Customer Reviews

Another Scoop

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I find it truly amazing to hear these songs played on acoustic guitar. It is really interesting to me to compare the way Pete sings it on the original take versus how Roger would sing it on the master that everyone knows. I love hearing demos of any band, but particularly of The Who. To hear "Substitute" without Keith Moon roaring in the background. Or to hear "You Better You Bet" with lyrics missing. It's thrilling for any Who fan.

Every band seems to have, at some point in their career, put together a collection of unreleased work. The Beatles had their 3 Anthology sets, The Rolling Stones released multiple collections, and now you can have the newly rereleased Scoop albums, full of fascinating material by Pete Townshend. I'm only sorry we can't hear more.

Like 'Scoop,' I also found this record on the $2 vinyl wall at the vintage music store in my college town. It's a shame they're both out of print now. Most of the songs on the first installment are peppy and upbeat, the musical equivalent of soda pop, but the songs on here are by and large more mature, lush, orchestrated, polished, like fine wine. Though on here, the Who demos are closer together instead of being separated by more songs, as was the case on 'Scoop.' Again you can hear the difference between the demos and what they became under Roger's vocal interpretation. Thanks to the version on this album, I received a whole new appreciation of "Don't Let Go the Coat," a song I had formerly not thought highly of. The lyrics here are a bit different from the Who version on FD, but now, lyrical differences or not, I like both versions and no longer want to skip either. There are also three songs (more like musical pieces though) here that had originally been intended for the scrapped Who album 'Siege,' which would have been released in about 1983, after IH--"Cat Snatch," "Ask Yourself," and "Prelude: The Right to Write." It was based on the idea that each of us is a soul in siege.

Side four is my fave, but there are great songs all throughout. My faves are "Brooklyn Kids," "Football Fugue," "Never Ask Me" (it should have been included on WAY!), "Girl in a Suitcase," "Begin the Beguine" (which I only found out rather recently was originally done by Cole Porter), "Prelude #556," "Baroque Ippanese," "Praying the Game," "Prelude: The Right to Write," "The Ferryman" (done in a theatrical production of Hesse's novel 'Siddhartha'; Vasudeva is the name of the Ferryman), and "The Shout." There are a number of beautiful instrumental pieces on here, evoking such an unexplainable mood and feeling, the likes of which can't be conjured up by a song with words. Sometimes words just get in the way, and pure unadultered music does what can't be done by mere words.

Of course you know that Pete Townshend is the guitarist and main songwriter of the british rock legend "The Who" - creator of evergreen epics such as "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia". However, this man who has probably faced more ups and downs in life than most other fellow musicians of the 60s, is much more than this. He's a musical genius, perfectionist, and workaholic, dedicating most of his life to the creation of new music. He caught the zeigeist of the 60s and 70s with high reliability, which were certainly his most famous years. However, he also began exploring new directions in songwriting with increasing dedication throughout the decades. The "Scoop" album series documents this search and progression in a nice way. It's a collection of individual demos of known songs, intermixed with lots of unpublished works from the vaults. It's clearly the latter that make these "rarities" albums most appealing. However, don't you ignore the demos! They show that "Big T." is not only a good songwriter, but also a great singer and multi-instrumentalist. He might not have a good voice from a classical point of view, but he sings honestly, with all of his heart and soul - much like Peter Hammill of Van der Graaf Generator. There are only a few rock musicians on earth that I would call "honest". Pete Townshend is on my top-three list (along with Peter Hammill and Joe Jackson), and "Scoop" / "Another Scoop" are the best albums to explain why.

Girl In A Suitcase (outtake from the autobiographic Who by Numbers), Brooklyn Kids & Football Fugue (2 orchestral masterpieces) , Never Ask Me (outtake from Who are You)
These may be the 4 most underrated Who related songs many people have never heard.

I'm a huge Pete Townshend Fan. I love his guitar style, his lyrical style, he's nothing less than a genius. This particular album I consider a must have for any Townshend fan. You can see many of the tracks that later became songs made famous by The Who, and songs that never made it to an album. It gives a brand new perspective in the writing style of Townshend. Along with Scoop and Scoop 3, I can always find inspiration in this album. If I run into trouble while writing, I as myself: "What would Townshend do?"

