Jimi Hendrix - First Rays of The New Rising Sun (2025 Upgrade)

 

Jimi Hendrix & The Cry of Love – 

First Rays of the New Rising Sun

(soniclovenoize reconstruction)

April 2025 UPGRADE

Side A:

1. Dolly Dagger

2. Night Bird Flying

3. Room Full of Mirrors

4. Belly Button Window

5. Freedom

Side B:

6. Ezy Ryder

7. Astro Man

8. Drifting

9. Straight Ahead

Side C:

10. Earth Blues

11. Izabella

12. Drifter’s Escape

13. Beginnings

14. Angel

Side D:

15. Stepping Stone

16. Bleeding Heart

17. New Rising Sun (Hey Baby)

18. In From The Storm

This is a very long-overdue upgrade to one of my classic “First Generation” reconstructions:  Jimi Hendrix’s final album before he passed away, First Rays of the New Rising Sun.  Hendrix had spent the final year of his life—and especially the final months—working on what would-have-been a double-album follow-up to Electric Ladyland.  Instead of assembling the album as Hendrix had envisioned, the material was dashed together by producer Alan Douglas and released on a number of posthumous albums, including The Cry of Love, Rainbow Bridge, War Heroes, Loose Ends and Voodoo Soup.  After securing the legal rights to his catalog, a separate attempt was made by The Hendrix Estate in 1997 to re-issue a compilation meant to replicate Hendrix’s wishes for First Rays, but many fans noted that poor song selection and mastering missed the mark as well.  My reconstruction attempts to gather all of Jimi Hendrix’s own final mixes of the most completed tracks when possible (15 out of 18 songs), ignoring posthumous mixes.  Also  the sources featuring the best mastering and highest dynamics are used to correct what both Douglas and The Hendrix Estate could not, and present a more accurate representation of what Hendrix desired for his swansong and come-back album. 

The upgrades to this April 2025 edition are:

• New cover art of Monika Dannemann’s actual original painting, based on Hendrix’s own sketch before he died, replacing my own mock-up.  

• New re-mastering of “Izabella” and “Stepping Stone” to make it less brittle and aggressive sounding, to fit with the rest of the album, this time sourced from Voodoo Child rather than a rip of the original 7” single.  

• “Drifter’s Escape” is an updated source taken from the Electric Lady Studios boxset, rather than South Saturn Delta. 

• “Beginnings” is the complete, unedited track, an updated source taken from the Electric Lady Studios boxset, rather than a vinyl rip of Loose Ends.  

• “Bleeding Heart” is an updated source taken from the Electric Lady Studios boxset, rather than a vinyl rip of War Heroes. 

• “Hey Baby” is Hendrix’s own mix from 8/22/70, taken from the Electric Lady Studios boxset, rather than the posthumous Douglas mix from Rainbow Bridge. 

• “In From The Storm” is Hendrix’s own more refined mix from 8/24/70 taken from the Electric Lady Studios boxset, rather than his earlier 8/22/70 mix from West Coast Seattle Boy.  

1969 was the year of metaphorical death and rebirth for Jimi Hendrix.  After dissolving his chart-topping power trio The Jimi Hendrix Experience and its following brief incarnation Gypsy Sun and Rainbows (who backed him at Woodstock), Hendrix was under pressure by Civil Rights activists to form an all-black band.  His answer was Band of Gypsies, featuring bassist Billy Cox (who had played in Gypsy Sun and Rainbows) and drummer Buddy Miles.  The trio set out to rehearse all-new Hendrix originals to fulfill a contractual loophole in which Hendrix owed producer Ed Chalpin an album’s worth of new material; the result was the live album Band of Gypsies, released March 1970, which showcased more structured songs with a funk and R&B-influenced sound, of course infused with Hendrix’s own penchant for psychedelia and guitar wizardry.   A studio single “Stepping Stone” b/w “Izabella” was also released in April 1970, before being quickly withdrawn due to Hendrix’s dissatisfaction with the mix.  Although the band dissolved in January 1970, Hendrix had written a vast amount of new material with the trio and had secretly set aside what he deemed the best material from the live Band of Gypsies album for his fourth proper studio album, what he was now announcing to the press as First Rays of The New Rising Sun.

Hendrix quickly reformed a new backing band, this time featuring the winning combination of Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell and Band of Gypsies bassist Billy Cox (who were the core rhythm section of Gypsy Sun and Rainbows), called The Cry of Love (although billed as The Jimi Hendrix Experience for commercial reasons).  Recording sessions commenced at The Record Plant from January to May; while touring that spring, Hendrix compiled a list of 24 songs to be considered for the album (at that point called Straight Ahead), all in various forms of studio completion (as shown by checks or Xs) from the Record Plant sessions.  After the first leg of their American tour, the trio returned off and on to Hendrix’s own Electric Lady Studios in June and July, recording more basic tracks as well as new work on the withdrawn Band of Gypsies single, “Stepping Stone” and “Izabella”, with Mitchell literally re-recording Miles’s original drum parts.  By this point, Straight Ahead had reverted to its original title First Rays of the New Rising Sun, and had been described as an intended double-album by Hendrix’s inner circle. 

