Pete Townshend is getting ready to drop another set of half-speed mastered vinyl reissues from his solo catalog.
The latest will be the final set in the series, and will include 1989’s The Iron Man: The Musical By Pete Townshend and 1993’s Psychoderelict (Music Only), marking the latter’s first time on vinyl.
Both albums have been mastered on limited-edition black vinyl by noted producer and engineer Jon Astley, who’s also Pete’s former brother-in-law. The half-speed mastering technique produces superior quality vinyl LPs.
The Iron Man: The Musical by Pete Townshend is an adaptation of the short story by Ted Hughes. It features performances from The Who frontman Roger Daltrey, bluesman John Lee Hooker and Nina Simone, and includes two songs that feature the then-surviving original members of The Who, Pete, Roger and John Entwistle.
The Iron Man: The Musical was originally released in 1989, as is Townshend’s adaptation of Ted Hughes’ famous short story, The Iron Man. Produced and largely composed by Townshend, it also features the talents of Roger Daltrey, Deborah Conway, John Lee Hooker, and Nina Simone. The three then-surviving original members of The Who (Daltrey, John Entwistle, and Townshend) performed as a group in two songs, “Dig” and “Fire,” the latter a cover of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown’s hit. Album tracks “A Friend Is a Friend” and “I Won’t Run Anymore” were commercially released as singles. A stage version was performed at The Young Vic Theatre in 1993, and the play was the basis of the 1999 animated Warner Bros. film The Iron Giant, which Townshend executive produced.
Psychoderelict was released in 1993, and is a rock opera and concept album, this time following the late career of a fictional ‘6os rockstar, Ray High. The album features spoken dialogue in addition to music. A music-only version was later released, and is the version now available on vinyl for the first time. The album only produced one single, “English Boy.” (Udiscovermusic)
