Because he wrote the vast majority of The Who's songs, Pete Townshend seemed less likely to need a solo career than frustrated songwriter John Entwistle. So, naturally, the bass player was the first member of the band to release a proper solo album, but Townshend had frustrations of his own. Incorrigibly prolific and eclectic beyond The Who's patented bash and bluster, Townshend ended up with a massive backlog of material. Some of it squeaked out on records mostly passed out to followers of his preferred spiritual leader, Meher Baba, and a more widely distributed release called Who Came First that was credited to Townshend but also included songs by fellow followers Billy Nicholls and Face Ronnie Lane.
In 1977, Townshend and Lane entered into a more official and democratic collaboration. Made at Olympic Studios instead of the rougher Eel Pie, Rough Mix was a truly fine record with excellent songs by both contributors, sharp sound by ace producer Glyn Johns, and top-tier support from such guest stars as Charlie Watts, Eric Clapton, Ian Stewart, future Who bandmate Rabbit Bundrick, and current one John Entwistle. Although Baba's philosophies still informed a lot of the songs, Rough Mix was a much less dogmatic record than any of Townshend's earlier efforts outside The Who. The down-home sounds of Lane's solo work and the shambling boogie of The Faces informs a record that sounds nothing like a Who one. Its best tracks are its quietest, with Lane turning in a folk ballad called "Annie" that will draw tears from all but the most stoic schmucks and Townshend composing a breathtaking landscape called "Street in the City" featuring his incomparable acoustic fingerpicking and a dramatic orchestral score by his then father-in-law Ted Astley.
Considering the densely conceptual and intensely personal music Townshend had spent most of the seventies making, Rough Mix was probably the most accessible thing he'd made since Who's Next. But it would be his first real solo album that would go top-five and really start his career outside The Who. With a tougher rock sound, Empty Glass certainly sounds more like The Who than Who I Am or Rough Mix, but it was the effervescent "Let My Love Open the Door" that made the album a smash. Roger Daltrey was annoyed that Townshend was now keeping his best songs for his own records, but it's hard to imagine how that guy would have interpreted tender stuff like "Let My Love", "Keep On Working", "I Am an Animal", or the Kate Bush-like "And I Moved". It's also hard to imagine that the homoeroticism in the latter song and the minor hit "Rough Boys" would have sat well with Mr. Macho Daltrey or that Entwistle's busy fretting and Kenny Jones's mid-tempo metronome would have done justice to "Rough Boys" and "Jools and Jim", on which Townshend finally contends with his own influence on the already-waning punk movement. So though a lot of Wholigans like to imagine what Empty Glass would have sounded like as a Who record, it's probably for the best that it wasn't one.
The first two really polished records Pete Townshend made outside The Who are now getting a vinyl rerelease with the half-speed mastering process intended to bring out the best in polished recordings. These discs, mastered by Who catalog tender Jon Astley and cut by Miles Showell, compare well with the original releases from 1977 and 1980, which already sounded really good (particularly Rough Mix; Empty Glass has a slightly flatter sound). Aside from some inner groove distortion at the end of Side A of Rough Mix, I have no complaints about these records. Both include obis and Empty Glass includes a bonus poster and printed inner sleeve that recreates the original while Rough Mix arrives in a poly-lined inner. These are the first releases in what will be an ongoing series, so presumably, All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes and White City will be You-Know-Who's next.
