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.

UPDATE: On November 13, 2022, I updated the mp3 download file. I found enough songs to split this album in two and create a "Volume 3." As part of that, I added the song "Relax (Version 1)." I moved "I Can See for Miles," "Pictures of Lily," "Dogs," "Melancholia," and "Sensation [Early Demo]" to the newly created "Volume 3."

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://www.imagenetz.de/kpx6R

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.