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://www.imagenetz.de/jjxkf

The cover photo here doesn't have the greatest picture quality, but it's from this exact concert.