Various Artists - Colombian Volcano Disaster Appeal Concert, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 2-9-1986

Here's a really interesting benefit concert. There aren't a lot of musical acts, but the ones that took part gave interesting performances, often with some unusual song choices. The big stars were David Gilmour (formerly of Pink Floyd), Pete Townshend (formerly of the Who), Annie Lennox (of Eurythmics) and Chrissie Hynde (of the Pretenders).

In November of 1985, the Nevada del Ruiz volcano erupted, causing a natural disaster in Colombia. It melted glaciers and caused catastrophic flooding that killed over 25,000 people. A native Colombian musician, Chucho Merchan, with the help of Pete Townshend, organized this benefit concert to raise funds for the surviving victims and to help raise awareness of their plight. Highlights of the concert were broadcast in many countries around the world, and a DVD of parts of it was eventually released. 

I had been aware of this concert for a long time, but I could only find the sets from the main stars. I put songs from the David Gilmour and Chrissie Hynde sets on albums I've posted elsewhere on this blog. However, I recently found virtually the entire concert, with excellent sound quality. So that inspired me to post this, and sooner rather than later.

The first three acts were popular in Britain around the of this concert, though their popularity didn't last. Working Week was a British jazz-dance band that had a hit with the song "Venceremos (We Will Win)" in 1984, plus some other minor hits in 1985 and 1986. 

Jaki Graham, a British soul and dance singer, had three Top Ten hits in Britain in 1985 and 1986, with "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love," "Round and Round," and "Set Me Free." But curiously, it seems she was only given time to perform one song, and she chose a song that wasn't one of her hits. 

The Communards were a British synth-pop duo. They had two really big hits and some smaller hits in Britain, though they had no success in the U.S. In 1986, their version of "Don't Leave Me This Way" reached Number One in the British singles chart, and was the biggest hit of the year in that country. However, that single wouldn't be released until about six months after this concert, which explains why they didn't play it here. They also had another big hit with "Never Can Say Goodbye" in 1987. At the time of this concert, they'd only had one minor hit, "You Are My World," but they didn't play it here.

Here are their Wikipedia entries: 

Working Week (band) - Wikipedia 

Jaki Graham - Wikipedia 

The Communards - Wikipedia 

I don't feel the need to explain the other musical acts in this concert, since they're well known and I've posted albums by each of them at this blog already. However, the timing of how this concert fit into their careers is worth mentioning. David Gilmour started a full-time solo career in 1984 after Pink Floyd broke up in 1983. But he hadn't done much as a solo artist after putting out a solo album in 1984, so his appearance here was notable. He would lead a new version of Pink Floyd starting in 1987.

Similarly, Pete Townshend started a full-time solo career after the Who broke up in 1982. At the time of this concert, he'd only released one solo album, in 1985. But in this concert, he only performed three Who songs, plus "Save It for Later," a cover of an English Beat song. 

Annie Lennox was a member of Eurythmics at this time. However, at the time, she was taking a short break due to some trouble with her voice. That's probably why she only sang one song on her own (while also singing a duet at the end). It was very unusual for her to appear as a solo artist. Her solo career wouldn't really begin until her first solo album in 1992.

Similarly, Chrissie Hynde was a member of the Pretenders at this time. By 1986, the Pretenders had basically become Hynde plus whomever she wanted to work with. But I guess she was billed under her own name because she performed with some different musicians than her usual band at the time. Plus, it seems that freed her to play some more interesting songs. She only did two Pretenders songs, the first two in her set. Then she did covers by the Beatles ("In My Life"), the Righteous Brothers, ("Little Latin Lupe Lu"), Bob Dylan ("Property of Jesus"), and KC and the Sunshine Band ("Give It Up"). That probably was her most eclectic set list ever, and the fact the last song was a duet with Annie Lennox was even more interesting.   

By the way, I saw that both actors Peter Richardson and Harry Enfield spoke during the concert. So I figure one of them has to be the emcee talking between songs. It sounds like the same person talking each time, but I'm not familiar with their voices, so I don't know which one it would be. If anyone can tell, please let me know so I can fix the song title info.   

This album is exactly two hours long. 

01 talk (emcee)
02 Inner City Blues [Make Me Wanna Holler] (Working Week)
03 Sweet Nothing (Working Week)
04 South Africa (Working Week)
05 Shot in the Dark (Working Week)
06 talk (emcee)
07 Heaven Knows (Jaki Graham)
08 talk (emcee)
09 Sentimental Journey (Communards)
10 Forbidden Love (Communards)
11 Don't Slip Away (Communards)
12 talk (emcee)
13 talk (Mike Oldfield & Maggie Reilly)
14 Moonlight Shadow (Mike Oldfield & Maggie Reilly)
15 talk (emcee)
16 You Know I'm Right (David Gilmour)
17 Run like Hell (David Gilmour)
18 Out of the Blue (David Gilmour)
19 Comfortably Numb (David Gilmour)
20 talk (emcee)
21 I'm One (Pete Townshend)
22 talk (Pete Townshend)
23 Save It for Later (Pete Townshend)
24 Pinball Wizard (Pete Townshend)
25 Magic Bus (Pete Townshend)
26 talk (emcee)
27 Blame It on the Sun (Annie Lennox)
28 talk (emcee)
29 Time, the Avenger (Chrissie Hynde)
30 Back on the Chain Gang (Chrissie Hynde)
31 talk (Chrissie Hynde)
32 In My Life (Chrissie Hynde)
33 Little Latin Lupe Lu (Chrissie Hynde)
34 Property of Jesus (Chrissie Hynde)
35 Give It Up (Chrissie Hynde & Annie Lennox)
36 talk (emcee)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/t9XbbPYK 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/DEK86KzNjctEOg0/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. It's a screenshot I took from a video. It shows Chrissie Hynde and Annie Lennox together, on the last song in the concert. The video was very low-res and blurry, so the image has issues. But I was happy to at least come up with this, since I couldn't find any images of the two of them together. 

Pete Townshend - Who Demos, Volume 10: 1982-1995: It's Hard & Solo Albums

I recently posted the ninth volume in this series. Here's the tenth and final one, before I forget. Generally, the series is about the demos Pete Townshend made that later turned into songs for albums by the Who, as opposed to a separate series I've made of Townshend's non-album tracks, which are mostly demos. But for this final volume, it's dominated by songs that went to Townshend's 1980s solo albums.

The only album by the Who represented here is "It's Hard," from 1982. But for whatever reason, there aren't many demos from that one, just "Popular" (an early version of "It's Hard") and "Cry If You Want." Plus, there's a version of "Eminence Front," but it's stuck at the end because it's all the way from 1995. Apparently, Townshend made a new demo of the song before going on tour, and liked it enough to include it on his archival album "Scoop 3."

