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"...I Am Content..."
After the Who unleashed the barnstorming
snot-nosed wee-wee on the wall that was "Who's Next" in August 1971
(the British Rock band on fire in every way) - I can remember both the
excitement and confusion that accompanied "Who Came First" when it
finally arrived in October 1972. With Pete standing on the front cover glaring
out at us like a drill-sergeant with violent intent to his recruits in what
appeared to be a car mechanic's freshly-cleaned overalls sporting a badge on
his lapel of some grinning moustached Indian Guru geezer whilst standing on a
platform of un-hatched chicken eggs in Doc Martens – I was intrigued and
frankly a tad suspicious.
Housed in its glossy gatefold sleeve and sporting a natty foldout 'Wave' poster within that I never truly understood (the artist Mike McInnerney gets Page 18 in the new booklet to unravel what he painted and why) - I can also remember feeling disappointed – musically that is. Essentially a bunch of outtakes from the Lifehouse Project (tracks that had formed the guts of "Who's Next") with some new stuff and cover versions thrown in – Pete's first solo album seemed weirdly low-key almost. But on repeated listens - I realised a readjustment had to take place. This was not a WHO album – but a PT solo record. And its music stood alone – his ideas too. This was also a more leisurely sounding project – Folksy - Country and Americana – more melodic in its approach - and after the riffage of 1971 – actually took some getting used to.
And then there was the religious content – a Who-related Rock album celebrating the 76th Birthday of Meher Baba. I can remember the press of the day being polite at best about The Who's guitarist and principal songwriter 'standing on his own two feet' re his beliefs as he babbled on about some transcendental Avatar – an Indian man he’d met and adored in the late Sixties. A spiritual Guru and Guide – Meher Baba is referred to in songs like "Parvardigar" as a master and infinite and all wise – unfortunately the kind of subservient surrender mumbo-jumbo cack that Rock Stars spouted and championed in those days to counter their self-inflicted, drugged-up, screwed-up privileged lives. But at least Townshend and his spiritual quest seemed sincere to me and even if many of the Bentley-driving Gurus name-checked by Cream in 1967 were still putting up their prices and ultimately turned out to be the worst charlatans of all – the message of positivity and love from Pete’s first solo album had a powerful resonance with yours truly in 1972.
Now here we are in April 2018 with another re-issue. This time Universal UMC in conjunction with PT’s Eel Pie Recordings are giving us a belated (should have arrived in 2017) two-disc '45th Anniversary Expanded Edition' in a equally natty looking squished-up book pack. It comes with all artwork restored - new Jon Astley remasters from original tapes - newly updated liner notes from PT himself that include the extras typed in the same script font as the original LP (a nice touch) and even some good previously unreleased on Disc 2 (eight are new). Let’s get to the angels in our midst...
UK released 20 April 2018 - "Who Came First: 45th Anniversary Expanded Edition" by PETE TOWNSHEND on Universal UMC/Eel Pie Recording Productions PTWCF45 (Barcode 602567302902) is a 2CD Digipak Reissue with 2017 Jon Astley Remasters Housed in an Oversized Card Slipcase that plays out as follows:
Disc 1 "Who Came First" (37:42 minutes):
1. Pure & Easy
[Side 1]
2. Evolution
3. Forever's No Time At
All
4. Let's See
Action
5. Time Is Passing [Side
2]
6. There's A Heartache
Following Me
7. Sheraton Gibson
8. Content
9. Parvardigar
Tracks 1 to 9 are the
solo LP "Who Came First" - released October 1972 in the UK on Track
2408 201 and in the USA on Decca/Track DL 79189. Recorded, Engineered, Mixed
and Produced by PT – it peaked at No. 30 in the UK and No. 69 in the USA
Disc 2 BONUS TRACKS (73:02 minutes):
1. His Hands
2. The Seeker (2017
Edit, 4:36 minutes)
3. Day Of Silence
4. Sleeping Dog
5. Mary Jane (Stage A)
6. I Always Say (2017
Edit, 4:58 minutes)
7. Begin The Beguine
(2017 Mix, 4:41 minutes)
8. Baba O'Riley
(Instrumental, 9:49 minutes)
9. The Love Man (Stage
C)
10. Content (Stage
A)
11. Day Of Silence
(Alternate Version, 4:38 minutes)
12. Parvardigar
(Alternate Version), 7:12 minutes)
13. (Nothing is
Everything) Let's See Action (Incomplete Take, 3:57 minutes)
14. There's A Fortune In
Those Hills
15. Meher Baba In
Italy
16. Drowned (Live In
India, 1976)
17. Evolution (Stone)
(Live At The Ronnie Lane Memorial Concert, Royal Albert Hall, London, 8 April
2004)
Like most I've had the 1992 Rykodisc single CD for years with its six Bonus Tracks - two of which are missing from this new package - "The Seeker (1972 Version)" and "Lantern Cabin". I also bought a 2016 single CD reissue of "Who Came First" on Universal UMC 4780134 (Barcode 602547801340) that just offers the nine-track album in a card digipak and a new Miles Showell/Myles Clarke Remaster done at Abbey Road. It sounds gorgeous and at 38:00 minutes total playing time is oddly 18-seconds longer that the version offered here in 2018. Although the 8-page booklet is woefully ordinary and it’s devoid of extras – I’m keeping it because I like the Audio. This 2018 version is also the first in a new series of 'Expanded Edition' Townshend solo releases from Universal offering forthcoming upgraded versions of "Empty Glass", "All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes". "White City" and the "Scoop" series of outtake sets.
