This collection of mostly home recordings, originally issued on Atco in 1983, strips away the rock-star glam and reveals Pete Townshend's inner geek: a techno-dweeb who plays with recording equipment. Gotta love that! On the first LP's inner sleeve Townshend does a version of what audiophiles like to do: he lists his gear history. For example, "Studio One Ealing 1964: Above parents home. 2 Vortexion mono tape machines. 1 microphone (a Reslo)." Or "Studio Six Twickenham 'Home' 1969: Built my first separate control room/studio in two tiny adjacent rooms. Bought Dolby A301s for my REVOXES and later a small NEVE desk and a gorgeous 7'4" BOSENDORFER grand piano. The WHO did some work here when I went 8 track in 1971."

It's all charming to read as long as you're willing to go along with Townshend's desire to deconstruct the rock-star myth and remove the comfort wall separating us from our hero. Sometimes it is more satisfying to leave the wall standing so we can indulge our larger-than-life fantasies.

However, having seen The Who live last summer shortly after the death of John Entwistle--as well as having seen them live back in the '60s--I can attest to the enduring power of the "rock star"! So while this homemade two-disc set does tear down the myth, don't worry: it's easily rebuilt. Last summer's show was as exciting and powerful as any Who show I've seen.

What's most interesting here are demos like "Behind Blue Eyes," "Squeezebox," "So Sad," and "Love Reign O'er Me"--tentative designs that were later turned into powerful, fully realized studio productions. Still, any amateur who has clowned around with home music recordings and listens to what Townshend puts down as demos will understand the difference between someone with immense power and talent and the rest of us wankers. Don't get the idea that these are "primitive" tracks. Compared to Glyn Johns' finished productions, maybe, but these are hardly empty shells.

Townshend's self-deprecating sleeve notes--a combination of confession, instruction, and autobiography--reveal more about process than the mystery or motivation behind the creative impulse. About "Squeezebox" he says: "Amazingly recorded by The Who to my disbelief. Further incredulity was caused when it became a hit for us in the USA." In the note for "Politician," Townshend talks shop: "Recorded on Revoxes at 15 ips stereo, this has a sound that only I could get at that time. Influenced as I was by Tamla Motown, the rhythm is like HEATWAVE by Martha and the Vandellas, but the sound too is fundamentally as home-grown as the Tamla sound; obviously not as good. Listening to some of the old Motown cuts I feel sure that the beauty of the sound comes from the fact that a lot of love and listening went into operating very simple machinery. There is rarely mystery in recording, but even knowing how I got the weird sound on this cut doesn't mean I could do it again today."

Two LPs' worth of demos and a few studio rejects reveal an artist with a surprisingly wide and varied musical palette--not that Townshend's 40-year recording career didn't demonstrate that already! While a singular personality is clearly at work, few of the tunes resemble each other, and most (with the notable exception of the truly silly "Piano: 'Tipperary'") are far more substantial than cutting-room scraps.

Still, this remains a set for fans only, and even then one has to wonder whether this sort of material really deserved the expensive, 200-gram Quiex SV-P treatment. Assigning ratings to this set was difficult. While this is the best you'll ever hear this material sound, I couldn't see going higher than I did, given the home-studio quality of most of it, good though it is.