Track two through five are all demos of songs from Townshend's 1982 solo album "All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes." Those four songs are all unreleased, as is "Cry If You Want" mentioned above. I really like Townshend's 1985 album "White City," but there are only two demos of songs from that album, "Crashing by Design" and "I Am Secure." All the remaining songs relate to his 1989 album "Iron Man." Those are all officially released, mostly from his "Scoop 3" album, except for "I Eat Heavy Metal."

This album is an hour and five minutes long.

01 Popular [Early Version of It's Hard] (Pete Townshend)
02 Stop Hurting People (Pete Townshend)
03 Face Dances, Pt. 2 (Pete Townshend)
04 Uniforms [Corp d'Esprit] (Pete Townshend)
05 The Sea Refuses No River (Pete Townshend)
06 Cry If You Want (Pete Townshend)
07 Crashing by Design (Pete Townshend)
08 I Am Secure (Pete Townshend)
09 Man and Machines [Man Machines] (Pete Townshend)
10 Dig (Pete Townshend)
11 I Eat Heavy Metal (Pete Townshend)
12 I Am Afraid (Pete Townshend)
13 Outlive the Dinosaur (Pete Townshend)
14 Iron Man Recitative (Pete Townshend)
15 Eminence Front (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/AWvjgje9

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/R5nBhcu5RAHyazo/file

The cover photo is from a 1985 photo shoot.

Pete Townshend - Who Demos, Volume 9: 1979-1981: Empty Glass & Face Dances

The other day, I got a request to change something about Volume 8 in this series (which I did). That reminded me that I never quite finished this series off. So here's the next one, another collection of Pete Townshend's demos. There's just one more to go after this.

Townshend has made so many demos that I've created two different series for them. One series contains all the demos I could find of songs that weren't included on albums by the Who, or his solo albums. Then there's this series of demos for songs that did eventually make it to Who albums or solo albums. During this time period, Townshend was busy, putting out both 1980 solo album "Empty Glass" and the 1981 Who album "Face Dances." 

Five of the songs here made it to "Empty Glass" in different form. One, "Teresa," would later get on the 1982 album "It's Hard" with the title change to "Athena." I'm not quite sure why "Initial Machine Experiments" got on here instead of my other Townshend demos series, but oh well. The remaining six songs made it to "Face Dances."

Most of the versions here have been officially released. Generally, they came out on the compilations "Scoop," "Another Scoop," and "Scoop 3." Four of the songs that made it to "Empty Glass" were released as bonus tracks on that album. Finally, "Another Tricky Day" and "Daily Records" are unreleased.

This album is an hour and three minutes long.

01 I Am an Animal (Pete Townshend)
02 Initial Machine Experiments [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
03 Tough Boys [Rough Boys] (Pete Townshend)
04 And I Moved (Pete Townshend)
05 Did You Steal My Money (Pete Townshend)
06 Don't Let Go the Coat (Pete Townshend)
07 Gonna Get Ya [Long Version] (Pete Townshend)
08 Keep On Working (Pete Townshend)
09 Teresa [Early Version of Athena] (Pete Townshend)
10 You Better You Bet (Pete Townshend)
11 Another Tricky Day (Pete Townshend)
12 Cache, Cache (Pete Townshend)
13 Daily Records (Pete Townshend)
14 How Can You Do It Alone (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/a1mpvGpX

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/JpASPMpd0tXJ3oo/file

The cover photo was taken in New York City in November 1981.

Pete Townshend - VH-1 Storytellers, Portchester Hall, London, Britain, 3-23-2000

Next for the "VH-1 Storytellers" series is an episode featuring Pete Townshend.

Back in 1971, the Who released the album "Who's Next." This originally was going to be a concept album / rock opera called "Lifehouse," but Townshend, the band's main songwriter, gave up on it and just released "Who's Next" as a typical studio album without an obvious concept. But he never gave up entirely on the Lifehouse idea, and made occasional attempts to finish it off.

His attempt to finish it probably culminated in 1999 and 2000. In 1999, a radio play for Lifehouse was done by the BBC, which lasted about two hours and included the original demos done in the early 1970s. Then, in 2000, Townshend released "The Lifehouse Chronicles," a six CD box set containing the radio play, all the original demos, and more. When he performed for Storytellers, he was promoting this box set. So all of the songs are from the Lifehouse project, including three that were on the "Who's Next" album ("Behind Blue Eyes," "Baba O'Riley," and "Won't Get Fooled Again").

 

As was typically the case for this show, only the end of the first song was included. But I was able to find another version of this song, "Let's See Action (Nothing Is Everything)," from the same year to fill in the missing portion.

 

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 Let's See Action [Nothing Is Everything] [Edit] (Pete Townshend)
02 talk (Pete Townshend)
03 Pure and Easy (Pete Townshend)
04 talk (Pete Townshend)
05 Behind Blue Eyes (Pete Townshend)
06 talk (Pete Townshend)
07 Baba O'Riley (Pete Townshend)
08 talk (Pete Townshend)
09 Won't Get Fooled Again (Pete Townshend)
10 talk (Pete Townshend)
11 Greyhound Girl (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/6TgiENBj

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/cf45foM5CZwpQfa/file

I couldn't find a good photo from this exact concert. So instead I used a photo of Townshend that actually came from a concert by the Who in London in 2000.

Pete Townshend - Who Demos, Volume 8: 1977-1978: Who Are You

It's been so long since I posted an album in this series (it's been almost a year as I write this), that I thought I would try to catch up a bit by posting two albums in a row. So here's another album of Pete Townshend demos of songs that ended up appearing on albums by the Who. In this case, all the songs were for the band's 1978 album "Who Are You."

Five out of the nine songs here have been officially released. Decades later, Townshend released various versions of his 1971 "Lifehouse" project, such as "Lifehouse Chronicles" and "Lifehouse Elements." Most of those come from that (tracks 6 through 9). But the song "Empty Glass" is actually a Townshend demo that ended up as a bonus track on the "Who Are You" album. That song, plus one other here, "Keep on Working," eventually ended up on Townshend's 1980 solo album "Empty Glass."

There's one undisputedly great song on the "Who Are You" album: "Who Are You." There are two versions of that here. The second one is much longer.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 Love Is Coming Down (Pete Townshend)
02 Who Are You (Pete Townshend)
03 Empty Glass (Pete Townshend)
04 Guitar and Pen (Pete Townshend)
05 Keep On Working (Pete Townshend)
06 Music Must Change (Pete Townshend)
07 New Song (Pete Townshend)
08 Sister Disco (Pete Townshend)
09 Who Are You [Long Version] (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2u2PUJoM

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/MA90k4u6t2H2xQZ/file

In 1978, a video was created of the Who performing the song "Who Are You" in Shepperton Studios in London. It's really great, you should watch it on YouTube. The cover is a screenshot of Townshend I took from that video. In 2025, I sharpened it a bit with the help of the Krea AI program.

