We spent the previous four Who shows playing highlights from their remarkable live performances from 1968-1971, but here we return to the studio…only, it is not always a ‘professional’ studio per se.

The band was often busy with their own private lives in the limited amount of time that they weren’t touring, making it difficult for them to work together to develop song ideas. Instead, songwriter Pete Townshend spent most of his own downtime recording in his own home studio, where had had become incredibly adept at creating excellent demos for the band. Some of them were made purely for personal reasons, but the process added to his accumulated knowledge of the process.

Townshend had no desire for a solo career at the time, but his dedication to the teachings of Meher Baba had a strong influence on his song development. As a ‘birthday’ gift to his late mentor, Townshend decided to assemble a collection of recordings (not all of them his own) and distribute the resulting album among friends only. Here we feature highlights from that release, along with a handful of Who recordings from the same approximate time period.

Featured songs include;

Summertime Blues

Content

Evolution (full version)

Mary Jane

Allen Cohen Speaks

The Seeker (demo)

Begin the Beguine

Here for More

Heaven and Hell

Relay (BBC)

The Seeker

Young Man Blues