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Music : The Best of Pete Townshend: Coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking
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Rating: 
- one distinction this collection has...
...I have not listened to the later "best of" collections - there is the double-disc "Gold" that came out in '06, and a single-disc collection that came out last year - so I can't comment on those releases' fidelity. I can tell you that, if you're a Pete Townshend fan, many of the songs on this collection were remixed from the orginal multitracks, and are therefore not only a lot of fun to listen to, they are collectors items as well, because the recent remasters of the individual albums (which I DO own) used the original 2-track masters. Since this CD is going used for next to nothing, I thought someone (whoever reads this, God help them) should know. If you're a Townshend fan and for some reason don't have this, you need to get it!
Rating:
- Pete Townshend - A Decent Collection Of His Solo Singles
Townshend, of course, is the main man behind one of the greatest rock bands of all time, The Who. Along with his work with The Who Townshend has also pursued a vibrant solo career that found him much success in the 80's and 90's. This compilation album is a nice overview of his solo stuff and includes all of his hits and several cool album cuts up to the mid - 90's. As in any single disc compilation there are many songs that could have been included here that are not, but overall this is a pretty decent overview. If anything the album points out the inconsistency of Townshend's solo stuff. At times he is nothing but brilliant especially on songs like "Rough Boys", "Give Blood", "English Boy", "Slit Skirts", and "A Little I Enough". Other songs are more simple pop, but still good, and then there are a few that are really not anything spectacular. For me Townshend is one of the great songwriters of my generation and although I still think that most of his Who material eclipses his solo stuff there is still a lot to like here. If you are just looking for the hits this is a nice collection.
Rating: - Best for the casual fan
As a hard core fan of Pete Townshend, I can't rate this collection five stars because there are too many songs missing that deserve consideration for a career retrospective. However, if you're a casual fan, this is probably the best collection of Townshend's music to buy. It includes all of PT's most popular songs, that is those that still get radio play ("Let My Love Open the Door", "Slit Skirts" and "Face the Face"), as well as enough of his lesser known tunes to give you a good idea of the various directions he has taken in his career.
Those really into Townshend's music will be better served with the more recent "Gold" double disc collection, but this "Best of..." collection is ideal for those who just want a few highlights from one of rock's most interesting and talented songwriters.
Rating: - A legendary guitarist and his mixed bag of solo mateial
THE BAND: Pete Townshend (guitar, lead vocals)... and an assortment of players over the decades including - John "Rabbit" Bundrick (keyboards), Simon Townshend (guitar), Jon Carin (guitar, keyboards), Pino Palladino (bass), Kenney Jones (drums), Simon Phillips (drums), Doug Sandom (drums), and Zak Starkey (drums).
THE DISC: (1996) 15 tracks clocking in at just over 70 minutes. Included with the disc is a 5-page foldout containing song titles/credits/times, a brief paragraph from Townshend about each song, several photos of Townshend over the decades, what song came from which album and the year released. This compilation covers his solo career from 1972-95. Digitally remastered sound. Label - Atlantic.
ALBUM REPRESENTATION: Who Came First (2 songs), Rough Mix (2), Empty Glass (3), All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes (2), White City (2), Iron Man/Musical (1), Psychoderelict (1), Unreleased (2).
