Pete Townshend
Psychoderelict

THE REVIEW

What a strange and unique character Pete Townshend is: unanimously considered among the great pioneering English guitarists... he certainly is, but with incredible limitations in solo phase, specifically in terms of touch and dexterity, where he's practically at the level of a young boy just starting out. For someone who has spent sixty years with the instrument, recording dozens of albums and playing thousands of concerts, this is surprising: a true idiosyncrasy! It's a fact that Townshend needs to play at least three strings at a time (that is, play rhythm) to be great.

Another extreme characteristic of the nosy Pete is the contrast between his popular physical and external image as a noisy and spectacular musician, a prototype and example for all rockers, schizophrenically parallel to his complex and deeply troubled mental struggle, certainly derived from great youth traumas and never resolved over the years, despite artistic success, economic comfort, the religious comfort of Eastern doctrines (approached and adopted since the youthful sixties and never abandoned), the many songs and rock operas produced, in whose lyrics his discomforts, unresolved issues, fears, disappointments, and depressions are masterfully conveyed.

Townshend as the eponym of the tormented and paranoid artist, well far from the classic rockstar full of ego and testosterone, busy reveling, screwing, spending, and squandering, essentially enjoying egocentrically and without hesitation the privileges of the role; a genuine singer-songwriter, tormented and burdened like even the gloomiest Italian colleagues of the seventies, with the difference that he added powerful windmill-style (spectacular 360-degree windmilling of the arm to hit the strings with unusual violence and compactness) guitar solos, incredible jumps on stage, but above all textbook harmonic and melodic progressions, rhythmic energy at atomic levels, lucid arrangement skills, exemplified by a personal and brilliant approach to the world of synthesizers.

Pete's intricate artistic personality requires considerable effort to be penetrated and truly accepted. In his solo albums, there's no Roger Daltrey's voice to satisfy the passion for well-sung rock, for many years now, the melodic/rhythmic genius of John Entwistle's bass has also been missing to add incredible value to the two soloists, not to mention the unique and impetuous drumming of Keith Moon, who passed to other worlds thirty-five years ago. Townshend here is the sole protagonist and thus you have to embrace his depressions, his sorrow directed at his newly separated wife ("I'm Afraid", beautiful), the eternal battle with the bottle of cognac, the anguish of not having been a good father to his children, and many other eternal insecurities.

This work is the clearest example of the artist working for himself, to tell his story without filters, only hoping afterward that it might be successfully represented in theaters and radio stations, in short, have success: it indeed constitutes a musical, designed for radio and theater, recorded and published on disc with all the embellishments of dialogues and protagonist characters of the story, overlaid on the music which thus loses its connotations as a collection of songs and moves to a subordinate role, if not as a soundtrack, at least as a musical story.

This story concerns an aging rockstar (and who else could it be?), who decides to isolate from the world, remaining in contact only with his manager, a cynical and opportunistic journalist, and finally a devoted and naive fan. These are the main characters of the story, while Pete's alter ego is described as brooding, grieving, getting angry, asserting his uniqueness ("English Boy").

"Psycoderelict" was a significant flop, inevitable given the highly non-commercial packaging, especially for non-English speakers. For this reason, a more accessible "Music Only" version was released later, with a different cover, which I definitely recommend... you lose the spirit of the work intended by Townshend, but the absolute value of some tracks emerges strongly... after all, one of the greatest composers of contemporary popular music is in action.

The failure of the album led the author to permanently shelve works under his own name, dedicating himself from that point on only to the comebacks with the Who, essentially celebrating the more popular and accepted side of his career, with the exception of "Endless Wire", the album credited to the group in 2006 but mostly composed of further development of the "Psycoderelict" story, with Pete and not the reluctant Daltrey on lead vocals. The good Roger, a virile and pragmatic character, decidedly more stable and resolved, always had to make a great effort to 'enter' the characters and often pessimistic and depressed lyrics created by his genius, though not little troublesome partner.

The original version of the work is for those who love and wholeheartedly respect artistic expressions, the "music only" one for those who want to listen to rock and songs, without paying too much attention to their message.