After moving into Hendrix’s personal recording studio Electric Lady in late August, Hendrix and producer Eddie Kramer added overdubs and prepared mixes of several songs for the album, although we can never be sure if they were truly the final mixes, as Hendrix tended to add subtle touches to every song right up until their final release.   August 20th produced mixes for: “In From The Storm”, “Drifting”, “Room Full of Mirrors”, “Straight Ahead”, “Dolly Dagger” and “Freedom”.  August 22nd produced mixes for: “Bolero”/”Hey Baby”, “Message To Love”, “Power of Soul”, “Come Down Hard On Me”, “Beginnings”, “Bleeding Heart”, “Drifter’s Escape”, “Earth Blues”, “Astro Man”, “Ezy Rider” and several others.  August 24th produced mixes for: “Belly Button Window”, “Dolly Dagger”, “Night Bird Flying”, “Freedom”, “In From The Storm”.  August 25th produced mixes for: “Astro Man” and “Straight Ahead”.  Of these, both “Dolly Dagger” and “Night Bird Flying” were approved as final, finished mixes and were dashed off to be mastered for a single release; the latest mixes of “Freedom”, “astro man” and “Straight Ahead” were also presumed to be their final mixes.  At this session it is believed that Hendrix began creating a tracklist for First Rays of the New Rising Sun, scrawled on the back of a 3M tapebox.  While Sides A and B seemed fairly definite, Side C had several titles scratched out or in parenthesis; Side D was left blank. 

Hendrix and The Cry of Love jaunted off for their ill-fated European Tour, beginning with the Isle of Wight Festival on August 30th.  As September rolled on, the shows were met with jeering and Hendrix’s spirits were visibly diminished.  Taking a week off in London, a paranoid Billy Cox apparently quit the group and headed home.  Spending his final days with figure skater Monika Dannemann, Hendrix created an illustration featuring his face as well as famous White, Black, Asian and Native American faces in the shape of a cross which some believe to be a cover concept for First Rays of the New Rising Sun.  Hendrix was found dead the next day. 

With new Jimi Hendrix material as a contractual obligation, Kramer and Mitchell regrouped at Electric Lady to sift through the massive amount of material recorded during this period and to add finishing touches to specific songs, in order to assemble the album Hendrix had envisioned.  After recording new drum tracks, fresh mixes of “Room Full of Mirrors” and “Angel” were made on October 14th but unused; a more refined mix of “Angel” from November 12th was deemed release-worthy.  After vibraphone overdubs onto “Drifting”, a rough mix was made on November 20th with the final mix completed December 2nd.  A more finalized mix of “In From The Storm” was completed on November 29th.  Finally, Kramer made new mixes of “Earth Blues”, “Pali Gap” and “Hey Baby” in February 1971.  The first posthumous release was The Cry Of Love in march 1971, followed by the soundtrack Rainbow Bridge in October 1971.  

With the floodgates opened, more posthumous releases were planned as the barrel’s bottom was scraped, including War Heroes in 1973 and Loose Ends in 1974.  Producer Alan Douglas attempted to recreate a First Rays-like reconstruction in 1995 as Voodoo Soup, which blasphemously featured contemporary overdubs!  After gaining control of his catalog, The Hendrix Estate issued their own reconstruction of First Rays in 1997, perhaps the closest yet, but still missing a few key components.  Here we will try to set the record straight (ahead).

Luckily, our work is cut out for us as Hendrix himself had already decided on a track order for disc 1, as per his list scrawled on the back of a 3M tape box (included with this reconstruction); our work is half done!  Although it is contested amongst the Hendrix fandom if this tapebox was authentic, I personally believe it is–or at least was written by an authoritative source and dictated by the man himself.  I also believe it creates a very strong Disc 1, consisting of all the specific tracks that Hendrix himself mixed in August 1970, sequenced in a fashion that seems fairly representative of the sound Henrdix was creating during this period.  This reconstruction attempts to present that first disc, coupled with a second disc constructed from the remaining finished key recordings from this era, in a way that compliments that first disc.  

Opening Side A is Hendrix's 8/24/70 mix of “Dolly Dagger” from the amazing 2014 remaster of Rainbow Bridge.  Following is the 8/24 mix of “Night Bird Flying” from the equally amazing 2014 remaster of Cry of Love.  While this title also was scrawled in as opening side C, it is written in boldface as the second track on side B, suggesting it was a later and more definite revision, and is thus used here.  The 8/20 mix of “Room Full of Mirrors”, again from Rainbow Bridge is next, followed by the 8/24 mix of Hendrix’s solo demo of “Belly Button Window” from Cry of Love. While many don’t believe this drastic dynamic shift would have been on the album, I think it’s a rather welcomed change in the side’s flow, and we’ll stick to Jimi’s wishes.  The side closes with the presumably final 8/24 mix of “Freedom” from Cry of Love.  

