Pete Townshend - All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes

This record brings back memories of my senior year in high school where, you could say, I listened to it quite a bit. After his previous album, Empty Glass was a hit powered by the single Let My Love Open The Door, it seemed Pete wanted to throw a curve to his fans and release this collection of synthesizer heavy, strangely angular and densely lyrical songs. While Empty Glass was a pretty straight forward record that even sounded at times like The Who this is a whole other animal. It has a very emotional pull to it and part of the fun is to try and figure out what he is really trying to say in some of these obtuse songs. Unless you can easily explain the chorus of "face dances tonight/fate chances moonlight" from Face Dances Part Two!

Obviously affected by the "New Wave" music of the time you get the feeling that it made him free to take this left turn. The irony is that middle age seems to be the underlying theme of the record. You could say it was "over" produced by Chris Thomas with a very slick sound but it has to be on purpose because he produced the previous record also and it was a very "normal" recording . Bassist Tony Butler and drummer Mark Brzezicki played on this record and would go on to be the rhythm section for Big Country right after this. One of my favorite songs is Exquisitely Bored probably because it nails the atmosphere of southern California so well and being from the north it has always felt so alien to me down there. It seems I am not the only one to have this reaction to the place. All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes is an interesting record by one of popular music's best and most self examining artists. It is still a favorite of mine.

Buy it here.