Although it tries to look the part of being something substantial - I find these oversized digipak-within-a-card-slipcase issues flimsy to say the least. On the upside the booklet has PT's most extensive explanation of the album's origins - a sort of composite of two limited edition music sets (about 100 copies of each) given out to Baba followers via a magazine - and also enlightens on each track including the newbies. There are photos of both Townshend and Baba from the period and the new JON ASTLEY Remasters are his usual loud-renditions but this time without being overly bombastic super-fantastic. Take "Evolution" or the simple strumming in "Sheraton Gibson" and the clarity is undeniable - nicely done. To the record first...
It has to be said in all honesty that some of the tracks on "Who Came First" missed the dynamic of the band and especially Roger Daltrey's distinctive vocals that somehow elevated everything PT wrote. But like most fans – I’ve never wanted to part with my original. The opening side 1 piece "Pure And Easy" was written and recorded by The Who for the Lifehouse Project in 1971 and has been a CD Bonus Track for "Who’s Next" reissues in 1995 and the 2003 Deluxe Edition 2CD set. But that version is the New York Record Plant Sessions mix of 4:30 minutes – here PT uses his own Home Demo version at 5:32 minutes. I've always liked it as a song - uplifting and good on the brain. Up next is the thematically fitting, truly lovely and evocative Folk melody of "Evolution" with the mighty Ronnie Lane on Lead Vocals. Here he covers one of his own songs called "Stone" (re-named "Evolution" for the WCF album) that first turned up on Side 1 of the Faces March 1970 debut album "First Step". Its lyrics wittily talk of consciousness evolving over millennia - a spiritual theme central to Baba teachings. Lane and Townshend were not just pals but a singer-songwriter match made in British musical heaven They would do a celebrated duet album together released October 1977 called "Rough Mix" on Polydor Records – fabulous stuff – and an LP that once again returning to both Country and Americana tunes and styles – something that clearly both men loved and were steeped in. Lane was also a BM follower at the same time as PT and the Live Version of "Evolution (Stone)" on Disc 2 at his Memorial Concert in 2004 is seriously charged stuff (sung by PT). You can feel it in the band, the audience and Pete’s awkward but emotional spoken intro about consciousness. Like Marriott, Bowie and Prince - here is a musician that actually hurts people to think is no longer with us – all of them gone too bloody soon.
Even better is vocalist No. 3 - "Forever is No Time At All" written by Billy Nicholls and Katie McInnerary (with Nicholls at the microphone). Both followers of Meher Baba – Ronnie Lane and Billie Nicholls also shared a musical connection between them. Nicholls had done an ultra-rare withdrawn LP for Immediate Records in 1968 called "Would You Believe" (on Immediate IMCP 009). This hallowed and revered beast is presently listed at a whopping £5000 for an original copy in the 2018 Record Collector Price Guide because the players on it are liable to send most collectors into hysteria – John Paul Jones pre Led Zeppelin, Steve Marriott, Ian McLagan, Kenney Jones and of course Ronnie Lane of the Immediate period Small Faces, Caleb Quaye of Elton John’s band and Hookfoot alongside ace piano sessionman Nicky Hopkins (so often associated with The Stones in the late Sixties and Early Seventies). Townshend rated Billie’s opinions and Nicholls also had an extraordinarily expressive voice – something wonderfully British about it – a little like Ronnie Lane. "Forever is No Time At All" is actually one of my faves on the album.
The LP’s most famous song has a history all to itself as well. The full 6:15 minute album-version of "Let’s See Action" ending Side 1 now reflects the US spelling of the track by including the words "(Nothing Is Everything)..." plopped in before its title (sung by PT and not Roger Daltrey). I’d agree with most fans by saying that the edited and more punchy single mix of "Let’s See Action" issued a full year prior as a stand alone band 7” single (Track 2094-012, October 1971) with Roger Daltrey on lead vocals - is way better. But any number of variants on this track is all right by me. The Ray Baker cover version is a Country Strum that predates the whole sound achieved on "Rough Mix" six years later and the Audio is gorgeous. Maud Kennedy's poem make up the lyrics to "Content" - clearly one of Pete's faves on the album - a song that is both pretty and somehow sad too - alone with the truth - trying to be brave. With all of its fawning and swooning towards Baba - "Parvardigar" makes me kind of cringe - but if you're a fan - the Audio is fantastic.
Opening the Bonus Tracks CD is "His Hands" - an instrumental that was recorded for the third and last Meher Baba magazine disc in the Goring-On-Thames converted studio Pete purchased in 1971. Lovely and so apt to this project - that leads into a huge fan-rave "The Seeker". Although its credited as a '2017 Edit' - I can't really hear any difference between it and the 1972 Version that appeared as a Bonus Track on the 1992 Ryko CD (even the playing times at 4:36 minutes are exactly the same). Not as good in any way as the officially released WHO single – it’s still a thrill to have any variant of it over and above. Both "Day Of Silence" and "Sleeping Dog" again were on the Ryko CD - the first track referring to 10 July - a day where Baba followers observe 'silence' all day as he had done every year since 1925.
"Sleeping Dog" reflects the domestic bliss he was feeling
at the time (wife and kids in bed while he recorded). Can't say any of the
Edits impressed but the near 10-minute "Baba O'Riley" is an absolute
blast – here the "Who's Next" opener given free reign. Just when you
expect "...out here in the fields..." to come roaring in – you get
more of the opening and then that riffage. It then layers more and more
keyboards until it becomes a Terry Riley soundscape with a WHO twist – fab. And
despite the sudden break at the end of "Nothing Is Everything" – the
shorter guitar and vocals demo already displays brilliance and I can see why he
included it.
For sure not everything on here is going to thrill (even die-hard fans) but what a fascinating look into the process and how it relates to his on-going journey. "Who Came First" (then and now) is one you can file under chicken and egg. And if you're asking me which came first – I've still no bleeding idea...
