Pete Townshend - Rael - Non-Album Tracks (1965-1968)

There are so many artists whose recorded output is messed up and needs a complete overhaul. I plan on posting a lot more of the Who, but I have many alternate Pete Townshend albums too.

Basically, Townshend has recorded tons of demos over the years, both songs later played by the Who and songs just for himself. He's released some over the years, mainly in his "Scoop" series, but there are plenty more still unreleased. An example of that would be three demos of good songs that finally were released in 2016 as part of a "super deluxe" re-release of the Who's "My Generation" album that were of songs that hadn't even been bootlegged before. And apparently that was only a small number of his personal favorites that he chose to release from that year alone. And in his case, "demos" aren't really demos, but usually sound like well produced songs.

But of all his demos that we know of, I believe I can make no less than seven albums of good songs not on any Who albums and also not on any of his official solo albums. This is the first.

Despite my blog title, this is an album that really shouldn't exist. Having a band member do a solo album wasn't really a thing yet in 1968. Besides, if Townshend had released a solo album in the late 1960s, it almost certainly wouldn't have had anything like this song list. We know he was working on a min-opera called "Rael" that was at least 20 minutes long, so that would have dominated it. A five minute version of that was done by the Who on the "Who Sell Out" album in 1967.

The rest of the album really is a grab bag of all the good Townshend songs from 1965 to 1968 that weren't done by the Who. There's a big change in styles from 1965 to 1968, so the songs are in loose chronological order. Only six of them have been officially released so far. Hopefully Townshend will someday release a lot more of his demos, and in less scattershot fashion. But until then, this makes a good listen of all the publicly available non-Who songs from before he focused all his attention on his "Tommy" rock opera.

Note that there was one song I didn't include - "Do the Strip," because I simply didn't think it was a good song. From the title alone, one can see it's a silly novelty dance number. However, for anyone who is a completist, I included it as an unnumbered bonus track. Apparently, at one point, the Who seriously considered recording it and releasing it as their next single. Lucky they didn't do that.

The song "Sand," only became available in April 2019 when an acetate of the song was put up for auction. A sample of over one minute was made public to drum up interest in the auction. That covered all of the first verse and chorus, but only one line of the second verse. So, after that one line, I repeated the rest of the first verse and chorus to make it sound like a full song. 

Note that this version is not the same as the version released as a bonus track on some rare editions of the 2019 Who album "WHO." It's very similar, and that version dates from around this time. In fact, it could be that version is this version, but with more instruments and vocals added. But there definitely is a fuller arrangement with that one. So I put that other version on a 1960s Who stray tracks album called "Ready Steady Who."

This album is 52 minutes, not including the bonus track.

UPDATE: On November 26, 2023, I updated the mp3 download file. I added the songs "Kids, Do You Want Kids," "Inside Outside," and "I Always Say." I removed "Rael, Parts 1-9."  That's a Who song, so I put it on the Townshend album "Who Demos, Volume 3." I considered changing the album title, but I'm keeping it since there still is the song "Rael- That Motherland Feeling."

01 Things Have Changed (Pete Townshend)
02 As Children We Grew (Pete Townshend)
03 The Girls I Could've Had (Pete Townshend)
04 My Own Love (Pete Townshend)
05 Sand [Edit] (Pete Townshend)
06 King Rabbit (Pete Townshend)
07 Lazy Fat People (Pete Townshend)
08 Goin' Fishin' (Pete Townshend)
09 Kids, Do You Want Kids (Pete Townshend)
10 Inside Outside (Pete Townshend)
11 Kill My Appetite [Edit] (Pete Townshend)
12 Politician (Pete Townshend)
13 Rael- That Motherland Feeling (Pete Townshend)
14 Eel Pie Blues [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
15 Cookin' (Pete Townshend)
16 My Brother and I (Pete Townshend)
17 The Lone Ranger [Instrumental] (Pete Townshend)
18 I Always Say (Pete Townshend)

Do the Strip (Pete Townshend)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15987428/PeteT_1965-1968_Rael_atse.zip.html

For the cover, I used a photo of Townshend from 1968.