★★½ All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes, Pete Townshend (Atco)

We’ve come to expect a lot from this man. With such colossal epics as Tommy and Quadrophenia to his credit, he has set up our expectations of a perfect rock masterpiece. But Townshend’s coup de grace may well be the work of fiction he soon plans to release, and his days as the force and spirit of rock & roll, and the consciousness of "my generation," are long over.

Townshend’s been on a furious, panic-stricken quest of late. He left his wife and family and tried to recapture his youth by running with the New Romantics. He took frequent pleasure trips to New York and L.A. He hobnobbed with the elite at the Embassy Club and, fully immersed, lost himself in a flurry of booze, cocaine and pills. And one night, at London’s Club for Heroes, he nearly died, and was subsequently forced to confront the addictions from which he vows he’s been purified.

Disguises are easy for him. Townshend is a superbly skilled writer, musician and arranger, capable of much more focused work than All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes. He really reaches through when he lambasts or spits spiritual fire, and Chinese Eyes is inner-directed and autobiographic — visceral dynamite with signature Townshend arrangements. But is his (ho-hum) mid-life crisis a suitable subject for an album? Where is the rebellion, anger and social statement of the Townshend who wrote "Won’t Get Fooled Again?" Are these the dirge songs of a beaten man?

Pete Townshend has always been in step.

Pete Townshend: Aging Before Our Eyes

A touching, insightful persona erupts inside each of his compositions. He is a man who knows himself and his times, reflected in his recognizable compression-motion-picture style of writing where "every word turns out a sentence." He’s discovered a new power apart from the muscle guitar work of his earlier days with the Who, and is now a professional man of vision — vision that consumes him and bursts with gleeful compassion from his soul. This is most evident in the renewed strength of Townshend’s fiery vocal range.

The Who’s Face Dance² and Townshend’s 1980 solo album Empty Glass each displayed a disturbing lack of substance and relation, and the moments of brilliance were spotty. Chinese Eyes presents us with a story of bitter complexity, whose clarity is further clouded by his own grappling with these turbulent times. According to the cover’s essay, Chinese Eyes is the story of thwarted redemption by heroes capable of the utmost savagery to achieve their ends in the name of God and country. It is also the tale of those who worship the stars, blinded by their own need for cult heroes to style their dreary lives after.

The album is a pastiche of images and reactions about numbing infatuation: with aging, glitter, God and women. The presence of "her" is felt very strongly on this album. From the sure poetic recitation of "Stop Hurting People" through the lush treatment of the traditional "North Country Girl" we are presented with an obsessed Townshend, a man on the run with eyes wide open, and pen in hand. He explores his own self-limits with admirable candor when he confesses that he "can’t present that growing older never hurts" on the melodious "Slit Skirts." "The Sea Refuses No River" is a strong statement about God and Humanity, and is as strikingly revealing an anthem as anything Dylan penned during his Saved period. All things flow into the cosmic river, pure or rank, and "the river is where I am," Townshend tells us. But there is too much just plain forgettable material on this record, and it can’t help but make you feel that Townshend can do better.

This is actually a brave album, and we should applaud Townshend for aging so gracefully. He’s managed to keep up with himself, and our times, and although he’s not as clear as when he said "I hope I die before I get old," he’s an honest anti-hero who’s shunned the Superstar pedestal, and been hurt. It’s a comfort to know that he’s survived and not given up the fight. And we can be sure that Pete’s not gonna go disco or get saved by Jesus; he’s just going to record his impressions of a world he’s worn in well.

Is anybody listening? ■