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T O P I C    R E V I E W
lemonade kid Posted - 29/03/2012 : 17:27:52
We haven't talked much of the impact and genius of The WHO, Pete & Roger, Keith....

But I must start with Pete's five star release from 1982...I'm watching the long out-of-print SONY/EP that was recorded to accompany the album release. I have a nice DVD (probably a digital VHS to DVD conversion...) ...it is quite good with some insightful commentary by Pete. Has anyone seen this?

"All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes", Pete Townsend

Face Dances Part Two...from the film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPERuyKEq98





All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes is the third official solo album by English rock musician and songwriter Pete Townshend. It was produced by Chris Thomas and recorded by Bill Price at Eel Pie, A.I.R. and Wessex studios in London. It contains compositions salvaged from later albums by The Who, although being clearly[original research?] similar to all Townshend solo efforts (just like the late Who albums).

Recording and production

Along with the eleven songs on the album, further songs were also recorded, including "Body Language" (subsequently released in 1983 on Scoop), a track called "Man Watching" (released as the B-side of "Face Dances, Pt. 2"), and "Dance It Away" (which was also performed in various forms live by the band between 1979 and 1981, usually as a coda to "Dancing in the Street"), and which was released as the B-side of "Uniforms". One further song was listed on the initial LP release; called "Vivienne", this, along with "Man Watching" and "Dance It Away", were released as bonus tracks on the 2006 reissue.

Album title

Townshend explained the meaning of the strange album title at length in an interview with Rolling Stone:

Basically, it's about the fact that you can't hide what you're really like. I just had this image of the average American hero - somebody like a Clint Eastwood or a John Wayne. Somebody with eyes like slits, who was basically capable of anything - you know, any kind of murderous act or whatever to get what was required - to get, let's say, his people to safety. And yet, to those people he's saving, he's a great hero, a knight in shining armor - forget the fact that he cut off fifty people's heads to get them home safely. Then I thought about the Russians and the Chinese and the Arab communities and the South Americans; you've got these different ethnic groups, and each has this central image of every other political or national faction as being, in some way, the evil ones. And I've taken this a little bit further - because I spent so much of my time in society, high society, last year - to comment on stardom and power and drug use and decadence, and how there's a strange parallel, in a way, between the misuse of power and responsibility by inept politicians and the misuse of power and responsibility by people who are heroes. If you're really a good person, you can't hide it by acting bad; and if you're a bad person, you can't hide it by acting good. Also - more to the point, really - that there's no outward, identifiable evil, you know? People spend most of their time looking for evil and identifying evil outside themselves. But the potential for evil is inside you. —Pete Townshend, Rolling Stone interview, 1982

On the Listening Time promotional LP, Townshend said he should win a "Stupid Title of the Year" award for the unusual moniker.[2]

Video Release

A companion video was also released, featuring concept videos set to the musical backings of "Prelude", "Face Dances, Pt. 2", "Communication", "Uniforms", "Stardom In Acton", "Exquisitely Bored", and a re-recorded version of "Slit Skirts", with a harmonica performance on the last song, not used on the studio cut.[original research?] This video has been out of print for years,[original research?] though Pete Townshend put the videos up on his website in 2000, which were then subsequently uploaded to other video websites on the Internet.

Reception

Rolling Stone positively reviewed the album, giving it four stars (out of five), and calling it "a mess of contradictions", but "a listenable mess, to be sure. In fact, there's hardly a misplaced note on this album. Townshend's arrangements surge and subside as gracefully as anything in rock; they're neither static nor jolting."[5] However, many other critics at the time panned the album that was more artsy and New Wave-influenced than Townshend's previous work.[6] Some of the more traditional songs - "The Sea Refuses No River", "Somebody Saved Me", and "Slit Skirts" - were received better than the experimentations - notably, "Stop Hurting People", "Uniforms", and "Communication".

Track listing

All songs written by Pete Townshend, except where noted.

1. "Stop Hurting People" - 3:55
2. "The Sea Refuses No River" (Pete Townshend, Alan Rogan) - 5:53
3. "Prelude" (Pete Townshend, Andy Newman) - 1:31
4. "Face Dances, Pt. 2" - 3:24
5. "Exquisitely Bored" - 3:41
6. "Communication" - 3:19
7. "Stardom in Acton" - 3:42
8. "Uniforms (Corp d'Esprit)" - 3:42
9. "North Country Girl" (Traditional) - 2:27
10. "Somebody Saved Me" - 4:51
11. "Slit Skirts" - 4:54

Bonus Tracks (2006 Reissue)

12. "Vivienne" - 3:37
13. "Man Watching" - 2:32
14. "Dance It Away" - 3:38

Personnel

* Pete Townshend: vocals, guitars and keyboards
* Virginia Astley: Piano
* Tony Butler: Bass
* Peter Hope-Evans: Harmonica
* Mark Brzezicki, Simon Phillips: drums
* Jody Linscott: Percussion
* Chris Stainton: Additional keyboards
* Poli Palmer: Tuned percussion
* John Lewis: Fairlight CMI synthesizer programmes


The Sea REfuses No River
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ3LzvMqfHw




Share your favorite WHO.....song, album or solo!




