Who news in the April ICE...

[white-fang@genie.com]

Here's the latest from ICE...

WHAT'S IN A NAME: Atlantic has finally
put Pete Townshend’s greatest hits album firm-
Iy hack on the schedule, slated now for April 2.3
release. And the album's original mouthful-of-a-
title has been reinstated. We'll use it as little as
possible, but: Coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraight-
smokingfirestoking: The Best of Pete Townshend
features 15 tracks collected from his popular solo
albums such as Empty Glass and White City plus
an unreleased new song, "Uneasy Street" (an
outtake from the Psychoderelict album). The new
track sits alongside such album-rock favorites as
"Rough Boys" (recorded with Ronnie Lane),
"Let My Love Open The Door'', "Pure & Easy,"
"A Little is Enough" and "Face The Face."

As usual, all things Townshend are handled
by producer Jon Astley, including this best of
collection. Astley tells ICE that the entire con-
tents of the disc were remixed by himself and
Andy McPherson, the same remixing engineer
involved in all of the recent Whoprojects,
including the just-completed Tommy and
Quadrophenia upgraded CDs (ICE #107).
"'Rough Boys' is stupendous now," Astley says of
the remix. "The original was so compressed, and
we've let it fly a little bit, let the compressors
off. Now it's got dynamics that were [previously]
missing.”

We asked Astley if sharp-eared fans would
hear any other differences. "I changed the end
of 'Slit Skirts'“ he says, referring to the track
from All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes
'because the original fades in a very peculiar
place." Townshend begins what sounds like a
particularly good guitar solos but then frustrat-
ingly the song quickly fades out. "That's where
the tape stops” Astley agrees. "There was no
more tape. So I mixed an earlier chorus twice,
and stuck that on the end, and then faded out
on that. I might have gone 'round twice on the
guitar solo, it's hard to remember, because it's
been two and a half years. But you get the full
guitar [effect] now."

Apart from The Who, Townshend has had
only one Top 40 hit in this country, "Let My
Love Open The Door," so it appears twice on
the new CD. "There are two remixes of that,"
Astley says. "An authentic remix, which is close
to the original but cleaner like what we're
doing with the Who's catalog; and a remix done
by Chris Hughes. People who know the original
won't like that one, but the idea was to intro-
duce it to a new, younger audience."

So what's with the album's crazy titles "It
comes from the chorus of the song 'Misunder-
stood' on Rough Mix," Astley says. "Max Hole,
[the Managing Director] of EastWest Records
here, wrote to Pete and said, 'I really want a
title for this record; I don't want just 'The Best
Of.' So Pete sent him a list of about 30 titles.
Right at the bottom, as a kind of joke, he put
'(Coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestok-
ing.' Max saw it and went, 'Oh, yes—let's have
that one'."


MORE WHO NEWS: While we had Astley
we asked him for an update on the forthcoming
upgraded CD of The Who's Quadrophenia. "I've
decided to make it a double," he says, discard-
ing the option of trimming a few minutes of
material to squeeze the album onto a single
disc. "And I've found some outtakes, but I
haven't listened to them yet, so 1 don't know if
they're up to it yet. If they're any good I'll put
them on the end of the record. There's a song
called 'Wizardry,' one called 'Bank Holiday'...
and a couple more.

"Andy [McPhersonl and I are almost done
with it and it sounds great. Pete's over the
moon with it; he's been ordering [reference
CDs] from me to give away to friends." Domes-
rically, MCA has scheduled the overhauled
Quadrophenia for release sometime this summer.
(The similarly upgraded Tommy just came out
on March 12.)


CAN'T FORGET THE OX: Meanwhile, The
Who's venerable bass player, John Entwistle,
has pressed up CDs of an album he cut back in
the late '80s with his side project, The Rock.
The disc’s musician line-up differs somewhat
from his present touring outfit; featured on the
CD are Zak Starkey (son of Ringo Starr) on
drums, and a lead singer named Henry Small.
Entwistle wrote only four of the songs; the rest
were penned by his bandmates. (No signature
Who tunes are included.) Entwistle associate
Richard Weiner tells ICE that the CD can be
purchased A) at any John Entwistle concert, B)
at the limited in-store signings along the tour
route, or C) via mail order at Bitsa Talent (at
914-528-6992). (From Bitsa, the CD is $25
postage paid, or $40 postage paid for an auto-
graphed copy. )                -

Entwistle's many solo albums, such as 1971's
Smash Your Head Against The Wall and 1972's
Whistle Rymes, still remain unavailable on CD,
to the puzzlement of fans. However, later this
year, Rhino will finally release a single-CD best-
of culled from all of his solo records. then, next
year, in conjunction with Rhino, the Sundazed
Label will reissue each album individually.


THE LAST WORD: A major Swedish fan of
The Who Olle Lundin spent four years compil-
ing 450 unpublished photos of the group taken
during their appearances in the Scandinavian
-country between 1965 and 1972 Most of the
photos date from the 60s, making the 200-page
oversized book a must for any fan of the group’s
early days. Scattered throughout the black &
white and color photos are concert ads, memo-
rabilia and a text entirely in English. As a
bonus, Lundin pressed up a nine-track CD of
Swedish hands covering Who songs from the
60s such as The Lunatics doing "Pictures of
Lily, The Mascots tackling "So Sad About us”
and The Telstars performing Arthurs Buss. '
Cost for the whole package in the U.S. is $44
postpaid (credit cards not accepted). To order,
or for more information (including the price in
either currencies), contact Squeeze Books, c/o
Olle Lundin, Hallandsgatan 24 S-118 57 Stock-
holm, Sweden.