Pete Townshend - Who Demos, Volume 7: 1972-1973: Quadrophenia

I've posted many albums of Pete Townsend demos, with still more to go. I posted a whole series of albums of his demos for songs that never made it onto albums by his band the Who. I'm still posting another series of albums of his demos for songs that did make it onto Who albums. As I've moved forward chronologically with that series, I've reached around 1973, the year the Who's classic double album "Quadrophenia" was released. 

I've been hesitant to post this album. I usually have a rule not to post something that has been officially released and still in print, when I haven't made any changes to it. But this is an exception. I figure I've been posting a whole series of Townshend's demos for the Who, and it would be odd to have a giant hole where the Quadrophenia sounds would be. In 2011, a super deluxe edition of the album was released, called "The Director's Cut." This is just two discs from that, combined, in the exact same song order.

The songs order generally follows the released 1973 version of the album. However, there are some exceptions, especially songs that didn't make the album, like "We Close Tonight," "You Came Back," "Joker James," "Wizardry (Electronic Wizardry)," and more. The Who eventually would release their versions of some of these in 1979, in conjunction with the release of a movie about the album.

One classic song from the album, "5:15," is not included here. That's because Townshend never made a demo for it. Instead, it was the only song on the album that was created spontaneously while the Who was jamming in the studio.

Note that Volume 5 in this series actually envelops this album chronologically, with demos from 1970 all the way to 1975. That includes some songs from the next Who album, "Who by Numbers," which was released in 1975. Most of the songs here were recorded in 1972 or 1973. Because it was a double album, it took a while for it to come together. Apparently, the "Drowned" demo dates all the way back to 1970, before Townshend even came up for the concept of the album.

This album is an hour and 43 minutes long.

01 The Real Me (Pete Townshend)
02 Quadrophenia - 4 Overtures [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
03 Cut My Hair (Pete Townshend)
04 Fill No. 1 - Get Out and Stay Out (Pete Townshend)
05 Quadrophenic Four Faces (Pete Townshend)
06 We Close Tonight (Pete Townshend)
07 You Came Back (Pete Townshend)
08 Get Inside (Pete Townshend)
09 Joker James (Pete Townshend)
10 The Punk and the Godfather (Pete Townshend)
11 I'm One (Pete Townshend)
12 Dirty Jobs (Pete Townshend)
13 Helpless Dancer (Pete Townshend)
14 Is It in My Head (Pete Townshend)
15 Any More (Pete Townshend)
16 I've Had Enough (Pete Townshend)
17 Fill No. 2 [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
18 Wizardry [Electronic Wizardry] [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
19 Sea and Sand (Pete Townshend)
20 Drowned (Pete Townshend)
21 Is It Me (Pete Townshend)
22 Bell Boy (Pete Townshend)
23 Doctor Jimmy (Pete Townshend)
24 Finale - The Rock [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
25 Love Reign O'er Me (Pete Townshend) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/nHWKvw6H

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/fvf3vmMN06cXQ6n/file

alternate:

https://www.imagenetz.de/eJEkP

The original cover of the Quadrophenia was basically colorless. But a person named Stuart Gilbert colorized it. I thought that was interesting, so I've used it here as the cover.

Pete Townshend - Who Demos, Volume 6: 1971: Lifehouse

Since it's been sooo long since I last posted a Pete Townshend album of Who demos (I just checked, and it was in 2019 - yikes!), I'm posting two in one day.

This consists entirely of demos for his attempted rock opera "Lifehouse." I saw "attempted" because he scrapped what would have been a double album in 1971 and had the Who put out the single album "Who's Next" instead. It seems that nobody but Townshend really understood what the concept was about. Townshend returned to the project and put out versions decades later, but I must admit I still don't really understand. If you can see a story through all the songs below, please explain it to the rest of us!

Anyway, not all of these became Who songs, but the vast majority did. (I think the only exceptions are "Greyhound Girl," "Mary," and the variants on "Baba O'Riley," "Teenage Wasteland" and "Baba O'Riley [Instrumental].") The songs are generally from 1970 or 1971. However, two of them, "Join Together" and "The Relay," were written in 1972 when Townshend briefly made another attempt at finishing his Lifehouse project.

Normally, I wouldn't post this, because all the songs come from one source, the 2000 box set "Lifehouse Chronicles." But I'm making an exception because this is just one third of the box set, and I want to post all of his demos, not all of them except for this one project. I've put the songs in the same order the box set did, except that I didn't include four songs, because they were written much later in the 1970s: "Slip Kid," "Music Must Change," "Sister Disco," and "Who Are You." ("Slip Kid" might have been written in the 1971 time frame; I've heard conflicting accounts. But if so, he sure kept it a secret. Also, any connection to the Lifehouse concept is a total mystery to me.)

If anyone has a better suggestion for the song order, I'm all ears.

This album is an hour and 50 minutes long. In my opinion, nearly every song is a stone cold classic, and Townshend's demo versions are often as good as the Who versions, or at least close.

01 Teenage Wasteland (Pete Townshend)
02 Goin' Mobile (Pete Townshend)
03 Baba O'Riley (Pete Townshend)
04 Time Is Passing (Pete Townshend)
05 Love Ain't for Keeping (Pete Townshend)
06 Bargain (Pete Townshend)
07 Too Much of Anything (Pete Townshend)
08 Greyhound Girl (Pete Townshend)
09 Mary (Pete Townshend)
10 Behind Blue Eyes (Pete Townshend)
11 Baba O'Riley [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
12 I Don't Even Know Myself (Pete Townshend)
13 Put the Money Down (Pete Townshend)
14 Pure and Easy (Pete Townshend)
15 Getting in Tune (Pete Townshend)
16 Let's See Action [Nothing Is Everything] (Pete Townshend)
17 The Relay (Pete Townshend)
18 Join Together (Pete Townshend)
19 Won't Get Fooled Again (Pete Townshend)
20 Song Is Over (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/HsxYdCwS

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/M33nO1e9tIgNRH9/file

The cover photo is said to have been taken in Twickenham Studios in London in 1971. In January 2025, I upgraded it with the Krea AI program.

Pete Townshend - Who Demos, Volume 5: 1970-1975

Here's a series that I started and then completely forgot about. But hey, no worries, I still plan to finish it off.

Pete Townshend of the Who has created lots of high-quality demos all through his music career. I've divided them into demos of songs later done by the Who, and all other songs. I've fallen behind on posting albums of his Who songs. In 1971, he recorded much for his planned rock opera "Lifehouse," which ultimately turned into the Who album "Who's Next." In 1973, the Who released another one of his big rock operas, "Quadrophenia." This album is meant be a grab-bag of all his Who demos from 1970 to 1975 that weren't part of either of those big projects. Even then, I have some stuff from those projects. The first four songs are all Lifehouse and/or Who's Next ones, but they're different demos than the ones I've put on a Lifehouse demos album. And tracks seven and eight are kind of Quadrophenia floatsam and jetsam.

As for the other songs, "Long Live Rock" ultimately appeared on the "Odds and Sods" compilation album in 1973. And tracks 9, 10, and 11 appeared on the 1975 Who album "The Who by Numbers." "Ordinary Fellow" never appeared anywhere, but apparently was considered for that album. And the last song, "Keep Me Turning," ultimately showed up on the "Rough Mix" album split between Townshend and Ronnie Lane. I'm putting that here because my albums of Townshend demos all contains songs not on his studio solo albums.

There are a lot of missing demos from this time period. For instance, it would be great to have more than just three "Who by Numbers" songs. But this is what's publicly available right now, as far as I know.

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 Behind Blue Eyes [Early Version] (Pete Townshend)
02 Going Mobile [Acoustic Mix] (Pete Townshend)
03 Baba O'Riley [Long Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
04 Let's See Action [Nothing Is Everything] [Incomplete Acoustic Demo] (Pete Townshend)
05 Long Live Rock (Pete Townshend)
06 Recorders [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
07 Unused Piano Quadrophenia [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
08 Slip Kid (Pete Townshend)
09 Squeezebox (Pete Townshend)
10 No Way Out [However Much I Booze] (Pete Townshend)
11 Ordinary Fellow [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
12 Keep Me Turning (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/EJYMmxqx

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/eQo2gTJTb8aBPhD/file

The cover photo shows Townshend in his home recording studio around 1971. In January 2025, I upgraded the image with the Krea AI program.

Pete Townsend with Raphael Rudd - Oceanic Studios, London, Britain, 11-19-1979

By 1979, Pete Townshend of the Who had only done one full solo concert, in 1974 (which I've posted here.) Then he did this acoustic concert in late 1979.

This has been officially released as the album "The Oceanic Concerts," so the sound quality is great. That release is credited to both Pete Townshend and Rafael Rudd, a pianist and harp player who was just starting his musical career. He would release a solo album in 1980 (produced by Townshend), another in 1983, and then would join the band Renaissance for a few years. The official album is split between Townshend songs and Rudd songs.

The reason I'm posting this is because I've removed all the Rudd songs to make this much more of a Townshend album. The Rudd songs are all instrumentals, generally played on the harp. They have very little to do with Townshend's style of music, and they're not my cup of tea. I'm pretty sure the only reason Townshend collaborated with Rudd at this time is that they were both followers of the religious leader Meher Baba. (In a similar way, Townshend collaborated on an album with another follower of Baba, Ronnie Lane, on a 1977 album, "Rough Mix.") Rudd does play piano or harp on some of Townshend's songs, but his contributions are relatively minor on them, in my opinion. What's left here is basically a Townshend solo acoustic concert. If you're a Townshend/Who fan, I believe in this case less is more.

The concert took place in the Oceanic Studios, which was a facility Townshend built that also doubled as a kind of center for followers of Baba. I assume the audience was made up of such followers. Fittingly, most of the songs he played related to his religious beliefs in some way, even though that might not be obvious on the surface. For instance, although "Drowned" was a part of the Who rock opera album "Quadrophenia," it has been a very religious song for Townshend, so much so that he played it to another audience of Baba followers on a pilgrimage he made to India in 1976. (The video of that performance is on YouTube, by the way.)

Some of the songs here were rarely done in concert, especially in an acoustic format, such as "The Ferryman" or "Sleeping Dog." It's especially neat that he played "A Little Is Enough" and "Let My Love Open the Door." Both of those songs would be released a year later on his "Empty Glass" album. I strongly suspect these were their first public performances. "Let My Love Open the Door" would be his biggest solo hit, but he has almost never played it acoustically like this.

After removing all the Rudd songs, the album was rather short, at just 41 minutes long. It so happens he played three other acoustic songs at the "Secret Policeman's Ball" benefit concert earlier in the year. So I've added those at the end. The one snag is that he played "Drowned" in both shows. I've kept both versions.

Including the three extra songs at the end, this concert is 55 minutes long.

01 Drowned (Pete Townshend)
02 The Seeker (Pete Townshend)
03 talk (Pete Townshend)
04 The Ferryman (Pete Townshend with Raphael Rudd)
05 A Little Is Enough (Pete Townshend with Raphael Rudd)
06 Sleeping Dog (Pete Townshend with Raphael Rudd)
07 talk (Pete Townshend)
08 Bargain (Pete Townshend)
09 talk (Pete Townshend)
10 Tattoo (Pete Townshend with Raphael Rudd)
11 Let My Love Open the Door (Pete Townshend with Raphael Rudd)
12 talk (Pete Townshend)
13 Parvardigar (Pete Townshend with Raphael Rudd)
14 Pinball Wizard (Pete Townsend)
15 Drowned (Pete Townsend)
16 Won't Get Fooled Again (Pete Townsend & John Williams)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zufYdxqj

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/yRBIU6MAL4kRfRk/file

The cover photo here doesn't have the greatest picture quality, but it's from this exact concert. In January 2025, I upgraded it somewhat with the Krea AI program.

Pete Townshend - The Roundhouse, London, Britain, 4-14-1974

If you're a Pete Townshend and/or Who fan, this is a must have album. I've never shared it before because the sound quality was a little under par. But yesterday (as I write this in November 2022), musical associate Lil Panda posted an improved version. He used audio editing programs like Spleeter or X-Minus that have emerged in recent years to improve the mix. Most importantly, he boosted the lead vocals. This is basically his version, though I trimmed the dead air between songs a bit. This still is based on an audience bootleg and the sound quality isn't stellar, but now it's good enough to be very listenable.

What makes this special is that it's a unique concert in Pete Townshend's musical history. For all of the 1960s and 1970s, he was fully dedicated to the Who. He didn't play any solo concerts until 1979, and precious few for many years after that. The first good recording of any such concert comes from 1985. Yet he did this one concert in 1974 for a local charity, playing many songs that he's never played before or since.