COMMENTS: Pete Townshend's solo career is a total mixed bag of hits and misses. Outside of "Empty Glass" (1980) and perhaps "White City" (1985)... not one album stands out as a must have. Townshend has a few compilations out there - most notably "Definitive" (17 tracks in chronological order) released in 2007, and the extensive 2-disc "Gold" (with 34 songs) released in 2005. This "Coolwalkingsmoothtalking..." is very close in track selection to "Definitive", but the songs on this mix are not in order of year released... which in my opinion hurts it. THE GOOD: All the staples (though in reality, not many) of Townshend's solo career are here - "Rough Boys", "Give Blood", "Face The Face", "Slit Skirts", "Let My Love Open The Door", "Sheraton Gibson", etc. The minor hits are covered well - including "Misunderstood", "Pure And Easy" and "Street In The City". Townshend's acoustic guitar work on "Pure And Easy" and "Sheraton Gibson" really stands out... not to mention the piano at the end of "Friend Of A Friend", and the orchestra in "Street In The City". The remastered sound is top notch - sounds like all the songs were recorded within the last year... not decades ago. The words written in the liner notes from Townshend are great insights to the songs (including things going on during the recording, stories and intentions of each). THE NOT SO GOOD: As mentioned previously, Townshend's solo material is hit and miss... up and down... fast and slow... good and bad. The songs on this compilation are for the most part slow and safe and unlike anything he did with The Who. I loved the rebel, the windmill guitar antics, the shredding solos, the blazing energy. Outside of only a few rocking songs ("Rough Boys" and Face The Face" being the best upbeat tunes of the lot) you won't find many power chords here. In fact, many of the songs here are closer to Fleetwood Mac's catalog of music, than The Who's. The lyrics on some of Townshend's solo material are downright weird... "Give Blood" (I can see this working if he was writing this for the Red Cross), "A Friend Is A Friend", and "The Sea Refuses No River" to name a few. History has shown it's extremely hard for an musician to go out on his own and sustain a career as a solo artist after so many years belonging to a most famous and powerful rock band. The key word here is 'sustain'. There are a few exceptions (i.e. - Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Phil Collins, Ozzy, and Sting to name a few), but for every solo artist that's made it, you could name twice as many that simply couldn't hold onto the success they had outside of their main band (i.e. - Jimmy Page, Joe Perry, Paul Rodgers, Slash, Ian Anderson, Jerry Garcia, David Gilmour, Ian Gillan, Keith Richards, Jerry Cantrell, etc). I must put Pete Townshend in the latter of the two groups... he's had a taste of success over the decades as a solo artist, but the hits are/were simply too few and far between. His solo material simply is not on par with anything ever written and performed by The Who... Townshend and Roger Daltry had a chemistry together that has since been unmatched. OVERALL: Some very good songs here all presented in their remastered glory. Great for those interested in the better songs and not wanting to invest in the individual releases. There is one studio album that stands above the rest... "Empty Glass" - look for the remastered edition with bonus tracks. This "Coolwalkingsmoothtalking..." is a nice introduction... dandy to have a taste of Townshend's solo material all in one place even if it is hit and miss (4 stars).
Rating: - Simply Wonderful
This is a simply wonderful selection of songs, and I am glad they included the mellow E. Cola mix of "Let My Love Open the Door." It is deliberately reminescent of "Baba O'Reilly." much the way that George Harrison's "Isn't it a Pity" is reminescent of "Hey Jude." Fans of The Who, however, should be warned that solo Pete sounds more like Peter Gabriel, George Harrison, or Eric Clapton, than The Who.
- one distinction this collection has......I have not listened to the later "best of" collections - there is the double-disc "Gold" that came out in '06, and a single-disc collection that came out last year - so I can't comment on those releases' fidelity. I can tell you that, if you're a Pete Townshend fan, many of the songs on this collection were remixed from the orginal multitracks, and are therefore not only a lot of fun to listen to, they are collectors items as well, because the recent remasters of the individual albums (which I DO own) used the original 2-track masters. Since this CD is going used for next to nothing, I thought someone (whoever reads this, God help them) should know. If you're a Townshend fan and for some reason don't have this, you need to get it!
Rating:
- Pete Townshend - A Decent Collection Of His Solo SinglesTownshend, of course, is the main man behind one of the greatest rock bands of all time, The Who. Along with his work with The Who Townshend has also pursued a vibrant solo career that found him much success in the 80's and 90's. This compilation album is a nice overview of his solo stuff and includes all of his hits and several cool album cuts up to the mid - 90's. As in any single disc compilation there are many songs that could have been included here that are not, but overall this is a pretty decent overview. If anything the album points out the inconsistency of Townshend's solo stuff. At times he is nothing but brilliant especially on songs like "Rough Boys", "Give Blood", "English Boy", "Slit Skirts", and "A Little I Enough". Other songs are more simple pop, but still good, and then there are a few that are really not anything spectacular. For me Townshend is one of the great songwriters of my generation and although I still think that most of his Who material eclipses his solo stuff there is still a lot to like here. If you are just looking for the hits this is a nice collection.
Rating:
- Best for the casual fanAs a hard core fan of Pete Townshend, I can't rate this collection five stars because there are too many songs missing that deserve consideration for a career retrospective. However, if you're a casual fan, this is probably the best collection of Townshend's music to buy. It includes all of PT's most popular songs, that is those that still get radio play ("Let My Love Open the Door", "Slit Skirts" and "Face the Face"), as well as enough of his lesser known tunes to give you a good idea of the various directions he has taken in his career.
Those really into Townshend's music will be better served with the more recent "Gold" double disc collection, but this "Best of..." collection is ideal for those who just want a few highlights from one of rock's most interesting and talented songwriters.
