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Songs to Re-Pete

Which Pete Townshend record do you want to hang onto when you wash ashore?

1)"My Baby Gives It Away" (with Ronnie Lane, plus Charlie Watts)	0 votes
2) "Rough Boys"	2 votes
3) "Let My Love Open The Door"	8 votes
4) "Slit Skirts"	2 votes
5) "Give Blood" (with David Gilmour)	0 votes
6) "Face The Face"	3 votes
7) "Second-Hand Love"	0 votes
8) "A Friend Is A Friend"	0 votes
9) "English Boy"	1 votes

AG/DC Jun 10 2008 09:58 PM

Pick your favorite Pete Townshend song to abandon yourself with. (Covers from Scoop and Deep End LIVE! are disqualified, particularly Who covers.) 1)"My Baby Gives It Away" (with Ronnie Lane, plus Charlie Watts) 2) "Rough Boys" 3) "Let My Love Open The Door" 4) "Slit Skirts" 5) "Give Blood" (with David Gilmour) 6) "Face The Face" 7) "Second-Hand Love" 8) "A Friend Is A Friend" 9) "English Boy"

Gwreck Jun 10 2008 10:02 PM

Seems like too good of an artist to be having a very important poll. Let My Love Open the Door slightly nudged out Rough Boys.

AG/DC Jun 10 2008 10:09 PM

Yeah, Bananarama was disappointed.

A Boy Named Seo Jun 11 2008 12:02 AM

Loved them closeted gay Boston dudes in the "Let My Love Open the Door" vid. Dig that song, too. My vote's cast.

seawolf17 Jun 11 2008 04:08 AM

If I know what song I'm going to vote for before I even look at the choices, then it's a no-brainer. "Let My Love Open The Door" is an easy winner.

AG/DC Jun 11 2008 06:29 AM

Look at 'em anyways. I was trying to think of anything but the Mets late last night, and the groovey little lick to the first song came into my head. Cheered me right up.

AG/DC Jun 11 2008 06:35 AM

Oops, left out "Face Dances, Part II," the title track to a Who album which didn't end up on a Who album.

sharpie Jun 11 2008 07:02 AM

Write in for "Pure and Easy." Love that song -- better than "Song Is Over" -- and done before Pete got too into those syruby synths. "Let My Love Open the Door" is the best of the lot put forth.

Frayed Knot Jun 11 2008 07:29 AM

Tough to knock out 'Rough Boys', but I went with 'Slit Skirts' (even though Pete claims to hate it) on the basis of less radio overkill. but unlike me she don't work off her frustrations in a gym

AG/DC Jun 11 2008 07:37 AM

"Slit Skirts" (and, presumably, the rest of All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes) features the bassist and drummer that would stay together and go on to found the rhythm section for Big Country.

AG/DC Jun 11 2008 08:15 AM

The sound quality on "Silt Skirts" is pretty poor, and, if I can find a cleaner version of that clip, I'll replace it, but the last refrains features a flying harmonica improvisation that was edited out of the version we all remember. It's not great but it's different.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Jun 11 2008 08:15 AM

It got difficult to distinguish PT solo work from latter-day Who work after awhile. I read once that "Empty Glass" was originally supposed to be a Who record, then when "Face Dances" came along it was as if Pete was already out of bullets. This is all in retrospect: I was 14 when "Empty Glass" came out and I loved it; 15 when "Face Dances" was out and I liked that too, but a less. Then I thought The Who jumped the shark with It's Hard. But put the 3 together and you have a record of Extraordinary Magnitude. Here's an un-nominated song from MT Glass I loved back in the day. It has that whole terrible 80s Moody Blues/Alan Parsons Project intro and a synthy refrain, but you gotta like it: I am still making up my mind on which to vote for.

AG/DC Jun 11 2008 08:30 AM

Well, over-reliance of synth licks is a trait of The Who going well back into the seventies. I think it's in part him composing these songs as fully fleshed out demos in his home studio and being a limited guitar player (though still a guitar hero). He takes those songs to the Who, and they don't have the right insturmentalists to replace those synth licks, so they get a synth player to play them in the shadows. The Moody Blues/Alan Parsons comparison is apt. But no synth over-drenching can destroy a couplet like "Your love's so incredible! Your body's so edible!" Another possible write-in is "Stop Hurting People," if you like his Peter Gabriel-y spoken-poetry-against-backing-chord-progression thing.

Rockin' Doc Jun 11 2008 04:19 PM

Rough Boys barely edges out LMLOTD for me.

sharpie Jun 12 2008 06:43 AM

"Pure and Easy" came on my ipod this morning. It reconfirmed my write-in vote.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Jun 12 2008 07:25 AM

I'm more familiar with Daltrey singing Pure & Easy... and Keith drumming on it. Nice song but it's uncertain origins (to me) is gonna disqualify it. I'm gonna go vote for Slit Skirts. Never though LMLOTD was all that great.

AG/DC Jun 12 2008 07:33 AM

Meet Virginia Astley, pianist on "Slit Skirts."

Fman99 Jun 14 2008 03:45 PM

Oh and I voted for Face the Face, based solely on the strength of the gold-colored sportcoat Pete wears in the video.