Here's a blurb about it written by rock critic Dave Marsh in his book "Before I Get Old - The
Story of The Who":

"On April 14, 1974 (Easter Sunday), Townshend played a solo gig-the first of his career, for the Camden Square Community Play Centre ... Meant to be a quiet afternoon's entertainment, the solo show was blown out of all proportion when the press got word of it. Townshend spent a panicky week's preparation, then came out and did a fairly casual show using electric and acoustic guitars, piano, some synthesizer tapes and the original "My Generation" demo as he ran through a set that also included 'The Seeker', Jimmy Reed's 'Big Boss Man', 'Substitute,' and 'Pinball Wizard'. Despite a drunken heckler, the show was well-received and Pete was surprisingly confident."

The concert featured just Townshend, on either piano, electric guitar, or acoustic guitar. But he used some tape loops for drumbeats on a few songs. He also played some recordings, for instance demo versions of "My Generation." The most unusual feature of the concert are the many cover songs that he rarely played in concert again, if ever: "Big Boss Man," "Amoreuse," "If I Were a Carpenter,"  "Going to New York," "Girl from the North Country," "Corrina, Corrina," and "No Face, No Name, No Number."

This album is an hour and 14 minutes long.

01 The Seeker (Pete Townshend)
02 talk (Pete Townshend)
03 Big Boss Man (Pete Townshend)
04 talk (Pete Townshend)
05 Substitute (Pete Townshend)
06 talk (Pete Townshend)
07 Amoreuse (Pete Townshend)
08 talk (Pete Townshend)
09 If I Were a Carpenter (Pete Townshend)
10 talk (Pete Townshend)
11 Happy Jack (Pete Townshend)
12 talk (Pete Townshend)
13 Tattoo (Pete Townshend)
14 talk (Pete Townshend)
15 Join My Gang (Pete Townshend)
16 talk (Pete Townshend)
17 Behind Blue Eyes (Pete Townshend)
18 Going to New York (Pete Townshend)
19 talk (Pete Townshend)
20 talk - My Generation Demos (Pete Townshend)
21 Girl from the North Country (Pete Townshend)
22 Corrina, Corrina (Pete Townshend)
23 talk (Pete Townshend)
24 No Face, No Name, No Number (Pete Townshend)
25 Let's See Action [Nothing Is Everything] (Pete Townshend)
26 Pinball Wizard (Pete Townshend)
27 See Me, Feel Me (Pete Townshend)
28 My Generation (Pete Townshend)
29 Magic Bus (Pete Townshend)
30 My Generation [Second Version] (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/seKvMbeh

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/nrdJTsTTOGcGasj/file

For the cover, I was able to find a photo from the actual concert featured here. The picture quality wasn't that great, but I was able to improve it some using Photoshop. In January 2025, I improved it a little more with the help of the Krea AI program.

Pete Townshend - Who Demos, Volume 3: 1967-1968

Back in 2019, I posted a "Volume 2" consisting of Pete Townshend demos of what would later be songs by the Who. I've found a bunch of additional demos, allowing me to split that album in two. "Volume 2" previously dealt with the years 1966 to 1968. Now it just deals with 1966, and this one is from 1967 and 1968. I had already posted an album of demos for the 1969 album "Tommy." That had been called "Volume 3," but it's been renamed to "Volume 4."

Thus, if you're interested in this kind of thing, I strongly you suggest you redownload "Volume 2" and what is now "Volume 4." I also plan to keep going with "Volume 5" and beyond.

The reason I have enough material for this is due to the release of a super deluxe edition of the Who's 1967 album "The Who Sell Out." That came out in 2021, but I'm only getting to it now. Although that is a Who release, it contained a bunch of Pete Townshend solo demos of songs slated for that album. I've used six of those here.

One more song came out on the official demo collection "Scoop" ("Melancholia") and another one came out on the similar demo collection "Another Scoop" ("Pictures of Lily"). That leaves four songs that are still officially unreleased: "Relax (Version 2)," "Rael, Parts 1-9," "Dogs," and  "Sensation (Early Demo)." That last one is a song from the Who's 1969 album "Tommy." But this demo was done in 1968, so it fits this time frame. And it's different than another demo of the same song on "Volume 4."

A version of the song "Rael" appeared on "The Who Sell Out," but this demo is significantly different, being three minutes long. The song is a strange one. Townshend summarized it in a 1967 interview: "It takes place in the year 1999 when China is breaking out and is about to take over the world. The hero, or at least, central character, loses his wife and decides to go live in this tiny country which is about to be overrun by the Chinese. The hero goes through hundreds of different situations and there is music for each. He goes out in a boat and gets shipwrecked, he has a bad nightmare, and so on."

This album is 42 minutes long.

By the way, I also have just redone all the links for all the other Pete Townshend albums I've posted. I fixed the volume balance and updated the mp3 tags to a new format. Many of the links were dead, but they're not any more. I also recently did the same for most Beck and Richard Thompson albums.

01 Relax [Version 2] (Pete Townshend)
02 Pictures of Lily (Pete Townshend)
03 Jaguar (Pete Townshend)
04 Odorono (Pete Townshend)
05 Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand (Pete Townshend)
06 I Can See for Miles (Pete Townshend)
07 Rael, Parts 1-9 (Pete Townshend)
08 Little Billy (Pete Townshend)
09 Dogs (Pete Townshend)
10 Melancholia (Pete Townshend)
11 Glow Girl (Pete Townshend)
12 Sensation [Early Demo] (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/rN3p6fbr

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/byDFKvMmT51NUuB/file

The cover photo of Townshend is was taken in a recording studio in 1968. It was black and white originally, but I colorized it. In January 2025, I improved it with the Krea AI program.

Pete Townshend - Life to Life - Non-Album Tracks (1985-1989)

Oops! I was convinced that I'd posted this album months ago. It's a stray tracks album, and I went on to post the rest of the albums in that series. Somehow, it came to my attention that I'd missed this one, so here we go. If you suspect I've missed other albums that are in a series, please let me know.

In the 1980s, Pete Townshend had a fairly active solo career. In 1985, he released the album "White City," which I think is one of his best. This starts with a couple of bonus tracks from that album, and continues to a B-side from his next album in 1989. In between are mostly demos and live tracks. I believe five songs are not written by him: "Save It for Later," "Night Train," "Cool Jerk," "That's Alright, Mama," and "I Put a Spell on You."

"Dig" was a minor hit from Townshend's 1989 album "The Iron Man." But that version was played by the Who, and the lead vocals were sung by Who singer Roger Daltrey. This is a rare B-side version actually sung by Townshend.

In terms of sound quality, everything here is fine. Only two songs are officially unreleased, and both of those sound as good as any official live album.