________________________________________________

We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers & discoverers-
-thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses.
Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.

-Peter S. Beagle 1973
15   L A T E S T    R E P L I E S    (Newest First)
rocker Posted - 01/04/2013 : 15:35:35
Townshend..what a rock icon...You just reminded me. I've been meaning to pick up his bio. I think it might be good to know why I'm so enamored of his musical geniusfor.... many are called few are chosen!..;-)...

Ever since I can rememeber after hearing those great opening chords from 'Won't get Fooled Again, I've been never ever been ever! Thank you Peter Townshend....
lemonade kid Posted - 28/03/2013 : 22:14:58
Getting In Tune

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJu8tetyaxE&list=PLC9824019F6833A13



________________________________________________

Old hippies never die, they just ramble on.
-lk
rocker Posted - 11/04/2012 : 14:11:19
It's too bad that the failed NYC recording sessions and Pete's estrangement from Kit Lambert ultimately doomed what could have been a great double LP much the same way as Tommy was groundbreaking and infinitely spiritual.

I guess with all that we are lucky that Townshend got Who's Next off the ground despite those troubles you noted. Who's Next for me is the band's greatest work. Townshend probably had demons but KL looked like he had them worse. Their collaboration could give but also take away.
underture Posted - 10/04/2012 : 21:13:24
I find it of significance that Pete was for about 6 years running ('67-'73) one of the most forward thinking, artistic rock musicians around.

If you start with the "Who Sell Out" concept album, followed by a dry year when he was still digesting Tommy, then "Tommy", followed by maybe his most fruitful and frustrating time of Lifehouse, then "Who's Next", followed by another year of mulling over his next big bugaloo, and then "Quadrophenia", Pete did not lack for ambition or quality.

Lifehouse itself, if it could ever have been successfully brought to fruition, would have been of a scope maybe never acheived. Unfortunately it was too grand, and Pete was probably naive in thinking he could corral the music, live audience participation and film into a cohesive whole. But the music, regardless of whether Glyn Johns over-commercialized it, still is probably the band's best. It's too bad that the failed NYC recording sessions and Pete's estrangement from Kit Lambert ultimately doomed what could have been a great double LP much the same way as Tommy was groundbreaking and infinitely spiritual.

_____________

You set the scene
rocker Posted - 10/04/2012 : 14:04:40
that Leslie was great.....and it all came from a "dance-hall band" as Harrison noted ...
lemonade kid Posted - 09/04/2012 : 19:02:47
quote:
Originally posted by rocker

lk maybe you know..were those amps used in Won't Get Fooled? With Townshend using synths and those guitars those amps had to be good and handel the sounds.

SUNN amps were the WHO's baby's--the ones you saw them run their guitars through...electronically & physically!!







I did read as the Beatles became more studio and experimentally orientated they caused more fear in their Record Label's minds.





"Revolver was the real kicker....John ran his vocals for "Tomorrow Never Knows" through a Leslie speaker (that is where that trippy vocal sound comes from)....and the Parlophone (aside--founded in 1896!! in Germany) record company dudes were not happy. They wanted that up-front Beatles pop sound. But just like Brian Wilson, the Beatles were not ones to stand on their laurels..they would move upwards and onwards, ALWAYS!

I remember a local band in 1969 -- my first exposure to a live Leslie...played by a hot Joplinesque hippie chick on a big ol' Hammond organ (sorry, ladies..."hippie chicks": that's what we called 'em, and it didn't seem like a slur, after all, we were happy to be called FREAKS...)...reputedly a hot hippie chick man-eater.

But that night, the Leslie held my full attention...a mind blower... and it really was just a big plywood box, full of swirling magic!

...Beatles and Martin talking about Ringo naming it, the fears and reactions...from anthology DVD....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkirE9uH5SE&feature=related


Tomorrow Never Knows/Within You Without you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKVmDdsrl78&feature=related

Take 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaF4GGAvf3I&feature=related


________________________________________________

“He created his own Kool Aid reality and was able to illuminate himself by it.”
--Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America
rocker Posted - 09/04/2012 : 14:33:40
lk maybe you know..were those amps used in Won't Get Fooled? With Townshend using synths and those guitars those amps had to be good and handel the sounds.
lemonade kid Posted - 06/04/2012 : 16:17:34
quote:
Originally posted by rocker

And just to mention something relative to the thread topic..I just read that the fellow who made those amps for Townshend has just died..Jim Marshall..the "Father of Loud and the "Marshall Crunch".. I wonder if Harvey still has his hearing!!!!........;-)...He certainly fashioned the sound of rock in the 20th...

