Pete Townshend All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes Atco

By Bruce Need

Believe it or not, Pete Townshend is just a garden-variety singer/songwriter who once happened to have the greatest power trio in creation backing him up. Much of his career can be seen as a struggle to shape his considerable composing abilities to his material. Recently his music has worked best pared down, like on Rough Mix or Face Dances' love songs. His recent solo triumph, Empty Glass, was more orchestrated, but rescued by Townshend's remarkable gifts for melodic and instrumental arrangement.

To one who considers Townshend the most essential rock 'n' roller of this era, All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes is a real let-down. It sounds like all the pseudo-classical StyxRushQueen gloop great records like Quadrophenia inspired. Townshend's guitar is so buried amid all the synthestrings and keyboards that that double-barrelled axe on the cover should be considered false advertising. He gets off a few thunderous rips here and there, but none of this music compels me to lift the needle and play it again.

One of the most heartening developments of Townshend's recent work has been his songwriting: specific, personal, and moving. On this new LP he's too often obscure and erratic. As always the subject is Townshend's lifelong struggle for (or sometimes against) maturity and spiritual enlightenment. When he relates it in terms we all can understand, fine. But lines like "and girls who lost their children cursed the men who fit the coil/and men not fit for marriage sought their refuge in the oil" sure don't sing along very well.

So what's here for Townshend fanatics like myself who will spin this disc 20 times regardless? Well, the singing is so emotional and flexible that Roger Daltrey is finally (and thankfully) rendered superfluous. Townshend sounds so invested in this material; I wish it was better than it is. "Slit Skirts" chorus really takes off and "Communication" is reasonably crazed—notice how much Townshend still relies on his drummers for chaos. Plus there's

the hope that after several hundred plays the whole thing will kick in and I'll cherish it as a classic. But I don't think so. ■