About: Sweet Sound
 
"Sweet Sound" was Simon Townshend's very first album - released in 1983.
 
At the time of its release, I had never heard of Simon (Pete has a brother??? And... He's got a new record! Wow!)
 
What did I know back then?
 
So the "buzz" from the street was that the album was really good, Pete had produced the album and Pete sang backing vocals on the single, "I'm The Answer".
 
I bought it, I copied it to cassette tape, I played it a bunch of times and then I recall copying "I'm The Answer" to yet another cassette tape - a compilation of "favorite songs"...
 
Eventually, the tape got cycled out of my "circulation" as I became overwhelmed with all of the Who and Who solo stuff I began to buy in mass quantities. I still enjoyed the album each time I played it, but like anything else it "got buried".
 
Fast forward to the 1995 Who Convention - there's Simon opening for "The New Who" (very shortly lived) and playing in Pete's place in The Who band...
 
I had no idea how fantastic Simon was until I heard him play live. Where was I all these years that I missed this?
 
Shortly thereafter in 1996, Simon's "Among Us" was released and it was a *monster*. Wow!
 
With renewed, significant interest in Simon, I pulled out my copy of "Sweet Sound" and burned it to CD. I had also tracked down Simon's earliest singles, the first of which he recorded when he was only 13! I used these and a few others as "bonus tracks" on my home made version of "Sweet Sound" - wow!
 
There's always something special about "firsts". Whether your "first" experience doing A or B is good, bad or something in the middle - it's the experience and memory that counts and makes the "first"... special.
 
"Sweet Sound" is a good album. There's some really good music on it.
 
My favorite tracks are the first three:
 
* Sweet Sound

* I’m The Answer

* On The Scaffolding
 
While I thought I was convinced that Pete was singing backing vocals on "I'm The Answer" - I couldn't hear it. It sounds more like Simon doing an overdubbed "high" voice which contrasts with his very strong vocal performances on the album.
 
Over the years many people have asked me if this album is available on CD or will it be available on CD soon? The answer is, no, it's not on CD. Will it? Good question. I think fans of Simon would really enjoy this album. Unfortunately, not everyone has a turntable anymore.
 
The single of "I'm The Answer" was released with a non-album "b" side called, "Into The Memory".
 
As I mentioned above, prior to this albums release, Simon had released several singles:
 
* When I'm A Man (1974)
 
* Janie (1975)
 
* Turn It On (1976)
 
I always thought that "When I'm A Man" would make a great Simon song. It has an odd arraignment, which suited the period - but with a tiny bit of tweaking, I think this could be a fantastic song in Simon's lineup.
 
"Janie" is a very special song. This song is about Simon's wife and Simon's prediction that he would marry her one day. He released the song when he was 14!
 
Also prior to "Sweet Sound", Simon released 2 singles with his band called, "On The Air", comprised of himself and members of Big Country. Simon later recorded more songs with "On The Air" in the later 80's...

About: Among Us
 
At the 1995 Who Convention, Simon had opened up for Roger's semi-Who band (which Simon was also in) and it was the first time I ever heard Simon play live.
 
I immediately thought - this guy is unbelievably great!
 
After a brief intermission, he joined Roger and John, taking Pete's role on stage...
 
"This one's for Simon" was what Roger said as they extended "Relay" over and over again (best live version of "Relay" I ever heard)...
 
Somewhere between the Who Convention and the 1996 Madison Square Garden (MSG) shows, word was out that Simon was soon releasing this album and it was *huge*...
 
I got my first copy of this CD after a Who concert at MSG "meet and greet" from Paul Townshend. Before that, I had a promo cassette which previewed some of the songs on the album (and it was great too).
 
For the next year, I had this CD in my car CD changer and must have listened to it at *least* once a day. Such great songs AND as a bonus, this is one of the BEST sounding CDs (the Stir Music version *)...
 
Every song on this album is great.
 
My favorites include, "When She Sleeps", "Company", "The Way It Is" and "Capture"...

I saw Simon a lot that year. He played at a bunch of different venues between NY and NJ. All great shows!

* The album was initially released on the Stir label. This version is the original mix and mastering. The album was later edited, remixed, remastered and reissued on the Rising Records Label. The goal was to make it more "commercial" and "suitable for airplay". I believe the Stir version is vastly superior.

About: Animal Soup

This is a really good album.

Coincidentally, "Animal Soup" is the name of the band that Simon and Zack Starkey were working in around 1994...

(It's a good name.)

This album was released in 1999. Between the time of Simon's "Among Us" release (1996), Simon was on stage quite a bit and often would play brand new songs on stage, prior to them being considered/released on his next album (which is actually something he does to this very day). So for those of us who followed Simon closely during this time period, many of these songs were already quite familiar, although presented very differently as Simon had played mostly solo during this time...

It appears as if Simon spent a lot of time crafting these songs and carefully putting them together. Each song seems to glide into the next as if "part of a bigger picture". To further illustrate this - the album is "continual music". Unlike most albums, which have "a moment of silence" between the songs, these are crafted in a way to seemingly be part of that larger theme. This effect adds a lot of depth to the album...

The songs themselves are great. Each a mini-masterpiece - one song better than the next (that's figuratively - it's like the last song on the album is 10x better than the first song). Great guitar work, lyrics, everything...

The album changes moods from the upbeat "Somewhere Out There" to the dark, "Goodbye Everything". In some ways, listening to the whole album takes you on some type of journey. Great music.

My favorite songs on the album are...

Somewhere Out There, Our Time, Blind As A Bat, Pie In The Sky, & Goodbye Everything

I would like to see this album remastered and reissued. It was mastered during the time when everyone thought "compression" was the way to go. I'd like to see a more balanced frequency range and the removal of all compression to give it back its dynamic range. Perhaps a "new" version of the album can include one of Simon's buried masterpieces - "Naked". If you've never heard it, it's another "WOW!" song from Simon -
there's an acoustic version of it on "Bare Bodies Bare Assets", but it doesn't do the song justice... 

About: Bare Bodies Bare Assets

From mid 1996 to somewhere around 2005, you could always find me at a NY/NJ Simon Townshend show or event.

Wow! This guy knows how to perform! Energy and talent - every song he played was great.

This album is a collection of songs performed acoustically between 1996 and 2000 - (With some acoustic studio tracks)

Wow! What a great album. Performances from many of the shows I attended were recorded and now included on this great album. What a great reminder of all of these shows.

If you have never been to a Simon show - you should make the "effort" and go - besides the great show Simon puts on, there's always some sorta "side show" entertainment.

Simon's shows are typically smaller and more intimate than a Who show - you have the opportunity to mingle (with Simon and other fans) before and after the shows. All kinds of "interesting" people typically attend, so the before and after show can be an "experience" as well...

My favorite songs on this album are...

Blind As A Bat
Comeback
Until Tomorrow
The Way It Is
Scaffolding
Company
Naked

About: .bom

Some of you may be wondering, what ".bom" is. I will try to explain...

As you all know, Simon is a creative genius. He's always writing new songs and experimenting with different sounds and styles.

In 2002, he was experimenting with something different... ".bom".

While the concept was short-lived, it was really cool. Basically, Simon put his new songs mixed with the sound of various synthesizers. The effects were very cool.

Simon played this new music at the Mercury Lounge on August 2, 2002

He described it as "...the band in the box..."

The songs on the album are:

Great stuff...