"Another Scoop" will be essential for Who/Townshend fans. While the finished demos somethings don't differ signficantly from the version recorded by The Who to hear Townshend sing it (vs. Roger)adds another element to the song. The most fascinating bits though are acoustic demos of various songs at various stages of completion (lyrics missing, perhaps a bit of music not quite there yet). It's a fascinating glimpse into the creative process.

More important though for fans are the previously unreleased demos of songs that WEREN'T recorded by Pete or released by The Who. These aren't second rate bits of music by any stretch of the imagination but, in most cases, just didn't fit in with what Pete or the band wanted to put out at the time.

As with the other Scoop releases there's lyrics and liner notes by Pete discussing the various tracks and their recordings. If you purchased the previous version the sound is slightly better here as they were remastered from the original source tapes but keep in mind that many of these demos were recorded on 4 track machines, etc. in Pete's home studio vs. a modern recording studio and have some limitations (and charm)that you won't find on the finished album.

Pete releases a sequel to his original Scoop volume. More demos and unreleased songs. I could almost end the review there, but I'll explain what makes this album different from the first.

Obviously, there are different demos here than there were on the first. There are a lot more songs from "later" period who, such as "you better you bet" and "don't let go the coat." Once again, these demos illustrate Pete's arrangment genius, and his great multi-instrumnetalism. Pete could, I'm sure, release solo albums consisting of his solo playing.

These demos help give this album a different feel than the first. Somebody earlier said this album was like "fine wine" and I appreciate the metaphor. Pete's more mature songwriting is aptly illustrated throughout.

The unreleased songs here are also much more "mature" sounding than the ones on Scoop. "Football Fugue" follows in the weird experiments with strings pete was doing at that time (such as "street in the city"). There are three songs from the aborted post It's Hard album, and they're illustrative of the style pete would have taken at the time. Given the erratic quality of It's Hard, one can only wonder what he would have created at the time.

Here, it seems like Pete made a concious decision to illustrate his more complex, more mature work instead of his rawer, more basic, exciting work. Oh, don't get me wrong: there is a lot of enjoyment to be found here. This work might not be as thrilling or electric as early who work, but it holds up as great, thoughtful music. This is a problem many people have with Townshend and the fact that, as he grew older, he wanted to expand his songwriting and add newer elements. No doubt, he grew sick of rocking power chords, and strutting around on stage like a 20 year old. No doubt, this is why his later stuff became more sedate, more arranged, more thoughtful, i.e. more mature. His last two albums were similar, only hampered by erratic song writing quality and occasional lapses in arrangment taste. The Who e.p. "Wire And Glass" aptly illustrates, to me, Pete's newfound ability to mix this maturity with his desire to "rock" and his audiences desire to hear him rocking. It seems that Pete has realized he is just as amazing at this rock side as he is the thoughtful mature side. The new Who album can't come too soon.

Killer album of DEMO's!! Better than SCOOP 1. Pete really shows how he improved as a producer/engineer for his stuff. Also the orchestrations are out of this world. People sometimes forget what a GREAT Keyboard player Pete is!! He really shows it on this collection. GET IT!! You won;t be dissappointed or fooled again!! LOL! GREAT DEMO'S!! The guy is a genius!!

Bill WHONUTT64 Tolles
Killeen, TX

I loved the Who demos on the first Scoop, so went browsing on eBay to find this, the second volume. I got it on vinyl and love it just as much as the first one. The demos on this collection are very interesting. "You Better You Bet," the opening track, has some of the lyrics missing. Pete's vocal impressions on "Pinball Wizard" are entirely different from the way Roger sang it on "Tommy." All in all, this album is very interesting to a Who fan, and is very entertaining as well.

I always had a warm spot in my tape rack, now my CD rack for the Scoop albums. Stripping down classic Who songs to their bare demo form only proves the quality of the songs. That classic rock "anthems" hold up under an entirely different type of arrangement is amazing. One reason his demo tracks are so rich and well developed is that Pete was one of the first (if not the first) artist to build and work in his own home studio. He continues to work heavily in his home studio to this day and I wonder how many nuggets of genius are tucked away in there that we may never get to hear. One other point of note, the "Spike" who is credited as a co-producer on the album is actually Elvis Costello, who revisited that particular pseudonym on his 1989 album of the same name.