| Psychoderelict | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Pete Townshend | ||||
| Released | 15 June 1993 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 63:12 | |||
| Label | Atlantic (US) | |||
| Producer | Pete Townshend | |||
| Pete Townshend chronology | ||||
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Psychoderelict is a concept album written, produced and engineered by Pete Townshend. Some characters and issues presented in this work were continued in Townshend's later opus The Boy Who Heard Music, first presented on The Who's album Endless Wire and then adapted as a rock musical.
This is Townshend's last solo album to date.
Contents |
Released in 1993, Psychoderelict is a rock opera conceived by Townshend in 1991 as the follow-up to The Iron Man, but despite having recorded several demos, a bicycle accident in September 1991 forced him to delay work on the album until his wrist was able to heal properly. It is structured more like a radio play than the more "traditional" rock operas Townshend had recorded both with The Who (Tommy, Quadrophenia and the unreleased Lifehouse album) and as a solo artist (White City and The Iron Man).
Veteran rock performer RAY HIGH has lived for about two years as a recluse in plush isolation, dreaming about Gridlife, a musical project he abandoned in the '70s. Witty, cynical, clever, and ambitious young music critic RUTH STREETING devotes an edition of her successful network radio show, Streeting's Street, to attack Ray, whom she despises.
Ray's manager, RASTUS KNIGHT, is unaware of Gridlife and is frustrated that Ray has lost interest in recording and performing. Meeting Ruth in a nightclub, he confides his problem to her. Ruth surprises Rastus by claiming that, of all people, she could find a way to inspire Ray and resurrect his career. When Rastus offers her a percentage, she tells him she has a plan.
Meanwhile, we learn that Gridlife is a futuristic musical about a global Virtual Reality system which provides its subscribers with entire lifetimes of karmically tailored experience. ATHENA, the controller of the Grid, uses a jingle to promote her Gridsuits as safe havens from the heavily polluted atmosphere. But the young hero, SPINNER, is concerned that Athena has too much power and is distorting the truth. He plans to expose her and lead a rebellion.
Back in real life, Ruth believes her attack has forced Ray out of isolation: he appears in a London club with Rastus. Ruth returns to the fray, broadcasting a second public assault, with increased venom.
Around the same time, Ray receives a letter from a young American fan, ROSALIND NATHAN, who encloses a provocative photo. She wants to be a singer. Ray recognizes something in her and begins a correspondence. He opens his heart to Rosalind, speaking frankly about his life and sharing his observations about art and stardom. He asks her to test herself by singing "Flame," a song he wrote for his Gridlife project, which she does. He ends the correspondence, in his last letter revealing his innermost secret.
At this point, Ruth informs Rastus that her plan is nearing its climax. During her next radio show, she viciously lays into Ray. Ruth has obtained all his letters to Rosalind, and she twists and distorts the contents, insinuating that Ray was sexually exploiting Rosalind, an innocent, naive, underage fan.
Ruth blatantly exploits the situation, creating controversy about Rosalind, who has just released a record. A huge media furor follows, and the "Porno Pen-Pals" scandal looks as though it could destroy Ray. However, it instead creates renewed interest in his music, and his albums begin to sell again. It is also revealed that Rosalind is a fictional character, created and portrayed by Ruth herself.
Later, Ruth shows up at Ray's house for an encounter with Rastus, during which she claims credit for both Rosalind's hit and the resurrection of Ray's career. Rastus is overwhelmed at the scale of Ruth's deceit. Ruth collects her commission from Rastus and is impressed at the amount Ray is now earning as a result of the scandal. Ray tells Ruth that he knew all along, and wanted her to know the secret that he had been hiding.
Ray finally gets to record his Gridlife project. We hear Spinner, in a scene from Ray's dream, explain that everything in the Universe is composed of music and vibrations, and that soon the whole world will experience their adventure. Ray's story closes as he compares the deceit of today with the optimism of the time when he was composing Gridlife. He longs for a return to the values and visions of the early '70s.
