Townshend Hits With New Rock Masterpiece
Telegram Staff Writer
Fifteen years of success is unusual in any line of work. In the music business it is almost unheard of. Pete Townshend, usually with his group The Who, has been one of the major driving musical forces since 1965, and is showing no signs of letting up now. Townshend’s new solo album, Empty Glass, is one of the best mainstream rock efforts in recent memory.
At 35 years of age, it may seem a little strange to picture Townshend still touring around the world, destroying guitars on stage and hotel rooms off stage, but still the Who legend continues.
Seemingly none of the fire and energy that went into The Who’s early music has diminished. Half deaf from years of standing next to blasting loudspeakers, Townshend has not lost any of his creative edge.
This is not to say Townshend has not mellowed. He admits himself that it seems absurd to smash guitars on stage and to sing old Who classics like My Generation.
The music on Empty Glass displays Townshend’s growth as a songwriter and musician. Throughout his career Townshend has continued to grow and expand on his music, but this new album is still a cut above.
The anger of his early work has turned to passion on Empty Glass. His tight hammering rhythms have unwound to embrace a broader musical range. The music is uncluttered; it flows naturally from one song to another.
The songs cover a wide range of topics. Rough Boys and Jools And Jim are ragged, hard-driving rockers, long a trademark of The Who. Let My Love Open The Door, A Little Is Enough and Gonna Get Ya are joyous pop tunes. Finally, I Am An Animal, and the title track, Empty Glass, are serious excursions into Eastern philosophy and grass roots religion.
Indeed, the album title speaks more to philosophical ideas than to barroom blues. Contained on the album’s inside jacket is a quotation from the Avatar Meher Baba. It states, “Desire for nothing except desirelessness, Hope for nothing except to rise above all hopes, Want nothing and you will have everything.”
Within the songs on the album, Townshend mixes these concepts of Zen Buddhism and Bible teachings from Ecclesiastes, but the symbolism does not intrude into the music. The music can be enjoyed without having to worry about the higher meaning of the lyrics.
Side one begins with Rough Boys, a song dedicated to Townshend’s children, Emma and Minta, and to The Sex Pistols. The song marks Townshend’s acceptance of New Wave and so-called punk rock, the latest attempt to change the direction of popular music.
Townshend, the captain of the 60s musical wave, has come to grips with the new forms and blends some of their ideas into his own music.
I Am An Animal, the second song, explores Townshend's full range as a singer. His voice is a one moment full and ragged, the next soft and fragile. It is an introspective song, reaching down to bring up honest emotional feeling.
I am a human being I can’t believe all the things I’m seeing I’ve nowhere to hide anymore I’m losing my way
The song carries you along on the force of Townshend’s voice and the drumming of Simon Phillips, one of four drummers used on the album.
The third song, And I Moved,
was originally written by Townshend for Bette Midler, but Midler’s manager rejected the song because he said it was “too smutty.”
A short, soft song, And I Moved is marked by innovative keyboards, played by “Rabbit” Bundrick. Carried by the fragile, winding piano melody, the music seems to drift into one ear and out the other.
The next song, Let My Love Open The Door, proves Townshend has not lost his touch for writing upbeat pop love songs. Through the years he has not become too blasé for such simple tunes.
When people keep repeating That you’ll never fall in love When everybody keeps retreating
But you can’t seem to get enough
The last cut on side one is a scorching tune, Jools And Jim,
an attack on two music critics at New Musical Express magazine, Julie Birchell and Tony Parsons.
Birchell and Parsons had written in New Musical Express that late Who drummer Keith Moon was better off dead. Advocates of New Wave, Birchell and Parsons apparently were trying to make a statment about the vitality of The Who’s music.
This scathing retort offered by Townshend should serve well to prove that the creative force behind The Who is anything but dead.
Typewriter tappers You’re all just crappers You listen to love with your intellect
Morality ain’t measured in a room
But Townshend does not rest on self-righteousness. In a later verse he admits that neither he nor “Jools and Jim” have a monopoly on wisdom.
Again, the Meher Baba’s philosophy is evident in Townshend’s writing. Townshend asserts that to charge someone with hypocrisy is hypocritical. As Townshend says in a recently published interview, hypocrisy is in the nature of life.
The first two songs on side two, Keep On Working and Cat’s In The Cupboard are both solid rockers with interesting lyrics.
The third song, Just A Little Is Enough, is another of Townshend’s pop love tunes. The song combines infectious rhythms with sensuous lyrics.
A smile sets me reeling A kiss feels like stealing Your love is like heroin This addict is mellowing I can’t pretend that I’m tough Just a little is enough
The next track, Empty Glass, is full of symbols and partially hidden meanings, and is a real toe-tapper on top of everything else. The song portrays the Biblical story of Ecclesiastes. The empty glass is the an image of the soul, empty of ego and self-pride, ready to be filled with religious spirit.
Don’t worry smile and dance * * You just can’t work life out Don’t let down moods entrance you
Take the wine and shout My life’s a mess I wait for you to pass
I stand here
