Pete Townshend – Empty Glass (1980)

In the early/mid eighties I owned a few Pete Townshend albums, preferring them massively to The Who's output, certainly at that time. But until a visit to my local Oxfam this afternoon, I'd only managed to procure a compilation album on CD.

So this is a reunion with an old friend, rather than seeking out pastures new, but none the worse for that. It's said that Roger Daltrey was unhappy that some of these songs weren't presented to The Who, particularly the first track, the (just) hit single Rough Boys, a fine song, although Townshend believed that its homoerotic overtones would have had to be toned down for Daltrey to sing it, thus destroying it. There's an intensity and personal feel to most of these songs, especially in the next two songs, I Am An Animal and And I Moved. By contrast, Let My Love Open The Door, is much lighter, a solid pop song.

Jules And Jim is a not at all subtle (but fully justified) attack on the 1980s enfants terribles of the music press, Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons, following their sneering, attention-seeking response to Keith Moon's death.

Keep On Working is a decent unremarkable little song, and Cat's In The Cupboard a piece of solid blues-rock, but for me the high point of the album is the glorious, powerful A Little Is Enough, a real sit up and take notice song.

After this, the title track Empty Glass doesn't feel as strong as it should, it's another intensely personal song, and the album ends with the lightweight Gonna Get Ya.

It's such an interesting record from a 1960s icon, energised by punk, yet appreciating that he's one of the rock dinosaurs so often a target of the Year Zero mentality which some maintained in the late 1970s. Indeed, Rough Boys is dedicated to the Sex Pistols. Also, soon after bandmate Keith Moon's death of excess, there's a personal rawness which shines through. It's a great album, and for me, up there with anything The Who did as a band.

Link to album tracks

4* - a superb solo album from The Who's songwriter