Side B opens with the 8/22 mix of “Ezy Rider”, followed by the presumably final 8/25 mix “Astro Man”, followed by the posthumous 12/2 mix of “Drifting” from Cry of Love; while I considered using Hendrix’s own stripped-down 8/20 mix, I felt the more refined mix featuring the vibraphones and backwards guitar fit better in this reconstruction.  Next is the presumably final 8/25 mix of “Straight Ahead”, also taken from Cry of Love.  Many fans question Jimi’s tracklist here, as side B is much shorter than A, running four songs at 16 minutes compared to five songs at 19 minutes.  While that may be true, I will stand by Jimi’s choice here as what he intended, and furthermore I feel that despite its length, it sounds like a fairly complete side.  This is apparently what Hendrix wanted for First Rays: a concise album, no sprawling instrumental experiments, just all killer/no filler. 

With disc 1 complete, we are left to create the second disc Jimi never got around to.  The method for my disc two reconstruction is simple: use the remaining complete (or mostly complete) tracks to make a second disc that is as comparable as possible to the first: straight-forward funk/R&B, running nine songs at 35 minutes with the fourth side shorter than the third.  We will drop some songs that are too skeletal (“Cherokee Mist”), others that do not feature the funky R&B sound of disc one (“Come Down Hard On Me”) as well as instrumentals that would not have made the cut anyways (“Pali Gap”).  We are certainly excluding “My Friends”, as it doesn’t even date from this time period!  

Side C opens with an upbeat soul-rocker, as side A did: with “Earth Blues”, using what is believed as Jimi’s own 8/22 mix found on the Purple Box, as opposed to the posthumous mix on Rainbow Bridge.  Next is “Izabella”, portraying the equivalent of “Night Bird Flying”, using Hendrix’s own original vintage mix found on the Band of Gypsies 7” (a rare mix that is exclusive only to that release), as heard on the compilation Voodoo Child; here I have done some extra EQing so this 7” mix matches the fidelity and tonal characteristics of the rest of the reconstruction.  Following is the more aggressive rocker, the part played by “Drifter’s Escape”, again using what is presumed as Hendrix’s own 8/22 mix found on the Electric Lady Studios box.  The idiosyncratic dynamic shift is next with “Beginnings” using the unedited mix found on the Electric Lady Studios box; although we are avoiding instrumentals, it is included because not only does it fit the sound of the album, but it was written in as a contender for side C by Hendrix.  The side also closes as per his wishes, with “Angel” taken from The Cry of Love; like “Drifting” I chose to use the posthumous 12/2 mix instead of Henrix’s own rough 8/20 mix, as it sounded more refined as fit better with the tone of the reconstruction as a whole.  

Side D opens much like B, with the dense, heavy guitar fury of “Stepping Stone”, again using the extremely rare vintage Hendrix mix found on the Band of Gypsies 7” (again sourced from Voodoo Child) as opposed to the posthumous mix on War Heroes.  The side's bouncy rocker follows with what is presumably Hendrix’s own 8/22 mix of “Bleeding Heart”, taken from the Electric Lady Studios box, and then the mid-tempo epic “Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)”, this being Hendrix’s own rough mix from 8/22 taken from the Electric Lady Studios box.  Much like the previous disc, the album ends with a mid-tempo groove-rocker “In From The Storm”, here using Hendrix’s own 8/24 mix from the Electric Lady Studios box, as opposed to the posthumous mix found on The Cry of Love.  In the end, we have a second nine-song, 36-minute disc that matches the first.  

The final touch is the most revealing, recent (re)-discovery: Monika Dannemann’s actual painting depicting the sketch Hendrix made the day before his death (included with this reconstruction), possibly his actual cover art idea: Hendrix’s own face in the center of a cross; with Martin Luther King Jr and an African queen on the left arm (representing blacks); John F Kennedy and Adolph Hitler on the right arm (representing whites); Buddha and Genghis Khan in the top arm (representing Asians); Cochise, Crazy Horse and Geronimo on the bottom arm (representing Native Americans).  If Dannemann is to be believed, this would have been the cover for First Rays of The New Rising Sun, rather than any of the posthumous slop produced after Hendrix’s death.  This, coupled with the two discs of this set, seem to be the first rays of what could have been Jimi’s last rising sun. 

Sources used:

Electric Lady Studios - a Jimi Hendrix Vision (2024 CD boxset)

The Cry of Love (2014 Experience Hendrix CD remaster)

Rainbow Bridge (2014 Experience Hendrix CD remaster)

Voodoo Child (2001 CD pressing)

flac --> wav --> editing in Audacity and Goldwave --> flac encoding via TLH lv8

* md5 files, track notes and artwork included

 

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Pink Floyd - Household Objects

  

Pink Floyd - Household Objects

(soniclovenoize reconstruction) 

Side A:

1.  Side A

 Side B:

2.  Side B

 

Household Objects is one of the most intriguing and experimental projects by Pink Floyd, though it was never officially released. The album was conceived in the mid-1970s as a follow-up to their highly successful The Dark Side of the Moon (1973). It's often referred to as a "lost album" or "unreleased album," and its story is a fascinating example of the band's creative process.