This album is 46 minutes long.

01 Save It for Later (Pete Townshend)
02 Night School (Pete Townshend)
03 Lonely Words (Pete Townshend)
04 That's All Right, Mama (Pete Townshend)
05 Life to Life (Pete Townshend)
06 Night Train (Pete Townshend)
07 I Put a Spell on You (Pete Townshend)
08 Cool Jerk [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
09 Real World [Can You Really Dance] (Pete Townshend)
10 How Did You Love Me Then [Version 1] (Pete Townshend)
11 Penny Drop (Pete Townshend)
12 Dig [Pete Vocal Version] (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/i2Jaimob

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/eK3UfC9AbupWxxA/file

The cover art photo is from a mid-1980s publicity photo.

Pete Townshend - Who Demos, Volume 4: 1969: Tommy

Earlier this month, the Who released a studio album of all new material, simply called "Who." It's their first new album since "Endless Wire" in 2006. It's surprisingly good, and certainly better than "Endless Wire." A lot of Who fans are saying it's the band's best since "Who Are You" in 1978 or "Who by Numbers" in 1975.

In celebration of that new release, I wanted to post something Who-related, and this Pete Townshend album of demos is next on my "to do" list. But first, note that I'm adding two bonus tracks from the new Who album to an album I've already posted. Most versions of the new album come with three bonus tracks. But one of them, "Got Nothing to Prove," is actually a Pete Townshend demo from 1966 with some new overdubs to give it more of a full, Who-like sound. It's a nice song, but in my opinion it seems extremely out of place on the new album. Townshend's voice alone places it in the 1960s.

Furthermore, the Who have released another bonus track, "Sand." But this one is only available on the Japanese version of the new album! Either that, or one can buy it on a "deluxe" version of the new album, with only this one extra song, for $50. Just like "Got Nothing to Prove," "Sand" really is a Townshend demo from 1966, with new overdubs to give it a fuller sound. I think it's an even better song, but it also feels extremely out of place in context of the new album. I think it's unreasonable for fans to have to pay $50 or track down a Japanese album just for one song.

Thus, I've just added both of these songs to my album of 1966 Who stray tracks, "Ready Steady Go." It's debatable if these are Who songs or Pete Townshend songs. Even though Townshend is probably the only member of the Who on both of them, I've decided to consider them Who songs, since they're released that way, and they've been fleshed out to fit with a Who sound.

Here's the link to the updated version of my 1966 Who album, with the two songs added:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-who-ready-steady-who-various-songs.html

Now, let me get to this album. This is very straight forward. These are all Pete Townshend demos of the Who's 1969 album "Tommy," listed in the same order as that album. "Tommy" was released in mid-1969, but most if not all of the demos actually date to 1968.

All these demos have been officially released, as part of a "super deluxe" edition of "Tommy" released in 2013. Normally, I wouldn't want to post released material like this. But I'm making an exception so there won't be a whole in my long chronological series of albums collecting Pete Townshend's demos of Who songs.

By the way, the instrumental "Dream One" appears here but not on the final "Tommy" album. 

This album is an hour and nine minutes long. 

01 Overture [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
02 It's a Boy (Pete Townshend)
03 1921 (Pete Townshend)
04 Amazing Journey (Pete Townshend)
05 Dream One [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
06 Sparks [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
07 Eyesight to the Blind [The Hawker] (Pete Townshend)
08 Christmas (Pete Townshend)
09 The Acid Queen (Pete Townshend)
10 Underture [Dream Two] [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
11 Do You Think It's Alright (Pete Townshend)
12 Pinball Wizard (Pete Townshend)
13 There's a Doctor (Pete Townshend)
14 Go to the Mirror (Pete Townshend)
15 Success (Pete Townshend)
16 Tommy Can You Hear Me (Pete Townshend)
17 Smash the Mirror (Pete Townshend)
18 Sensation (Pete Townshend)
19 Miracle Cure (Pete Townshend)
20 Sally Simpson (Pete Townshend)
21 I'm Free (Pete Townshend)
22 Welcome (Pete Townshend)
23 We're Not Gonna Take It (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/HM5zuHjk

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/0kPHXmdCcQxzoNh/file

For the cover art, I used a photo of Townshend in his home studio around 1968 or 1969. But it didn't seem "Tommy"-esque enough for me. So I overlaid the "Tommy" album cover and let that show around the edges. Finally, I tinted to photo blue to better match the "Tommy" artwork.

Pete Townshend - Who Demos, Volume 2: 1966

I recently posted an album of Pete Townshend's demos of Who songs from 1964 to 1965. This is a sequel to that, dealing with the year 1966. Naturally, the series will continue until the end of the Who's main era, through 1982.

I love virtually all of the Who's studio work, but I especially enjoy this era, roughly covering the "A Quick One" album, plus assorted singles. It seems we only are lucky enough to get a random grab bag of demos from this time.

Only five of the songs here have been officially released, all of them on the demo compilations "Scoop" and "Another Scoop," or the super deluxe edition of "The Who Sell Out." But that's okay, because the other songs generally have a similar sound quality. One exception is "I'm a Boy." The sound quality for that one is pretty good, except there's a fair amount of popping and crackling. I'm guessing someone recorded an acetate record, which quickly degraded each time it was played. But the song is still worth inclusion, especially because it's a lot longer than the single, and has some extra lyrics.

Some of the other songs have significant differences with the Who versions, for instance "Magic Bus."  But, generally speaking, these demos aren't like normal demos in that they sound good enough to be released at the time.

This album is 38 minutes long.

01 Substitute (Pete Townshend)
02 Run Run Run [Version 1] (Pete Townshend)
03 Disguises (Pete Townshend)
04 Happy Jack (Pete Townshend)
05 Don't Look Away (Pete Townshend)
06 I'm a Boy (Pete Townshend)
07 Relax [Version 1] (Pete Townshend)
08 So Sad about Us (Pete Townshend)
09 Magic Bus (Pete Townshend)
10 Run Run Run [Version 2] (Pete Townshend)
11 Sunrise [Version 2] (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/AoqKhsgE

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/jbPCi342zwtUnm1/file

I'm not sure when or where the photo for the cover art comes from. But clearly Townshend is playing a 12-string guitar in a studio. Based on his appearance, I'd guess it's from 1966 or 1967. Oh, by the way, the photo ended right above Townshend's head. I did a little Photoshop work to extend the background higher.

Pete Townshend - Who Demos, Volume 1: 1964-1965

So far, I've posted a lot of Pete Townshend music. I've created a bunch of albums mainly out of his demos, which often sound like finished, professional tracks. But I was careful not to include any songs that appeared on albums by The Who. I've been saving those for this series, which are all his solo demos of Who songs.