Marshall amps, Fender Stratocasters, Leslie speakers...psychedelia at it's height!

________________________________________________

“Excuse me, I said. I thought you were a trout stream.
I'm not, she said.”
--Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America
rocker Posted - 06/04/2012 : 14:43:49
And just to mention something relative to the thread topic..I just read that the fellow who made those amps for Townshend has just died..Jim Marshall..the "Father of Loud and the "Marshall Crunch".. I wonder if Harvey still has his hearing!!!!........;-)...He certainly fashioned the sound of rock in the 20th...
lemonade kid Posted - 04/04/2012 : 18:11:53
That is a great album too. To complete the "trilogy", Songs For Swinging Lovers is an essential upbeat songbook for lovers and is placed nicely between the Wee Hours & Only The Lonely lps--a kind portrait of the down/up/down of relationships.

"I've Got You Under My Skin" (UP) was a Sinatra staple at live shows for 40 years. Along with "In The Wee Small Hours" (sad memories), "Angel Eyes" (bittersweet) & "One For My Baby (One For The Road)" (& back DOWN...but in a good way!) .

FROM EACH ALBUM, MAKES THENM ALL ESSENTIAL.



________________________________________________

“Excuse me, I said. I thought you were a trout stream.
I'm not, she said.”
--Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America
rocker Posted - 04/04/2012 : 14:17:25
Right...and I also picked up "Only the Lonely." (and I'm always hearing Roy when those 3 words come up)..now could Roy have picked up on Frank's record or vice versa?
lemonade kid Posted - 03/04/2012 : 18:15:55
quote:
Originally posted by rocker

Hey, rocker!! Can you think of a better way to spend your hard earned dollars?!

Well just for your fyi I just picked up that Sinatra lp ITWSHOTM from my favorite record shop.Had to have it for the listen. It was in my budget! An incomparable look back to another time and place while listening to song.

Anyway, I have this book maybe others have seen it. It's all the music you have to listen to before you die. heh heh it's a biiiiiiiiggggg book. Man I think I'll never make it.

Rocker...good buy!

I think "In The Wee Small Hours Is" my Favorite Sinatra among so many of his great LPs. It just has an aura and feel that just draws you in -- it deserves your full attention. It has a seamless quality that, like FC, needs to be listened to, start to finish.

It embodies another great's lyrics, as you enter Siantra's world, allowing you to..."relax and float downstream".



________________________________________________

“Excuse me, I said. I thought you were a trout stream.
I'm not, she said.”
--Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America
rocker Posted - 03/04/2012 : 14:06:38
Hey, rocker!! Can you think of a better way to spend your hard earned dollars?!

Well just for your fyi I just picked up that Sinatra lp ITWSHOTM from my favorite record shop.Had to have it for the listen. It was in my budget! An incomparable look back to another time and place while listening to song.

Anyway, I have this book maybe others have seen it. It's all the music you have to listen to before you die. heh heh it's a biiiiiiiiggggg book. Man I think I'll never make it.
lemonade kid Posted - 02/04/2012 : 20:03:41
quote:
Originally posted by rocker

lk you're going to make me go broke..

Hey, rocker!! Can you think of a better way to spend your hard earned dollars?!



"See me, feel me, touch me, heal me...."

...THAT PRETTY MUCH PUTS INTO WORDS WHAT WE RECEIVE, AND SEARCH FOR, BY LISTENING TO THE MUSIC!

Who Are You...Lifehouse Demos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwofSRCZd3I&feature=related

Getting In Tune...Lifehouse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9WHyI_AiBs&feature=related

Song Is Over...Lifehouse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OFOf1yLkZo&feature=relmfu


You're right, rocker...not a better document to demonstrate the infinite ranging genius & talent of Sir Pete Townshend.


________________________________________________

“Excuse me, I said. I thought you were a trout stream.
I'm not, she said.”
--Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America
rocker Posted - 02/04/2012 : 14:15:15
lk you're going to make me go broke..the Lifehouse Demos just solidify in my head that Townshend is a certified musical genius. It's just too bad his public just couldn't get the "communication" from him. I wish he didn't have to go through all that angst. Unfortunatley he suffered for his art. But as I was looking through the Demos I noticed his linkup with that great composer Henry Purcell. Makes me appreciate Who's Next even more especially in that he went back to musical "roots" and sued it for his concept. Working class kid like him, into Purcell. Er, "who" would've thought it? Cool. He was on to something there with Who's Next. Truly one of the greatest rock recordings of all time.

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