The concept behind Household Objects was a radical departure from their earlier sound. The band aimed to create music using everyday objects, rather than traditional rock instruments like guitars, bass, and drums. The idea was to incorporate things like cans, bottles, radios, and other common items to create unique, experimental sounds. This was part of Pink Floyd's ongoing exploration of sonic experimentation and their desire to push the boundaries of music production.

The sessions for Household Objects began in 1974, with the band experimenting with various objects to create sounds. Some of the ideas included using the resonance of a cardboard box, the clinking of glasses, and even the sound of a vacuum cleaner. The idea was to manipulate these sounds in ways that would form musical textures, beats, and atmospheres. While some of the material recorded during these sessions was quite promising, the project faced multiple challenges.

One of the key issues was that the band's vision for the album was not fully realized. The soundscapes created by household objects, while innovative, were not always easy to arrange into cohesive songs. Additionally, there were technical difficulties in capturing and processing these sounds in a way that would make them musically satisfying.

The Household Objects project was eventually abandoned around 1975. Much of the material was shelved in favor of more traditional studio work, and Pink Floyd turned their attention to the recording of Wish You Were Here (1975), which became another classic in their catalog.

Though Household Objects was never officially released, some of the ideas and experiments from this project can be heard in fragments throughout the band's later work, especially in the more experimental passages of Wish You Were Here and Animals (1977). There are also rumors that some of the recorded material exists in bootleg form, though it's not widely circulated.

In the years since, the concept of Household Objects has become a fascinating "what if?" story in the Pink Floyd legend, a testament to the band's willingness to experiment and take risks during their creative peak. While it wasn't completed, it remains a notable part of Pink Floyd's legacy as a pioneering force in progressive and experimental rock music.

The sound of Pink Floyd's Household Objects is one of the most elusive and experimental in the band's history, as the album was never officially completed or released. However, we can get an idea of what it might have sounded like based on various descriptions and the experimental direction the band was exploring at the time.

The idea behind Household Objects was to create music using everyday objects instead of traditional musical instruments. This meant that the sound would have been characterized by non-traditional, often organic, and unusual sound sources. Here are some key elements of what the music might have sounded like:

1. Experimental Soundscapes

The album would have been rich in unconventional soundscapes, with a heavy emphasis on textures. Pink Floyd was keen on experimenting with the sonic possibilities of objects like bottles, cans, pieces of wood, and metal. These objects would have been struck, rubbed, or manipulated to produce percussive sounds or resonant tones. The result would likely have been ambient, eerie, and atmospheric, with a focus on creating mood rather than melody or traditional song structures.

2. Industrial and Mechanical Noises

The concept of using household items meant that the sound palette would include everyday mechanical noises — like the hum of a vacuum cleaner, the clink of glass or metal, or the whirr of machines. These sounds would be distorted, looped, and layered, giving the album an industrial, avant-garde vibe. Given that Pink Floyd was already exploring deep, atmospheric sound on The Dark Side of the Moon, Household Objects would have pushed that even further with an almost otherworldly, alien quality to the music.

3. Minimalist and Experimental Instrumentation

Some of the music from Household Objects has been described as being minimalist, with long stretches of time where subtle sound textures and tones take precedence over melodic or rhythmic development. The use of household items likely resulted in strange, mechanical rhythms that were far more abstract compared to the more traditional rock drumming or keyboard patterns heard on albums like The Dark Side of the Moon or Wish You Were Here. There were also reports of the band experimenting with things like a "cardboard box drum kit," which would have made the sound even more unconventional.

4. Atmospheric and Spacey

Given that Pink Floyd was at the height of their exploration into spacey, psychedelic atmospheres during this time, Household Objects would have likely had a dreamlike, floaty quality to it. The experimental use of everyday objects would have created a surreal sound environment, with drones and ambient noises filling the space between what might have been sparse, abstract compositions. Some of the sounds would probably have felt very organic and organic, as though the objects themselves were the instruments.

5. Fragmentary and Incomplete

Since the project was never fully completed, the recorded material from Household Objects might have lacked the cohesive structure found in Pink Floyd's more finished works. The idea of creating music with found objects would have resulted in a fragmented sound, one that could be viewed more as an exploration of sound rather than a fully realized album.

6. Hints of Experimental Rock

Even though the album was meant to avoid traditional instruments, some of the material recorded during the Household Objects sessions reportedly included fragments of more conventional rock instrumentation, possibly hinting at the direction that the band would take on later albums like Wish You Were Here and Animals. There are mentions of tracks that utilized more familiar elements like synthesizers or guitars but mixed them with the unusual sounds created from the household objects.

