The Who - Pete Townshend Albums

Non-album Tracks: Pete Townshend songs that didn't appear on "Who Came First", but were on singles or only Meher Baba albums: "Mary Jane" (on "Happy Birthday"), "Baba O'Riley"- instrumental version (on "I Am"), "Meher" (on "With Love").

Note: "This Song Is Green", which is a Billy Nicholls song and features Pete Townshend on synthesized flute appears on the Polydor (UK) single, "Forever's No Time At All" (from "Who Came First") and "I Am".

CD Comments: The "Who Came First" Ryko (USA) and Imperial (Japan) sound excellent. On the Imperial (Japan) CD, it seems as if the original track listing (of the Ryko CD) uses the 1996 Tim Young mastering and the 2006 <extra> bonus tracks are mastered slightly differently - but still sound very good.

DVD-A Comments: What started out sounding very good, turned bad very quickly. Tracks 1 & 2 sound just fine. However, the volume drops off on track 3, then dropping even lower on track 4 ("Let's See Action"). This quickly changes again on track 5 ("Time Is Passing") through the rest of the disc - to be completely loud and over-modulated . In completely disbelief, I replayed the disc over and over again to ensure it wasn't my imagination. Unfortunately it wasn't my imagination, but just a poorly mastered disc.

One side of the disc is DVD-A (which requires a machine that will play DVD Audio discs), the other side is playable on any DVD Video player.

Summary: The Imperial (Japan) CD is my first choice, both in terms of sound quality and the many bonus tracks which are not on the original LP and extended from the 1996 CD.

Other Comments: For the CD release, Pete Townshend added most of his Meher Baba tracks (the Meher Baba albums also feature other artists) as a bonus. Exceptions are listed above (under non-album tracks). The CD release was issued as a standard release and a deluxe release with a nice book.

If you'd like the complete collection of Pete Townshend tracks and would like to seek out the missing songs, see the "Meher Baba" album section for more details.

Track Listing: Original LP and DVD-A: Pure And Easy, Evolution, Forever's No Time At All, Nothing Is Everything (Let's See Action), Time Is Passing, There's A Heartache Following Me, Sheraton Gibson, Content, Parvardigar

CD (1996): Pure And Easy, Evolution, Forever's No Time At All, Nothing Is Everything (Let's See Action), Time Is Passing, There's A Heartache Following Me, Sheraton Gibson, Content, Parvardigar, His Hands, The Seeker, Day of Silence, Sleeping Dog, The Love Man, Lantern Cabin

CD (2006 - Imperial Japan): Pure And Easy, Evolution, Forever's No Time At All, Nothing Is Everything (Let's See Action), Time Is Passing, There's A Heartache Following Me, Sheraton Gibson, Content, Parvardigar, His Hands, The Seeker, Day of Silence, Sleeping Dog, The Love Man, Lantern Cabin, Mary Jane, I Always Say, Begin The Beguine

Album(s): Happy Birthday (1970), I Am (1972), With Love (1977), Avatar, Jai Baba (Note: the latter 2 are CD reissues of the former 3.)

LPs (vinyl) Sampled: Happy Birthday [USL (UK), MBO (UK)], I Am [USL (UK), MBO (UK)], With Love [USL (UK), MBO (UK)]

LP Comments: The 3 Meher Baba LPs were originally issued on the Universal Spiritual League (USL) label and then reissued on the Meher Baba Organization (MBO) label. The latter uses a better quality vinyl than the USL pressings and therefore sound better. I have heard of some severe problems with the USL pressings of "Happy Birthday" - reports of off center holes and very noisy vinyl.

CD Comments: Unfortunately, the sound quality is beyond terrible on these reissues. Excessive use of "noise reduction" in mastering process has made these discs virtually unlistenable.

Summary: There is no comparison between the MBO vinyl and the CD reissues. If you're looking for the complete Meher Baba collection of songs, then the MBO is the best choice.

If you just want the best sounding Pete Townshend songs and don't care about the other "Meher Baba tracks", The "Who Came First" CD (see "Who Came First") is an excellent alternative as it is a great sounding CD, which features most of Pete's Meher Baba tracks as a bonus. Unfortunately, that CD is missing, "Mary Jane", "Meher" and the "Baba O'Riley" instrumental demo, so you would need the Meher Baba albums to be "complete".

Other Comments: From a collector's standpoint, it's nice to have the original USL LPs, which contained various Meher Baba related newspapers, photos, etc. But purely from a listener's viewpoint, the vinyl on the "simple" packaged MBO label reissues, is superior and sounds better.

"Avatar" is a limited edition box set, which includes the 3 Meher Baba albums on CD and some very nice packaging and artwork.

Happy Birthday: Content, Evolution, Day Of Silence, Allan Cohen Speaks, Mary Jane, Allan Cohen Speaks, The Seeker, Begin The Beguine, With A Smile Up His Nose They Entered, The Love Man, Meditation

I Am: Forever's No Time At All, How To Transcend Duality And Influence People, Affirmation, Baba O'Riley, The Song Is Green, Everywhere I Look This Morning, Dragon, O'Parvardigar

With Love: Hail Avatar Meher Baba, Give It Up, Without Your Love, His Hands, Just For A Moment, Baba Blues, Meher, Contact, Gotta Know Ya, Sleeping Dog, All God's Mornings, Lantern Cabin

Avatar: (Contains the combined track listings of "Happy Birthday", "I Am" and "With Love".)

Jai Baba: Same track listing as "Avatar" (above) and adds "O'Parvardigar" recorded live in India (which can be also found on the "O'Pavardigar" single - with better sound quality. See Pete Townshend singles section).

	WhiteFang's Who Site

The Who - Pete Townshend Albums: