Arthur Brown<\/a>\u2019s original version of \u201cFire\u201d was released in 1968, on The Who\u2019s Track Records, and produced by Townshend. At the time, Brown was one of rock\u2019s most incendiary and flamboyant front men, as well as one of rock\u2019s most versatile vocalists. This version \u2013 a kind of Who \u201cguest spot\u201d on a Townshend solo LP \u2013 recasts the song in the band\u2019s signature style.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SP2sAxRaoUU?si=FavmWW7ecGdninOm\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cEnglish Boy\u201d from <em>Psychoderelict<\/em> (1993)<\/strong><br \/>\nA narrative-concept album, <em>Psychoderelict<\/em> weaves together elements of Townshend\u2019s earlier projects for The Who including <em>Who Are You<\/em> and the then-unproduced <em>Lifehouse<\/em>. Released at the peak of the grunge era, the dialogue-infused album was poorly received and met with negative reaction from many critics. And while it\u2019s idiosyncratic, <em>Psychoderelict<\/em>\u2019s best material ranks with the greatest music Townshend has ever written. And \u201cEnglish Boy\u201d is a standout cut. Released more than three decades ago, <em>Psychoderelict<\/em> is nonetheless Pete\u2019s most recent solo album to date.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uk23GPnAO_k?si=K_ROZ2GHwI_0tqpE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cGuantanamo\u201d from <em>Truancy: The Very Best of Pete Townshend<\/em> (2015)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe third collection attention to survey the best from Townshend\u2019s solo work, 2015\u2019s <em>Truancy<\/em> also featured a pair of previously-unreleased songs. As its title suggests, \u201cGuantanamo\u201d is a bluesy political protest song about the U.S. military prison in Cuba where nearly 800 prisoners were held after the 9\/11 attack, many without trial. (Today, nine years after that song\u2019s release, 30 men remain at Guant\u00e1namo; 10 of them have yet to have their day in court.)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BU4PKdWoE6U?si=UwLjlCIphgkJRm0q\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pete Townshend is widely acclaimed for many things; at or near the top of that list is his songwriting for The Who. But also worthy of praise \u2013 and further [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27428,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,62],"tags":[1689,2190],"class_list":["post-27427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-rawk","tag-pete-townshend","tag-the-who","cat-27-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27429,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27427\/revisions\/27429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}