Overall Vibe

The music would have been abstract, experimental, and deeply atmospheric. It might have been unsettling at times, almost like the sonic equivalent of an avant-garde film, with elements of surrealism, industrial noise, and ambient sound blending into a unique listening experience. The absence of traditional structure or melody would have made it feel far more exploratory and avant-garde compared to Pink Floyd's more polished albums, focusing on creating mood and texture over conventional songcraft.

While it’s impossible to know for sure what Household Objects would have sounded like, it’s clear that it was an ambitious project that would have explored new boundaries in music production, sound design, and experimentation.

 

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The Zombies - Remember You

 The Zombies - Remember You

(soniclovenoize “1965 Album” reimagining)

 

Side A:

1.  She’s Coming Home

2.  I Want You Back Again

3.  I Must Move

4.  If It Don’t Work Out

5.  Don’t Go Away

6.  I Know She Will

 

Side B:

7.  Just Out Of Reach

8.  Whenever You’re Ready

9.  I’ll Keep Trying

10.  I Love You

11.  Don’t Cry For Me

12.  Remember You

 

At long last, we are revisiting The Zombies!  This is the first in a series of album reimaginings which recontextualizes The Zombies’ discography as a series of albums, rather than the scattered releases that have existed in numerous forms throughout the last 50 years.  Remember You collects the singles sessions recorded throughout the spring and summer of 1965 into a cohesive album, meant to be the proper follow-up to their debut album Begin Here.  The best sources were used, additional mastering performed on the demo tracks to match the mixes of the single releases, and presented as the band originally intended– all in mono!  

Following the surprise double-punch hits of 1964’s “She’s Not There” and 1965’s “Tell Her No”, The Zombies seemed to be a formidable adversary of another British pop group.  Although sharing three-part harmonies, original intricately-written pop songs and a modern rock ‘n’ roll backbeat, these “Fab Five” seemed a bit more posh and cultured than their Liverpool contemporaries.  Their two hits were collected into their debut album Begin Here in April 1965 (or alternatively, released as The Zombies in the US in January 1965) and the band embarked on endless gigs throughout the European college circuit, displaying their songwriting prowess as well as their penchant for American R&B covers.  

While The Beatles were asking for Help and The Rolling Stones were Going Out of Their Heads, The Zombies’ patrons Decca Records chose to instead make them a “singles band”, and to forgo recording another proper LP like their contemporaries.  On March 2nd, the quintet entered the studio to record a slew of new, original compositions, in the hopes that one (or more) would be a hit: keyboardist Rod Argent’s “She’s Coming Home” and “I Want You Back Again”, and bassist Chris White’s “I Must Move” and “Remember You”.  Also tracked was a song penned by lead singer Colin Blunstone, “Just Out Of Reach” (and its variant “Come On Time”) meant for the film Bunny Lake Is Missing, which actually featured the band on-screen!  An additional session was held on March 31st for two more songs meant for the film’s soundtrack: “Nothing’s Changed” and an alternate version of “Remember You.”  “She’s Coming Home” b/w “I Must Move” was released in April, but did not hit the Top 40.  “I Want You Back Again” b/w the Begin Here deep-cut “I Remember When I Loved Her” was released in June but barely scraped the Top 100.  Strike one and strike two...  

After returning from their first US tour, the band re-entered the studio on June 24th in a second attempt to record a hit single, this time with Argent’s uptempo rockers “Whenever You’re Ready” and “I’ll Keep Trying”, and White’s ballad “Don’t Go Away”.  A second session a few weeks later on July 8th spawned even more excellent quality songs: White’s “I Love You”, “Don’t Cry for Me” and “I Know She Will”, Blunstone’s “How We Were Before” and Argent’s “If It Don’t Work Out”.  While the later became a demo presented to Dusty Springfield for her Ev’rything’s Coming Up Dusty album, “Whenever You’re Ready” b/w “I Love You” was released as a single in August in the US (September in the UK) and while it gained critical praise, refused to chart.  Three strikes and The Zombies were out.  

Although music history would later trumpet the band’s 1968 last-ditch effort Odessy and Oracle as a forgotten cult classic, the sixteen original songs recorded by The Zombies during the spring and summer of 1965 remained as either failed singles or outtakes in the vaults, heard only as bonus tracks on various reissues.  Four of these recordings (“I’ll Keep Trying”, “If It Don’t Work Out”, “Don’t Cry for Me” and “I Know She Will”) would later be embellished and overdubbed in the studio by Argent & White in December 1968, for inclusion on a proposed posthumous Zombies album R.I.P., which was ultimately scrapped, leaving these revised versions also unreleased.  Luckily, the entire Zombies discography was collected and released on the boxset Zombies Heaven in 1997.  

But should this really be the fate of the only band that this author believes could hold a candle to The Beatles?  Are two albums and a smattering of random songs the best way to appreciate The Zombies through the modern lens?  I propose that it is not, and we are able to make an additional two albums as a stopgap between Begin Here and Odessey and Oracle, as well as a restructured R.I.P. as a fifth and final album.  

The first entry into this reimagined Zombies discography is Remember You, which specifically culls the best twelve songs from the sixteen recorded between March-July 1965, for a theoretical August 1965 release.  I believe this specific set of songs could have been quite a strong album in itself, far superior to Begin Here.  I have used Zombie Heaven as the source material, as it features all the original mono masters of the songs; I will be using the original 1965 “undubbed” versions of the four R.I.P. tracks, for which I have used Ozone Izotope Master Rebalance to match the mix of the other songs.  

 

Sources used:

• The Zombies - Zombie Heaven (1997 CD release) 

   

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The Who - Lifehouse (2025 Upgrade)

The Who – Lifehouse

(soniclovenoize reconstruction)

January 2025 UPGRADE

Side A:

1.  Teenage Wasteland

2.  Time Is Passing

3.  Love Ain’t For Keeping

4.  Going Mobile

5.  Pure and Easy

Side B:

6.  Baba O’Riley

7.  Mary

8.  I Don’t Even Know Myself

9.  Greyhound Girl

10.  Bargain

Side C:

11.  Naked Eye

12.  Behind Blue Eyes

13.  Too Much of Anything

14.  Let’s See Action

Side D:

15.  Getting In Tune

16.  Won’t Get Fooled Again

17.  This Song Is Over

A country ravaged by pollution and ecological destruction… a fascist government that controls the populus by feeding them digital media to pacify them…  Sound familiar?  Of course it does because I’m only talking about my upgrade to The Who’s unfinished 1971 rock opera Lifehouse!  

Originally planned as a double concept album and the soundtrack to its accompanying film, Lifehouse was too technically complex and conceptually baffling to all except Pete Townshend.  After a nervous breakdown while making the album and the lack of support from manager and producer Kit Lambert, Lifehouse was scrapped and paired down to the single LP Who’s Next, which became one of The Who’s crown achievements, critically and commercially.  This reconstruction attempts to pull the best sources of all tracks associated with the Lifehouse project recorded by The Who and assemble them not only in a pleasing and cohesive track order, but to follow the storyline of the film.  All four sides of the album have been crossfaded to be four continuous pieces of music, each beginning with Townshend’s synthesizer experiments to represent The One Note.  

The upgrades to this January 2025 edition are:

• Upgraded sources from the Who’s Next / Life House boxset– especially the long-lost true stereo mix of “Time is Passing” and the Olympic studio recording of “Naked Eye”-- as well as the original 1971 mixes of “Too Much of Anything” & “I Don’t Even Know Myself” and unedited mixes of “Pure and Easy” & “Let’s See Action.” 

• “Pure and Easy” is moved up to end Side A; as a song that is essentially an exposition-dump, I felt it was necessary for it to occur much earlier in the album, so the listener can contextualize the information about The One Note, as the subtext to the rest of the album.  

• “Baby Don’t You Do It” is dropped entirely to make the album more concise, with side runtimes at 20:33, 22:38, 19:36 and 19:48.  

• Addition of sections from Townshend’s “Baba M2” synthesizer experiments to the beginnings of Sides C and D, so that all four sides begin with iterations of The One Note; notably, a section is overlaid onto the intro of “Getting In Tune”, creating a new arrangement.  

Following the critically and commercially successful 1969 rock opera Tommy was no easy task for The Who.  At first the beginnings were modest with a self-produced EP recorded in May 1970 at Pete Townshend’s garage studio (dubbed Eel Pie)—possibly to mimic the stripped and fantastic Live at Leeds, released that month.  Featuring recent songs written while touring Tommy, The Who tracked “Postcard”, “Now I’m A Farmer”, “Water”, “Naked Eye” and “I Don’t Even Know Myself”.  This EP never saw the light of day for various reasons, including questions of marketability and inflated song length.  It's more likely that Townshend had instead concocted an epic idea worthy enough to follow-up Tommy—another rock opera that not only functioned as a soundtrack to a companion film, but would include an audience-participated live performance with the band itself.  That September, Townshend began recording elaborate demos for much of the album, tracking all the instruments himself.  Unlike Tommy, the material for this project—now called Lifehouse—would consist of approximately 20 stand-alone songs, without the need for musical interludes to propel the storyline; each song would be self-sufficient. 

The original storyline itself was simple, albeit Bradbury-esque.  The setting was in the not-too-distant future, in an ecologically-destroyed United Kingdom.  Most people live in the major cities and are electronically connected via special suits to The Grid, a Matrix-like virtual reality computer program that feeds, entertains and pacifies the populace, which is controlled by a villainous character named Jumbo.  Since it is not approved by The Grid, music is outlawed completely; despite this, a hacker musician named Bobby who lives outside the city amongst the hippy-gypsy farmer communes broadcasts a signal of classic rock (called Trad) into The Grid.  Some rebellious few congregate to the secret Lifehouse to experience the music Bobby broadcasts, which are somehow tailor-made for each individual person, the music representing their own life experience (and performed by, who else, but The Who!). 

