Pete Townshend

I only mildly like a handful of The Who tunes, and the same goes for Pete Townshend.

Information: Pete Townshend
Suggested first purchase/best of: The Best of Pete Townshend
Suggest first album: Empty Glass

The Who's Tommy (Original Cast Recording) (1993) -- I'm only mildly familiar with the original Who album, and only slightly more familiar with the awful movie. I bought this during my days of being a fan of musicals, and partially becaused it was produced by George Martin who at the time I liked even better than the Beatles themselves. I've always thought that the story of the rock opera might work decently well as a rock record, but I expect the plot to make sense in a real musical, so I was always a little frustrated with it on that level, since the story seems like this scattered goofy thing that makes points every now and then but mostly is just stuttering along (which is a lot of what Pete Townshend does when he talks). Besides that, this was recorded nicely and is decent as far as big musicals go, and even nicely rocks sometimes. It's kinda shiny, even if imperfect. B

The Best of Pete Townshend (1996) -- A seemingly decent collection of songs for people like me who aren't going to get any of the albums. I bought this during one of my more "open" periods in musical tastes, and it's still good every now and then. Highlights include "Let My Love Open the Door" (the "original" -- actually a different mix -- and the cool remix) and "Sheraton Gibson." C