How Can I Help You, Sir?

Used to love to follow Pete Townshend's old diary at his now defunct website: www.petetownshend.co.uk (don't bother, it now redirects to a mostly bland Who site)- abandoned at the urging of his Who singer, Roger Daltrey, after branding concerns and the usual stuff. Pete still blogs at thewho.com - but it's behind a wall. And he's a hollow shell of the blogger he used to be (aren't we all?)

This was one of my favorite video posts of his. I stumbled upon it tonight during what else, a bout of insomnia. Having read Bill Wyman's wonderful musings about the scarcity of scarcity in the digital age at Slate.com, I started listening to old Pete Townshend demos for Who albums. As a big Who fan, it's great to hear the source material. But it's almost always a second favorite to the final Who version of the music.

Having grown up a Who fan (fondly remember jamming to "I Can See For Miles" on big brother's after market Pioneer Super Tuner in his '77 Mercury Monarch), I was slow to warm up to solo Pete Townshend. I can now say that, given the dearth of any new Who material, I would warmly welcome a slew of Pete solo material - maybe another Scoop.