Pete Townshend and The Shout

I recently came across a cool message board for fans of Pete Townshend. It's called "The Shout" and is located at http://www.ukmajortom.demon.co.uk/theshout.html or by clicking this. There's plenty of news and discussion on Pete Townshend and some good links to other rock Websites.

The Sea Refuses No River

In 1982, Pete Townshend put out a solo album called All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes. One of my favorite songs on the record is “The Sea Refuses No River.” He performed the song above with his "Deep End" live band at London's Brixton Academy in November 1985.

Deep End consisted of David Gilmour; drummer Simon Phillips; bassist Chucho Merchan; percussionist Jody Linscott; keyboardist John 'Rabbit' Bundrick; backing vocalists Billy Nicholls, Cleveland Watkiss and Chyna; and a five-piece brass ensemble called The Kick Horns.

Pete's daughter, Emma, also did backing vocals in the above video.

I've always admired the ability of Townshend to be very introspective and brutally honest in his writing, while still leaving room for the listener to guess what the song is actually about. That is definitely on display in the lyrics of this song.

Pete Townshend Scoop

I'll put Pete Townshend's Scoop album up against anything I've ever listened to and incredibly these are a collection of Townshend's demos. The album is sheer brilliance and gives a different take on some of Pete's solos and songs by The Who. The above song is a favorite of mine, "Mary." I remember when I picked up this CD and just not really grasping the concept that these great songs were only demos. Hey what I can tell you, they didn't have Wikipedia back then. Scoop was released on vinyl in 1983 and later on CD in 1989.

Pete Townshend Cares

The above video is of Pete Townshend performing “Can You Help the One You Really Love” which is from Lifehouse; the aborted project that was supposed to follow up Tommy. Many of the songs from Lifehouse were used for the 1971 Who’s Next album.

One of the quotes below the video on YouTube says it all:
"He says more in this song than almost all rock music has said all through the entire sixties and seventies."

How accurate that statement is.

As far as helping people goes, Pete actually has helped many people. As recently as 2008, The Who played a show in Detroit - which has an estimated 50% unemployment rate - and all profits went to Focus: HOPE (a non-profit civil and human rights organization) and Gleaners Community Food Bank.

Some detractors - and boy are there enough of those in this world - will say that all celebrities donate to charity because it is a tax writeoff. First off, I don't know that ALL celebs are philanthropic and secondly Townshend personally sold fund-raising anti-heroin T-shirts at a bunch of U.K. Bruce Springsteen concerts in 1984.

The Genius of Pete Townshend

This is “Unused Piano,” which is a Pete Townshend demo that was never used for the Quadrophenia album, but ended up on Scoop – a CD collection of Townshend demos that are really remarkable...as is the musician.

The Who Giveaway

The Barnes & Noble Website has two offers: win a trip to see the SuperBowl and see The Who halftime show and they are also offering a chance to win a Gibson SG Guitar that has been played by the great Pete Townshend. The link is here.

You can also guess the band's setlist at the big game here.

As much as I would like to go the Super Bowl, I would actually prefer winning the guitar!

Pete Townshend Month

I’ve decided to honor Pete Townshend all month here on my blog. Why? Why not. Besides, with the labeling function on Blogger it gives me the chance to group some cool stuff all under one heading.

This first clip is the close to "Won't Get Fooled Again" at Live Aid in 1985.