This just covers 1964 and 1965, the first two years of the Who (once they'd switched to that name). All but one of the songs are officially released. There aren't many surprises, except that "Call Me Lightning," which was released in 1968, and "Sunrise," which was released in 1967, actually date from these years.

These demos sound a lot like what the Who would have been if Townshend had been the lead singer instead of Roger Daltrey. Of course, you miss some special Who elements, such as Keith Moon's drumming and John Entwistle's bass playing. But, generally speaking, these could have been officially released at the time and they would have fared very well compared to what other bands were doing then.

This album is a bit short at only 30 minutes long. Unfortunately, that's all from these years that have been made publicly available. No doubt, there are more of Townshend's demos in the vaults. Hopefully those will be released someday.

01 Call Me Lightning (Pete Townshend)
02 The Kids Are Alright (Pete Townshend)
03 A Legal Matter (Pete Townshend)
05 My Generation (Pete Townshend)
06 Much Too Much (Pete Townshend)
07 Circles (Pete Townshend)
08 It's Not True (Pete Townshend)
09 La-La-La-Lies (Pete Townshend)
10 The Good's Gone (Pete Townshend)
11 Sunrise (Pete Townshend)
12 My Generation [Version 3] (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/3KnsMCyw

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/QBk2X0dxpMbKG7Q/file

Normally, I hate to use black and white photos for the cover art. I could have easily found a good color photo of Townshend by himself. But I went with the photo I chose, because it shows him actually recording in a studio around this time period. Over a year later, I found a good colorizing program, so I colorized it. Then, in January 2025, I upgraded the image with the Krea AI program.

Pete Townshend - It Must Be Done - Non-Album Tracks (2004-2015)

I've posted a long series of albums of Pete Townshend stray tracks. This is the last one, at least until more songs come to light. I must admit I don't think his stray tracks from the 1990s were consistently strong when compared to his earlier work. But, in my opinion, he does better here. Yes, it covers a decade of time, but this makes for a consistently solid listen.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think I count five cover versions: "Stone (Evolution)" by Ronnie Lane, "No Face, No Name, No Number" by Traffic, "Three Steps to Heaven" by Eddie Cochran, "Corrina, Corrina," a traditional song famously done by Bob Dylan, and "Chameleon" done by and with Des Horsfall's Kuschty Rye.

The latter, by the way, is a band that is extremely influenced by Ronnie Lane's music, naming themselves after one of his songs and including some members of his band. So "Chameleon" sounds uncannily (in a good way) like a Townshend-Lane collaboration that could have been found on their 1977 album together, "Rough Mix."

Two of the original songs, "In the Ether" and "Endless Wire," are solo versions of songs from the 2006 Who album "Endless Wire." They sound very different (and in my opinion better) in stripped down versions here, without any Roger Daltrey. Note that the era of this album overlaps with the "in the Attic" recordings Townshend did from 2005 to 2007. I haven't included any performances here that are on that, though a couple of the song are the same, but different versions.

Here's the link to the "In the Attic" album. If you've a Townshend or Who fan at all, you really should give it a listen:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2018/04/pete-townshend-in-attic-2005-2007.html

One of the most recent songs here, "Guantanamo," is going to be on a new Who album coming out at the end of 2019, which will simply be called "Who." This version of the song came out on a 2015 Pete Townshend greatest hits album. But the Who version is going to be called "Ball and Chain," even though the lyrics indicate it's the same song. So I've included that new name as a subtitle.

Six of the songs are officially unreleased. For a few of those, the sound quality is a little less than the others, notably "Three Steps to Heaven." But it's nothing too bad.

I haven't found anything worthy of inclusion from after 2015, so this should be the last album in this stray tracks series, as I mentioned above.

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 Stone [Evolution] (Pete Townshend & Slim Chance)
02 Heart to Hang On To (Pete Townshend & Sam Brown)
03 In the Ether (Pete Townshend)
04 Endless Wire (Pete Townshend)
05 No Face, No Name, No Number (Pete Townshend)
06 Three Steps to Heaven (Eric Clapton & Friends with Pete Townshend)
07 Corrina, Corrina (Pete Townshend)
08 Guitar Instrumental (Pete Townshend)
09 It Must Be Done (Pete Townshend & Nathan Barr)
10 You Stand by Me (Pete Townshend & Eddie Vedder)
11 Chameleon (Pete Townshend & Des Horsfall's Kuschty Rye)
12 How Can I Help You (Pete Townshend)
13 Guantanamo [Ball and Chain] (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/45MVHUvt

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/sGSilD0qbyHmuJE/file

For the album cover, I used a photo of Townshend from a 2014 awards ceremony.

Pete Townshend - Looking for Words - Non-Album Tracks (1997-2001)

I must say I'm disappointed with what Pete Townshend has done with his music career since the early 1990s. 1993 is the last time he's released a solo album of new music, remarkably enough. He spends a lot of time touring with the Who, but they've only put out one album of new music since 1982 ("Endless Wire" in 2006), and they've become a nostalgia act leaning on their long ago glory days. (Reportedly the Who will release a new studio album in the next year, so I hope they come up with something good and new.)

What frustrates me is that Townshend is a musical genius who could do so much better. Other artists of his age and caliber such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, Ray Davies, and so on have continued to put out new music on a fairly regular basis. But what this album of stray tracks shows is that Townshend has been making new music all along, it's just that he doesn't seem particularly interested in gathering it into albums and sharing it with the public. And that's just considering what's publicly available. The indications are he's done a lot more with his home recording than has even been bootlegged.

Anyway, this album is a mix of all sorts of different things. I named it after the song "Looking for Words" (which ironically has words) because Townshend made a lot of instrumentals during these years. There are five here. More songs are covers, or duets with famous people of songs from earlier in his career ("So Sad about Us" and "Heart to Hang Onto"). I only could two new original songs with lyrics "Looking for Words" and "Can You Help the One You Really Love." That said, the album is still a solid listen for any Pete Townshend fan.

About half the album is officially unreleased stuff, mostly cover versions done in concert. The sound quality of those are pretty good, and of course the officially released stuff sound excellent. 

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 Prelude 970519 [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
02 Christine's Tune [Devil in Disguise] (Pete Townshend)
03 Embraceable You (Pete Townshend)
04 Going Up the Country (Pete Townshend with Taj Mahal)
05 On the Road Again (Pete Townshend)
06 Hinterland Rag [Piano Rag for Three Hands] [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
07 Heart to Hang Onto (Pete Townshend & Eddie Vedder)
08 Can You Help the One You Really Love (Pete Townshend)
09 Collings [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
10 So Sad about Us (Pete Townshend & Paul Weller)
11 Variations on Dirty Jobs [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
12 Looking for Words (Pete Townshend)
13 St. James Infirmary (Pete Townshend)
14 Wired to the Moon [Part 2] [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/fwf5BD8f

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/qjiE8IeplLhebPF/file

I don't know what year the photo I used for the album cover is from. I'm guessing it's from roughly around the era of this album, give or take. But I wanted to use it since it's a rare chance to see Townshend tinkering in his home recording studio.

