The Who - Pete Townshend Albums

Summary: This 2 LP acetate set appears to be the master source for "The Genius Of Pete Townshend" bootleg LP.

Other Comments: "Classified" (on the Master Room label) is the same version as on the "Glastonbury Fayre" LP, "Baba O'Riley" is the longest instrumental version (13.10 minutes). Note the differences in the (2) two sets of IBC label versions; i.e. one is titled, "Lifehouse" and the other "The Life House". Note: The 2023 acetate replica LPs (offered with a 3 LP version of Who's Next) feature some mix variations as offered with the Who's Next (Super Deluxe Edition) box set.

Track Listing (Master Room): Pure & Easy, Behind Blue Eyes, Love Ain't For Keepin', Mary, Getting In Tune, Going Mobile, Too Much Of Anything, Time Is Passing, Classified, Won't Get Fooled Again, The Song Is Over, Baba O'Riley

Track Listing (IBC, Polydor/UMC): Pure & Easy, Behind Blue Eyes, Love Ain't For Keepin', Mary, Getting In Tune, Going Mobile, Too Much Of Anything, Time Is Passing, Won't Get Fooled Again, The Song Is Over, Baba O'Riley

Non-album Tracks: Pete Townshend songs that didn't originally 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) sounds excellent. The 2006 CDs sound a bit louder. The 2018 CDs have been remastered.

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 Ryko (USA) CD is my first choice, both in terms of sound quality and the many bonus tracks which are not on the original LP. The 2018 Deluxe Edition CD Box (UK, USA, Japan) has further extended bonus tracks and should be considered as well.

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 original 1992CD 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 - Hip-O USA, 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

CD (2018 - 45th Anniversary Edition Universal USA): 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 (2017 Edit), Day of Silence, Sleeping Dog, Mary Jane (Stage A Version), I Always Say (2017 Edit), Begin The Beguine (2017 Edit), Baba O’Reilly (Instrumental), The Love Man (Stage C), Content (Stage A), Day Of Silence (Alternate Version), Parvardigar (Alternate take), Nothing Is Everything, There’s A Fortune In Those Hills, Meher Baba In Italy, Drowned (live in India), Evolution (live at Ronnie Lane Memorial)

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 could be improved on these reissues. Excessive use of "noise reduction" and compression makes these less desirable than their vinyl counterparts.

Summary: If you're looking for the complete Meher Baba collection of songs, then the 1977 MBO LP reissues are 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" (missing only from the 1992 releases), "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, This 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).

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