"This collection embodies both the best and worst of Townshend the artist and arch conceptualist": An overview of the solo career of Pete Townshend, the man who never meant to have a solo career

Pete Townshend - The Studio Albums cover art.

As Pete Townshend admits in the foreword to the 28-page booklet that accompanies this lavish collection, he never really intended to have a solo career. His debut album, 1972’s beautifully serene and heartfelt Who Came First, was compiled from demos recorded for The Who’s aborted Lifehouse project (namely Pure And Easy, Let’s See Action and Time Is Passing) plus some songs he’d donated to a couple of limited edition tribute albums to his guru Meher Baba.

Much softer, gentler and more introspectively spiritual than anything he’d ever ask Roger Daltrey to sing, they would only make sense to the listening public if Townshend released them under his own name. And so Pete Townshend, Solo Artist, was born.