Pete's Resolution: Who Album

Pete Townshend has made a New Year's resolution: to write and record a new Who studio album in 2003. The album would be the band's first in more than twenty years, and the first without bassist John Entwistle, who died of a heart attack on June 27th, the night before the original kickoff date for the Who's summer tour.

Although he's committed to the project, Townshend remains ambivalent about the results. "I believe it is a tough time to write new music," he posts. "If I write fifteen good pieces, and ten of them make it to a new CD, we will probably find that only two or three of them will stand comparison on stage with our old hits."

Townshend is also determined to make the effort a collaborative one, and the guitarist recently met with singer Roger Daltrey. "I am very keen to see Roger find some creative outlet on this future Who recording," Townshend continues. "He is full of ideas, passion and energy -- he bears quite a disturbed and serious view of the world at the moment."

Still inspired from the Who's 2002 tour, Townshend also says that the band may pop up at select charity events and festivals: "We are enjoying the more honest lure of having such a great band to call on whenever we feel like playing."

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'Great Gatsby' Is a Crushing Disappointment
• 
  TV Why You Should Watch 'Happy Endings'
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter