Scoop

Artist: Pete Townshend
Label: Atlantic / Wea
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 075679006325
EAN: 0075679006325
ASIN: B000002JJX

Release Date: 1989-08-02

Scoop

Related Categories:

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

Singer-Songwriters

| Pop | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

| Pop | Styles | Music

General

| Rock | Styles | Music

Singer-Songwriters

| Rock | Styles | Music

General

| Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Hard Rock

| Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Album-Oriented Rock (AOR)

| Classic Rock | Styles | Music

Tracks:

So Sad About Us/Brrr
Squeezebox
Zelda
Politician
Dirty Water
Circles
Piano: 'Tipperary'
Unused Piano: 'Quadrophenia'
Melancholia
Bargain
Things Have Changed
Popular
Behind Blue Eyes
The Magic Bus
Cache, Cache
Cookin'
You're So Clever
Body Language
Initial Machine Experiments
Mary
Recorders
Goin' Fishin'
To Barney Kessel
You Came Back
Love Reign O'er Me

Similar Items:

Another Scoop
Empty Glass
All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes
Another Scoop
White City: A Novel

Customer Reviews:

The Best Of The Scoop Series?.......2006-09-16

The Scoop series, much like Pete's output in general (baring a few mistakes and poor albums) have been very consistently great. These albums are like the Beatles anthologies, in some ways, but much more interesting. I say they're similar because both display demos and work in progress of popular songs by both artists. However, the Scoop series is much more interesting and artisticlaly succesful than the anthology's.

First of all, Pete has added a lot more unreleased songs here than were on the anthology's. I don't think there were more than five or six unreleased songs there. Almost half of each Scoop volume is unreleased songs, which are usually of very high quality, as good as anything else he has written.

Secondly, on the demos, pete usually plays all of the instruments (not counting strings) and it's amazing to see how well developed these songs were BEFORE being recorded. It's sometimes interesting to see the way a producer and other band members contribute to arrangments (such as on the anthology, where Lennon's acoustic demo of "strawberry fields forever" is slowly transformed into what it is today) and one always wonders how much the songwriter contributes to the arrangements. But here, Pete records full realized, full arranged, sometimes fully instrumented (with decent bass work, and rudimentary but appropriate drumming) work, that closely follows the who's final arrangment. This is not to detract from John's amazing bass playing or Keith's amazing drumming: both of these added immeasurably to Pete's basic work on each. But besides changing a few details, the arrangments of all instruments, as devised by Pete, are present on the demos.

The last thing that makes this more impressive than the anthology's is the pure weirdness. Here, Pete explores more weird songwriting avenues than any other songwriter I've ever heard, and much more so than is evident on the anthology's (which consists of the work of three song writers, remember.) Yes, many times these are complete dead ends: how many songs in the mold of "Zelda" do you think could be created? Nevertheless, these Scoop albums, much more so than Pete's last few solo albums (iron man and psychoderelict) illustrate his genius loud and clear.

Excellent Rare Who Demos.......2006-01-08

I got this album used on vinyl on eBay. I bought it solely to hear Pete's early versions of Who songs. "So Sad About Us" is great (though it would have been better if it were unedited), and "Bargain," "Behind Blue Eyes" and "Magic Bus" are also up there. I bought a CD of The Who live at Mountain View in July of 2002 (released as part of their "Encore" series), and Pete was talking about how back in the day he used to record by himself at home, and he talked about how good it sounded, then he was just waiting for a band to come in and spoil it all. By listening to the purity of these recordings, I can see his point. I love The Who and Pete Townshend, and even so, this is the Pete I thought I'd never hear.