The story begins with Ray and Sally, husband and wife turnip farmers, also living in a traveling commune outside of the city.  Their teenage daughter Mary intercepts the Lifehouse broadcasts and runs away from her family to seek the source of the pirate signal.  While Ray goes after her, Sally finds Bobby attempting to find The One Note, a musical note that represents all people and unites the universe.  After falling in love, the pair travel to London to find and play The One Note at The Lifehouse. By the end of the double album, Ray catches up to the couple, Jumbo’s troops storm the rock festival at The Lifehouse just as Bobby plays The One Note, and we find the rebel youth have simply vanished, transcended to another plane, along with any civilians attached to The Grid who had witnessed the event. 

The story seems to make sense to us, in the internet age.  But the rest of the band members failed to understand Townshend’s concept (specifically Roger Daltrey’s inability to conceptualize wireless communication), and likewise Towshend had difficulty articulating it.  To make matters more confusing, Townshend intended not only live performances of The Who to be intercut within the narrative in the film, but the performances themselves were to be metaphysical music that would be “tuned” to each individual audience member.  The final touch was that The Who, by the end of the performance, would become holograms.  These performances at The Young Vic Theatre beginning in January 1971 and carrying on sporadically until the spring seemed to be unpromoted and open to the general public—anyone curious enough to wander into the Young Vic and discover The Who playing new material!  Unfortunately, The Who were a band who wanted to make metaphysical music that represented the souls of the individual audience members, who themselves casually arrived just wanting to hear the bands’ hits.  The Young Vic performances were a failed experiment and in the end simply amounted to public rehearsals of the new Lifehouse material.  With Townshend disheartened that not only the audience “didn’t get it” but his band as well, The Who relocated to New York to record the new songs properly in the studio, giving Lifehouse one final chance. 

Initial album tracking began at the Record Plant in March 1971, produced by manager Kit Lambert as usual and featuring legendary keyboardist Al Kooper and guitarist Leslie West of Mountain.  At least six core Lifehouse songs were all worked on to completion or near to it: “Baby Don’t You Do It” (allegedly a studio warm-up), “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, “Love Ain’t For Keeping”, “Behind Blue Eyes”, “Pure and Easy” and “Getting in Tune”.  By this time the band’s relationship with Lambert had broken down completely.  Lambert was producer only in name, as he was preoccupied with a heroin addiction and was unable to even mix the session!  Townshend (himself by this point a chronic alcoholic) also had problems finding a common-ground with Lambert in regards to the Lifehouse narrative; Kit had helped Townshend flesh out the concept of Tommy two years before, but they were unable to agree upon a script for the Lifehouse film.  The situation reached its boiling point when Townsend overheard Lambert blasting him at their hotel room, including his recommendation that the band should abandon the project.  Townshend in effect spiraled into a nervous breakdown, later claiming to have attempted to jump out of the hotel window.  That was the deathblow to Lifehouse. 

Still needing to finish an album—be it Lifehouse or otherwise—producer Glyn Johns was brought in to mix the Record Plant sessions and to see if it was salvageable.  Johns thought the recordings were up to par but recommended restarting the project with him at the helm, as he could better capture the essence of The Who to tape.  Recording began at Mick Jagger’s mansion Stargroves in April, testing the waters with “Won’t Get Fooled Again”.  Impressed with the results, Johns and the band relocated to Olympic Studios in May to overdub it and to record at least another 15 songs.  At this point in time, Johns urged an already discouraged Townshend to shelve the Lifehouse concept indefinitely and release the best material as a singular, non-conceptual album.  The result was Who’s Next, regarded as not only one of The Who’s greatest albums, but one of the greatest in rock history. 

While Johns apparently made the correct call in whittling down Lifehouse to Who’s Next, Townshend never really gave up on the project.  He continued working on it, adding new songs to the project that regardless found their way onto other Who singles and albums (“Join Together” and “Relay” in 1972, “Slip Kid” in 1976, “Who Are You” in 1977, etc).  After a failed attempt to write a new Lifehouse screenplay in 1980, the themes and basic plot outline were recycled by Townshend for his 1993 solo album Psychoderelict.   Townshend eventually commissioned a Lifehouse radio play for the BBC in 1999 and released a multi-disc boxset of his original 1970 Lifehouse demos, the radio play and its soundtrack in 2000 as The Lifehouse Chronicles.   To top it off, Townshend performed a series of concerts of the Lifehouse material later that year, released as Pete Townshend Live: Sadler Wells 2000.