The album is a critical, perhaps satirical look at Townshend's own life: the dedication of his music to Meher Baba's teachings, and his Lifehouse project, which closely resembles the Gridlife project the Ray High character is working on. The album also makes use of Townshend's earlier song "Who Are You" which is sampled on the track "Meher Baba M4 (Signal Box)".
Only one single proper was released from the album: "English Boy", both non-dialogue and dialogue versions, was released with a variety of B-sides and non-album songs, including "Psycho Montage" (a collection of dialogue from the album) and "Electronic Wizardry" (written and recorded in 1970 as a potential track for The Who's unreleased Lifehouse album), as well as demos for "Flame" and "Early Morning Dreams". "Don't Try to Make Me Real", "Outlive the Dinosaur" and "Now and Then" were all issued to radio stations with dialogue excised. A previously unreleased track, "Uneasy Street", was later released on the 1996 Pete Townshend compilation The Best of Pete Townshend: Coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking.
After slow sales of the initial dialogue intense release, a "music only" version was issued, though sales and reviews were still disappointing. Fan reception was divided: some felt that Townshend's ideas were too pretentious even for him, while others have embraced it as the first worthy concept since Who's Next. To date, it remains the final Pete Townshend solo album of all-original material, although further compilations have surfaced.
The Ray High character would resurface in 2005 as the central character in The Boy Who Heard Music, a novella written by Townshend for his Web site; and again the following year in Townshend's mini rock opera adaptation of that story, Wire & Glass. That mini-opera would become the centrepiece of The Who's comeback album Endless Wire.
There are four instrumental tracks which originated from Townshend's 1970-1971 synthesizer demos for The Who's album Who's Next. Some of these experiments were released as "Baba O'Riley" that year and as "Who Are You" in 1978. On Psychoderelict, the Meher Baba instrumentals appear in this order:
| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | link |
| Rolling Stone | link |
All tracks written by Pete Townshend, unless otherwise stated.
Credited as Psychoderelict family: Jeremy Allom, Jon Astley, Richard Barnes, Paul Bonnick, Ian Broudie, Mark Brzezicki, John "Rabbit" Bundrick, Chyna, Allan Corduner, Bruce Davies, Barry Diament Audio, Julie Duff of Anne Henderson Casting, Andrew Eccles, Nick Goderson, Linal Haft, Deirdre Harrison, Steve Hill, Peter Hope-Evans, Icon Communications, Nicola Joss, Kick Horns, Roger Knapp, John Labanowski, Jamie Lane, Dee Lewis, Gavin Lewis, Jody Linscott, Jaz Lochrie, Andy Macpherson, Billy Nicholls, Michael Nicholls, Tessa Niles, Phil Palmer, Josh Phillips-Gorse, Bob Pridden, Jan Ravens, Simon Rogers, Adam Seymour, Paul Stevens, Paul Townshend, Simon Townshend, Nigel Walker, Cleveland Watkiss, Suzy Webb, Lee Whitlock, Paul "Tubbs" Williams, Ian Wilson.
A performance from Townshend's first North American solo tour was broadcast live from the theatre of the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York in August 1993. The concert was in three parts: an opening session of eight songs, a complete performance of Psychoderelict and an encore of a further five songs.[1]
The performance was featured by PBS Great Performances and directed by Richard Barnes and Bruce Gowers.[2] It was later issued as a double CD called Pete Townshend Live BAM 1993 and an NTSC all region DVD in 2006, titled Pete Townshend Live In New York Featuring Psychoderelict ASIN: B000B8TJ6W.[3] The DVD included an interview with Pete Townshend conducted by Barry Barnes recorded specifically for this release in September 2005.[1]
The cast included:
In 1999 Psychoderelict was considered for production as a Broadway musical. Townshend worked on a script with director Ethan Silverman and the show was workshopped with actor Peter Gallagher. However, to date the show has not been produced.[4]
In March 2009, the webcomic 3rd Blade[1] began a serialized adaptation of Psychoderelict.
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