Pete Townshend
The Studio Albums UNIVERSAL MUSIC RECORDINGS
The Who lynchpin’s deeply uneven solo odyssey receives the box-set treatment.
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As Pete Townshend admits in the foreword to the 28-page booklet that accompanies this lavish collection, he never really intended to have a solo career. His debut album, 1972’s beautifully serene and heartfelt Who Came First, was compiled from demos recorded for The Who’s aborted Lifehouse project (namely Pure And Easy, Let’s See Action and Time Is Passing) plus some songs he’d donated to a couple of limited edition tribute albums to his guru Meher Baba. Much softer, gentler and more introspectively spiritual than anything he’d ever ask Roger Daltrey to sing, they would only make sense to the listening public if Townshend released them under his own name. And so Pete Townshend, Solo Artist, was born.