Pete Townshend - Uneasy Street - Non-Album Tracks (1990-1997)

Pete Townshend regularly released solo albums every few years through 1993. Then he stopped. His 1993 studio album is still his last one. (He did write the songs for a Who album in 2006.) He has continued to perform a lot of concerts, especially with the Who, but he hasn't even released many other solo songs since the early 1990s (for instance as singles or on compilations).

However, Townshend has continued to make new music since that time. It's just that he's been very low key about releasing it, if he bothers to release it at all. He's put out some more recent songs on his series of "Scoop" albums. He also released 20 demos, many of them dating from the 1990s, as a free download that briefly appeared on his website, called "Twenty." Other songs have only been played in concert.

I've compiled a bunch of these songs to make this album. Unfortunately, I don't think they're a strong bunch of songs, by his standards. It's known that he was busy with other work and hobbies for much of his time in the 1990s, so clearly he wasn't writing songs with the same fire as earlier in his career. But Townshend is so musically talented that even his less that great stuff is pretty good in my eyes.

I made two songs bonus tracks simply because I didn't think they were strong enough compared to the others. 

This album is 40 minutes long, not including the bonus tracks.

01 Flying Boy (Pete Townshend)
02 Squirm Squirm (Pete Townshend)
03 Wistful [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
04 Uneasy Street (Pete Townshend)
05 Got Love If You Want It - I'm the Face (Pete Townshend)
06 I Believe My Own Eyes (Pete Townshend)
07 No Message in a Broken Heart (Pete Townshend)
08 Latin Thing [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
09 The Shout [New Version] (Pete Townshend)
10 If You Live - Young Man Blues (Pete Townshend)
11 Uneasy Street (Pete Townshend)
12 Drumming [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)

971104 Arpeggio Piano [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
Poem Disturbed [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/ZLu1ZqPt

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/uk6xbtkQIkxBrcG/file

For the album cover, I used a promo photo of Townshend from 1996.

Pete Townshend - After the Fire - Non-Album Tracks (1983-1985)

This continues Townshend's stray tracks from where I left off last time. In 1982, he released his solo album "All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes," and in 1985, he released another solo album, "White City." This covers 1983 to 1985, the time leading up to the release of "White City." He was so prolific in this era that I've had to save most of his 1985 songs for the next album in this series.

Personally, I think "White City" is an excellent album, maybe even my favorite Townshend solo album, so it's not surprising that the other songs from this time period are also good. All but two of the songs here are originals. The two covers, "Harlem Shuffle" and "Barefootin'," come from one of the very few concerts he did in the 1980s. (He only did a handful of concerts, all in 1985 or 1986.)

Throughout Townshend's solo career, he's had a fondness for instrumentals. This album is a case in point, with four of the songs being such. One of them, "God Speaks of Marty Robbins," dates to 1984. In 2006, the Who would release a version of this song on their "Endless Wire" album. But that version has lyrics and this version does not, so I figured it was different enough to warrant inclusion, especially due to the 22 year gap between the two versions.

In my opinion, he made a few too many instrumentals that weren't that different from each other. So I've added the one I liked the least as a bonus track only.

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 Prelude, the Right to Write [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
02 All Lovers Are Deranged (Pete Townshend)
03 Maxims for Lunch (Pete Townshend)
04 Ask Yourself (Pete Townshend)
05 God Speaks of Marty Robbins [Instrumental Version] (Pete Townshend)
06 Why D'You Stand So Close to that Man Last Night (Pete Townshend)
07 The Shout (Pete Townshend)
08 Cat Snatch [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
09 Commonwealth Boys (Pete Townshend)
10 You'll Never Be Alone Again (Pete Townshend)
11 Elephants [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
12 Harlem Shuffle (Pete Townshend)
13 Barefootin' (Pete Townshend)
14 After the Fire (Pete Townshend)

Theme 019 [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/LhfaPziS

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/AUiFmgqBF5u5cia/file

I made the cover art using a publicity photo from 1985.

Pete Townshend - Body Language - Non-Album Tracks (1980-1982)

Pete Townshend was very productive writing songs between 1980 and 1982. He wrote the vast majority of the songs on two Who album released in that time, and released two solo acclaimed albums besides that. Furthermore, I think this post shows that he could have released yet another solo album in that time period. And that's just from the demos that have been made public.

Indeed, nearly all the songs here are from his demos, generally released on his three Scoop albums. There's also one demo from a bootleg with slightly less sound quality ("What Is Love"). Furthermore, there are two songs from a bootleg of a concert he did in 1981. One is the R&B standard "Big Boss Man."

The other needs some explanation, because it's the song "Body Language," and I've put two versions of that here. One is from a demo and the other is from the concert. The reason I'm including both is because they're so different. One is less than two minutes, and the other is over five minutes long, for starters. The sound quality of the two songs from the concert are also slightly below the other songs, but I think they're worth including, especially since they've hardly even been bootlegged.

By the way, I didn't include one song from this time period that was included on "Scoop 3," and that's "Theme 017." In my opinion, it's an unimpressive and short instrumental. However, I've thrown it on as a bonus track, because why not.

01 Prelude No. 556 [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
02 Dance It Away (Pete Townshend)
03 Body Language [Demo Version] (Pete Townshend)
04 You're So Clever (Pete Townshend)
05 Zelda (Pete Townshend)
06 Ascension Two (Pete Townshend)
07 Dirty Water (Pete Townshend)
08 Driftin' Blues (Pete Townshend)
09 Big Boss Man (Pete Townshend)
10 It's in Ya [It's in You] (Pete Townshend)
11 What Is Love (Pete Townshend)
12 Holly like Ivy (Pete Townshend)
13 Man Watching (Pete Townshend)
14 Vivienne (Pete Townshend)
15 Body Language (Pete Townshend)
16 Baroque Ippanese [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)

Theme 017 [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/B5dBTd6H

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/ojvU0lCvgbWy8Qx/file

Admittedly, I pictured a pretty strange photo for the cover art. But it is a pic of Townshend in 1982, doing a promo for MTV. It seemed fitting to have an unusual expression for an album called "Body Language." In January 2025, I used the Krea AI program to sharpen up the image some.