While Townshend clearly gave his final word on the project, is it possible to rebuild the original Lifehouse that The Who attempted to raise in 1971?  An exact tracklist was never published and Townshend has revealed only the basic plotline, lacking any specifics or subplot descriptions.  And while The Lifehouse Chronicles gives an excellent overview of the material, presented in a cohesive narrative framework, it is very much retro-active, including later 70s compositions not originally included in the 1971 project and based upon the largely rewritten and convoluted 1999 BBC radio play.  For my reconstruction we will attempt to only use the songs originally intended to be a part of the 1971 project, using exclusively The Who recordings with gaps filled-in by Townshend’s 1970 solo demos.  Our tracklist will follow what we know of the original storyline, as reflected in the song lyrics, with further insight from the performance order of Townshend’s Live: Sadler’s Wells 2000.  Structurally, the first disc will be set in the Scottish countryside and follow Mary’s journey to find Bobby, and Ray’s journey to find Mary.  The second disc will be set in The Grid of London and portray Bobby’s search for The One Note and his final confrontation with Jumbo’s army.  No live material is included, as I believe that intent was scrapped after the failure of The Young Vic experiments.  As my previous version, I will be using the Japanese 2010 SHM CD remaster of Who’s Next as a the core-body of this reconstruction (being, imo, the post pristine and dynamic version of the album available), as well as Townshend’s demos from The Lifehouse Chronicles; any remaining sources are found on the new Who’s Next / Life House Super Deluxe boxset.  

Side A opens with “Baba M1” representing The One Note as an introduction, crossfaded into “Teenage Wasteland”, both Townshend’s demos taken from Lifehouse Chronicles.  Since there is an overlap between this and “Baba O’Riley”, the song is faded out before the redundant passages.  Here Ray introduces the listener to his world: living on the land in a caravan outside of The Grid.  Next, we introduce Bobby who is performing music in his own caravan with “Time Is Passing”, using the newly-discovered true stereo mix from Who’s Next / Life House.  “Love Ain’t For Keeping” follows (using the Olympic take from Who’s Next with the extended Record Plant jam from Who’s Next / Life House tagged onto the end), character development for Ray who sings this love song for his wife Sally.  The couple and their teenage daughter Mary travel the countryside in “Going Mobile” from Who’s Next, until Mary hears Bobby’s pirate broadcast and decides to leave her parents in search of whomever is sending these magical signals.  Ray chases after her, which his perceived betrayal is also reflected in the song’s lyrics.  The side concludes with a caravan elder explaining the nature of The One Note in the more majestic Olympic take of “Pure and Easy” from Who’s Next / Life House.  

Side B opens with Bobby experimenting with The One Note in “Baba O’Riley” from Who’s Next.  Mary finds him and joins his caravan, on its way to London to host a rock concert at The Lifehouse, intending to free the populace from The Grid.  Bobby falls in love with Mary as heard in Townshend’s demo of “Mary” from Lifehouse Chronicles, but Mary is reluctant as heard in the Olympic version of “I Don’t Even Know Myself” from Who’s Next / Life House.  Bobby tries to win Mary over in Townshend’s demo of “Greyhound Girl” from Lifehouse Chronicles, and disc one concludes with Ray vowing to retrieve his daughter no matter the cost—even venturing into the city to find her—in “Bargain” from Who’s Next.

Side C takes place in the future city of London (as heard from a minor-key section of “Baba M2” from Lifehouse Chronicles), as we see the populace hooked up into The Grid, living a virtual reality life, an idyllic illusion meant to control them.  Here we use the legendary Olympic take of “Naked Eye” from Who’s Next / Life House to create this setting and describe The Grid; I have used a patch to fix the brief drumming error going into the first verse (the reason imo this recording was never actually released for fifty years!). Following, we are introduced to Jumbo, the controller of The Grid, who attempts to convince the listener he’s just misunderstood in “Behind Blue Eyes” from Who’s Next.  As Bobby and Mary infiltrate the city, they attempt to show people that their Grid lives are an illusion in the original mix of “Too Much of Anything” from Who’s Next / Life House.  Both Bobby, Mary and Ray all arrive at The Lifehouse together and prepare for the rock concert in the unedited, long version of “Let’s See Action” from Who’s Next / Life House.  

The show begins in “Getting in Tune” from Who’s Next, as Bobby hacks into the Grid and broadcasts The Lifehouse concert live to all linked into The Grid; this includes a section of “Baba M2” overlaid on top of the piano and bass intro, as Bobby literally “gets in tune” to The One Note.  Then the revolution begins as Jumbo’s army storms the Lifehouse during “Won’t Get Fooled Again” from Who’s Next just as Bobby plays The One Note.  Right as the soldiers close in, all the protagonists and concert-goers vanish from their reality—as well as all the people on The Grid watching the show from their homes.  The closing credits presumably play over “This Song Is Over” from Who’s Next.  In keeping with tradition, I am retaining the appropriate cover art created long ago by I Design Album Covers.  

Sources used:

The Who - Who’s Next (2010 SHM remaster)

The Who - Who’s Next / Life House (2023 Super Deluxe, lossless Tidal rip)

Pete Townshend - Lifehouse Chronicles (2001 Eel Pie Records)

 

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