Who Came First (Vinyl) [Import]

Like ROUGH MIX, the album Townshend cut with Ronnie Lane, WHO CAME FIRST mixes a batch of unrelated tunes--some rejected by the Who, some Townshend didn't want to give the Who, and some surprising covers--and fuses them into a little gem of a record.

"Pure & Easy" is one of the best songs Townshend ever wrote. While I prefer the Who version on ODDS & SODs, Townshend does a great acoustic version here. Lane takes the lead on "Evolution" which is...well, very Ronnie Lane-ish. Like your neighbor sitting on his back step with a guitar and a pint of Guiness.

I love the sappy acoustic tunes "Time Is Passing," "There's A Heartache Following Me" and, especially and always, "Sheraton Gibson." Just great great great stuff from a period when Townshend could do anything--ANYTHING--on the guitar. The most intimidating wizard of all, in my book, even more so than Hendrix because Townshend never lost the beat in the midst of his revery (how's that for a poetic twitch?).

And "Content" is almost angelic. Other than George Harrison I can't imagine anyone in Rock at the time (1972) who would have dared be this fragile and prostrate on a solo LP.

For all his human shortcomings, Townshend remains my hero--guitar, spiritual, philosophical, whatever--and this album demonstrates the real heart of why that came to be. There are no hits, and that's really the point: this was a demonstration of a kind of faith, not an attempt to conquer Top Of The Pops.

Later in the 70's Townshend would fight an internal battle to mix this kind of spiritual enlightenment with an urge to remain commercially viable; he would try to inject this kind of philosophical openness into a Rock/Pop Rock format. Whether or not he was successful--and whether or not that effort led, in part or in whole, to the creative collapse of the Who--is a wordy issued we can debate some other time.

This is a great record,, though, no matter how you approach it.

"Who Came First" features some terrific material that Pete wrote for the Lifehouse project (and that eventually ended up being released by The Who as well)along with originals written for this album and a guest appearence by the late great Ronnie Lane from the Faces. It's a terrific album that more than holds its own with later Townshend solo masterpieces (such as the more aggressive sounding rockin' album "Empty Glass"). The bonus tracks includes the acoustic "Sleeping Dogs" and "Mary Jane" with its banjo playing give the album a diverse sound. Some of these were on the earlier Ryko disc but, if I recall, the three bonus tracks at the end "Mary Jane", "I Always Say" and a re-recording of the standard "Begin the Beuine" round out this terrific re-release.

From the opening track "Pure and Easy" (which somehow sounds more personal and intimate when Pete sings it and the same can be said for "Let's See Action" although I prefer the Who version)through to "Time Is Passing" and re-recordings of "The Seeker" just about every track is a strong one.

Hip-O has done a great service for Townshend and Who fans by making this available again (with some terrific bonus tracks no less expanding on the original release)after Ryko's CD went out of print. The remastering sounds extremely good on this edition and the price is just right for fans.

Highly recommended.

And now, once again we have another release of: Pete Townshend's "Who Came First" First on these shores in 1972, released on compact disc in the mid-eighties and a limited edition deluxe package released in 1992. Well, here we go once again in 2006.

As it is great to see: "Who Came First" back for sale at a reasonable price with a tiny improvement in sound quality. The ulitimate deluxe CD edition is STILL the 1992 RYKODISC version as it tops this edition for bigger and better packaging of the material. That edition included a 64 page booklet in a hard-shell book casing that is really nice and it INCLUDES Pete's Rolling Stone essay from November 1970 "In Love With Meher Baba" that is NOT a part of this package.

That said this edition has upped the amount of bonus tracks to NINE in addition to the original nine tracks of the 1972 version. Now we have 73 minutes of music (the first 6 bonus cuts are included on the 1992 deluxe edition) and that alone is enough for Who-Freaks to shell out their money one more time. The uncovered tracks are: "Mary Jane" "I Always Say" & "Begin The Beguine." Well, firstly you can already find "Beguine" as part of Pete's "SCOOP" series so this is already out there elsewhere so it don't count as anything new, so we are now are down to two tracks we haven't heard before, "Mary Jane" is a wierd little ditty with very strange - computer altered acoustic guitar and heartfelt singing from Pete. "I Always Say" gives Pete the chance to sing da blooze in a Mersybeat style, both tracks have escaped the Bootleggers, so they are both are released for the very first time.

We all know and love the original version (that included a beautiful painting as poster by Mike McInnerny) that has NOT been included in the package since the LP of 1972. And the fantastic songs: "Pure & Easy" "Let's See Action" "Time Is Passing" "Sheraton Gibson" & "Parvardigar." The demo version of "The Seeker" and the wonderful tune "Sleeping Dog" are also worth notice.

This is a 5-star release, but I will be subtracting 1-star for INCOMPLETE PACKAGING!!! Next time do this RIGHT and include the beautiful poster and bring the booklet back up to at LEAST 64 pages. This release is NOT as DELUXE as it should be.
JAI PETE!

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