Cute collection of demos.......2004-08-03

I'm surprised this classic album of demos and unused songs is out of print; I found my copy on the $2 vinyl wall at the vintage music store in my college town, along with 'Another Scoop.' There's barely a song on here I skip; the only ones I don't care for are "Squeeze Box," "To Barney Kessell," "Cache Cache," and "Magic Bus." It's unfortunate that not all of the recording dates are provided, but you can guess many of them if it's a demo of a Who song that you know came out in a certain year or if it's mentioned that it was recorded around the time of a certain album. These songs are really fun, happy, and upbeat; despite being demos, it's not something that a new fan would be turned off by, since they're such high-quality demos and such nice songs, not rarities that only hardcore fans and completists would be interested in. It's also interesting to hear the original genesis of some of the songs, like "Bargain" or "LROM," since you get to judge if Roger's interpretation matched Pete's original idea. Sometimes a demo is better than the later song, and sometimes worse. It's particularly obvious in the two abovementioned songs; you can just tell that they were written for someone with a deeper throat, and Pete is straining to hit the notes that Roger makes easily. Someone who has a tenor/low-range falsetto doesn't deliberately write songs requiring deep growly and throaty notes for oneself.

My faves on here are "Zelda," "Politician," "You're So Clever" (EG would have been even better if it had been included there like originally intended!), "So Sad About Us," "Circles," "Unused Piano: Quadrophenia," "Cookin,'" "Body Language," "Goin' Fishin,'" "You Came Back," and "Initial Machine Experiments." There's also a classic comment about the song "Melancholia," "I'm pretty sure The Who didn't even hear this song." Pete often has memory lapses, but this one is the funniest, since we all know that "Melancholia" came out as a bonus track on the remastered 'Sell Out' and as one of the then-new songs on the boxed set. Maybe he really was so melancholic over how "ICSFM" only got to #9 that he really did block out doing the song with the group.

Where your favorite Who songs came from........2002-11-12

Whether you regard this album as being a collection of alternate versions of your favorite Who songs, or a glimpse into Pete's early home studio demos, it's definitely a nice collection of songs. I think the best songs here are the early demos of Who songs, especially "Behind Blue Eyes" with its mellow nylon string guitar and heavy reverb on the vocals, all of which give this version a unique, spacy, romantic sound that the Who version didn't have. Even my girlfriend liked it, and her favorite group was Bread. "Bargain," "Magic Bus," and "Love Reign O'er Me" are similarly good. I was pleasantly surprised that Pete's high vocals on the latter could give Roger Daltry a run for his money. Several of the non-Who songs are also quite good, such as "Mary," "Cookin'," and "Circles." "Squeezebox" has a real accordion in it, and therefore is closer to the original meaning of the song, although I agree with Pete that it's not a very high quality song, despite its unexpected popularity. "To Barney Kessell" has the only example I've heard of Pete playing jazz style guitar. Definitely a worthwhile album to own, especially for Who fans.

A closer look at a musical genius.......2001-05-01

Knowing only the classic rock radio staples of the Who and the All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes album by Pete Townshend (hey it was the early, heady days of MTV), I first received this album on double vinyl as a 13-year old back in 1983 and it opened me up to a whole new side of the Who and Pete Townshend that I didn't realize existed.

From the opening "So Sad about Us" (perhaps the Who's catchiest pop song) to "Love Reign O'er Me" sung by Pete rather than Roger, Scoop packs some powerful demos that stand well on their own, or as a necessary footnote to the Who's long & storied career. Pete includes some great liner notes so you can follow along on how he developed his recording studio and his songwriting talents from the 1960s through the 1980s.

Music Album:

Music Album

Music Album

Music CD

Ramsey Lewis - Greatest Hits [MCA] ~ Ramsey Lewis

Parisian Thoroughfare ~ Stephane Grapelli

I've Traveled So Far

Cheers to All of You

Slay the Suitors ~ Bobby Previte's Empty Suits

Lady Saxophone ~ Barbara Thompson

Preste Atencao ~ Thaide & DJ Hum

60 Wereldsuccessen ~ Robert Whittaker

Very Best of Belly Dance ~ Various Artists

Greetings from Hawaii ~ Various Artists