12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
an excellent buy, Oct 18 2006
By Gordon Pfannenstiel - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Scoop 3 (Audio CD)
I've held off buying Scoop 3; I don't really know why. Both Scoop and Another Scoop were revelatory and excellent. Maybe I was skeptical of Townsehnd's later work. Maybe I was just waiting for this reiusse. I don't know if it is a sonic upgrade, but it is another uniformly exellent batch of demos from Pete. I was uncertain that Scoop 3 could match the quality of the previous Scoops, as I thought his songwriting had diminished some over the years. Turns out that might have just been production. These demos are nearly as good as the ones on the previous Scoops, and Townshend's liner notes are, as always, highly entertaining.
At the current going price, this is a very good buy. Highly recommended.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Remastered journey through Pete's archive of demos..., Nov 13 2006
By WTDK "If at first the idea is not absurd, the... - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Scoop 3 (Audio CD)
The third installment (and last so far) of "Scoop" covers everything from demos for his solo projects ("Tough Boys" which became "Rough Boys")to Who albums (early demos for "The Real Me", "Teresa" which became "Athena", "Did You Steal My Money?")and collaborations (Pete's "All Lovers Are Deranged" with the original music he composed for it vs. the music that David Gilmour wrote for it). There's also a fair sampling of instrumental pieces and experiments. Others are interesting variations but the final recordings remain the definitive versions for example Pete's version of "All Lovers Are Deranged" which pales compared to David Gilmour's version on "About Face" but which features Pete's lyrics with a completely different melody and musical backing track. It is fun though to hear Pete sing songs that Roger had previously recorded the vocals for on various Who albums.
The mastering here is a bit harsh and compressed.
As with the previous editions of "Scoop" we get liner notes from Pete discussing the origin of the songs/compositions and additional background information. Some of the songs such as Pete's guitar/percussion demo for "Athena" and the unusual remake of "Eminence Front" with Pete on piano are better or different enough from the original versions to make them essential for Townshend/Who fans.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Scoop 3 - Interesting listening, May 25 2008
By William Lynd "lynd8" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Scoop 3 (Audio CD)
This is the third installment in Pete Townshend's fun "Scoop" series. This series, begun back in 1983, collects demos, unfinished music and tracks that just didn't fit elsewhere. The first two editions contained a heavy amount of Who demos that sometimes sounded even better than the finished songs. Hearing the "one man band" versions made for fascinating listening. This third installment also included a few classic Who demos (notably "Sea & Sand" and "Can You See The Real Me", both from Quadropehnia) but seems to shift away from the Who demos and the focus is a bit more on recent solo demos and experiments. So, it probably doesn't reach out to Who fans as much as it did to Pete solo artist fans. That said, any self-respecting Who fan should be a fan of Pete's solo work and several of the tracks are very interesting - but some definitely lack the punch of a Who song. I'd recommend you purchase this set, but make sure you have "Scoop" and "Another Scoop" first - both of which are 5 star collections in my book.