Rating:
- A legendary guitarist and his mixed bag of solo mateialTHE BAND: Pete Townshend (guitar, lead vocals)... and an assortment of players over the decades including - John "Rabbit" Bundrick (keyboards), Simon Townshend (guitar), Jon Carin (guitar, keyboards), Pino Palladino (bass), Kenney Jones (drums), Simon Phillips (drums), Doug Sandom (drums), and Zak Starkey (drums).
THE DISC: (1996) 15 tracks clocking in at just over 70 minutes. Included with the disc is a 5-page foldout containing song titles/credits/times, a brief paragraph from Townshend about each song, several photos of Townshend over the decades, what song came from which album and the year released. This compilation covers his solo career from 1972-95. Digitally remastered sound. Label - Atlantic.
ALBUM REPRESENTATION: Who Came First (2 songs), Rough Mix (2), Empty Glass (3), All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes (2), White City (2), Iron Man/Musical (1), Psychoderelict (1), Unreleased (2).
COMMENTS: Pete Townshend's solo career is a total mixed bag of hits and misses. Outside of "Empty Glass" (1980) and perhaps "White City" (1985)... not one album stands out as a must have. Townshend has a few compilations out there - most notably "Definitive" (17 tracks in chronological order) released in 2007, and the extensive 2-disc "Gold" (with 34 songs) released in 2005. This "Coolwalkingsmoothtalking..." is very close in track selection to "Definitive", but the songs on this mix are not in order of year released... which in my opinion hurts it. THE GOOD: All the staples (though in reality, not many) of Townshend's solo career are here - "Rough Boys", "Give Blood", "Face The Face", "Slit Skirts", "Let My Love Open The Door", "Sheraton Gibson", etc. The minor hits are covered well - including "Misunderstood", "Pure And Easy" and "Street In The City". Townshend's acoustic guitar work on "Pure And Easy" and "Sheraton Gibson" really stands out... not to mention the piano at the end of "Friend Of A Friend", and the orchestra in "Street In The City". The remastered sound is top notch - sounds like all the songs were recorded within the last year... not decades ago. The words written in the liner notes from Townshend are great insights to the songs (including things going on during the recording, stories and intentions of each). THE NOT SO GOOD: As mentioned previously, Townshend's solo material is hit and miss... up and down... fast and slow... good and bad. The songs on this compilation are for the most part slow and safe and unlike anything he did with The Who. I loved the rebel, the windmill guitar antics, the shredding solos, the blazing energy. Outside of only a few rocking songs ("Rough Boys" and Face The Face" being the best upbeat tunes of the lot) you won't find many power chords here. In fact, many of the songs here are closer to Fleetwood Mac's catalog of music, than The Who's. The lyrics on some of Townshend's solo material are downright weird... "Give Blood" (I can see this working if he was writing this for the Red Cross), "A Friend Is A Friend", and "The Sea Refuses No River" to name a few. History has shown it's extremely hard for an musician to go out on his own and sustain a career as a solo artist after so many years belonging to a most famous and powerful rock band. The key word here is 'sustain'. There are a few exceptions (i.e. - Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Phil Collins, Ozzy, and Sting to name a few), but for every solo artist that's made it, you could name twice as many that simply couldn't hold onto the success they had outside of their main band (i.e. - Jimmy Page, Joe Perry, Paul Rodgers, Slash, Ian Anderson, Jerry Garcia, David Gilmour, Ian Gillan, Keith Richards, Jerry Cantrell, etc). I must put Pete Townshend in the latter of the two groups... he's had a taste of success over the decades as a solo artist, but the hits are/were simply too few and far between. His solo material simply is not on par with anything ever written and performed by The Who... Townshend and Roger Daltry had a chemistry together that has since been unmatched. OVERALL: Some very good songs here all presented in their remastered glory. Great for those interested in the better songs and not wanting to invest in the individual releases. There is one studio album that stands above the rest... "Empty Glass" - look for the remastered edition with bonus tracks. This "Coolwalkingsmoothtalking..." is a nice introduction... dandy to have a taste of Townshend's solo material all in one place even if it is hit and miss (4 stars).
Rating:
- Simply WonderfulThis is a simply wonderful selection of songs, and I am glad they included the mellow E. Cola mix of "Let My Love Open the Door." It is deliberately reminescent of "Baba O'Reilly." much the way that George Harrison's "Isn't it a Pity" is reminescent of "Hey Jude." Fans of The Who, however, should be warned that solo Pete sounds more like Peter Gabriel, George Harrison, or Eric Clapton, than The Who.