One of best solo LPs on market by Pete Townshend of The Who
Capital Times Staff Writer
"Desire for nothing except desirelessness. Hope for nothing except to rise above all hopes. Want nothing and you will have everything."
These are the words of the late Avatar Meher Baba, Pete Townshend's spiritual advisor. If you've got to have a spiritual advisor, Meher B. isn't too bad a choice. Look what Jesus has done for Bob Dylan and Jeremy Spencer.
In fact, a lot of fine music has been messed up by mysticism.
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George Harrison comes to mind. So do The Beach Boys, who were reduced to actually recording their LPs at Mahavishnu U or whatever it's called in Iowa where the laughing one, their TM guru, holds court in what used to be Parsons College, once haven to the dropouts of every other school in the country.
But, happily, Pete Townshend is the exception to the rule. Frankly, I don't care who (no pun intended) his guru is as long as he can turn out music like "Empty Glass," his third solo LP, this time on Atco Records and Tapes. I say solo because the rest of The Who --- with the exception of a little keyboard from regular sideperson Rabbit Bundrick and some drumming by percussionist Kenney Jones --- are not aboard for most of this one.
Solo LPs --- Ringo's and the aforementioned George Harrison's and most anyone else's, including Who lead singer Roger Daltrey's or Who bassist John Entwhistle's --- are seldom worth the wax they're pressed on. The parts, that is to say, are seldom equal to the whole.
Happily, once again, "Empty Glass" and Pete Townshend are the exception.
This is arguably the hottest, finest solo dLP ever recorded by a member of an existing band and far better than anything I've heard by a former member of an existing band.
If any band but The Who were in question here, the group would have broken up and gone their separate ways immediately after hearing this LP. It's that good.
And it's even on the radio, which is truly cause for celebration. Most of the rest of what's on the radio isn't --- like an oasis in a sea of mediocrity, one might say.
The single off "Empty Glass" is the driving "Let My Love Open The Door," a song that Berkeley rocker Greg Kihn recently described as "a great tune," amending that to the comment that Townshend was one of his all-time heroes.
Understandably, it takes a great rocker to know a great rocker.
But a single does not make an LP. This LP is full of potential singles and not one turkey cut --- which isn't bad in a time when a
lot of records are build around singles with gobbling vinyl mates thrown in for fill.
Townshend continues his flirtation with the much younger English punk rockers --- one he began on "Who Are You?" from the last Who LP of the same name. The wonderful "Rough Boys" is dedicated to "my children Emma and Minta and to the Sex Pistols."
It's a fitting flirtation, too. For The Who of "My Generation," though getting on in years like a lot of us, remains a role model or a model to react against for younger performers and would-be rock 'n' roll stars. Over a period of more than 15 years, The Who has produced some of rock's strongest and most lasting music, most of it written by that wild and jumping guitarist himself, Pete Townshend.
His stage style alone --- a sort of combination of Chuck Berry and Rudolf Nureyev --- would be enough to make Townshend stand out, but there's so much more.
While songs like the Marty Ballnash "I Am An Animal" and the idyllic "Keep On Working" fill in the balled side of Townshend, the rest are rockers. That's no surprise because that's what the man does best.
If you haven't heard any of the album cuts on the radio yet, you're just not listening. If you're planning on spending your hard earned shekels on just one LP this month (make that this season or year), this would not be a bad bet.
Pete Townshend's "Empty Glass" beats many a full one.
