ALBUM: One of the Boys (1977)
MVC Rating: 3.0/$$
These albums by members of supergroup bands going solo come to me with low expectations. They are usually forced at least in the musical sense by the artist working out of his role. That’s part of the appeal to the artist and part of the ego-driven decision.
Look at Diana Ross, they think. She didn’t need no Supremes.
Look at Mick Jagger’s solo work. He DOES need the Stones.
ROGER: Uh, Pete, it’s just a little side project like you did with Ronnie Lane.
But that side project — Rough Mix — was good! One of my favorite albums. One of the best songs in that Townshend-Lane creation is the song ‘Annie.’
Daltrey, who never learned to button his own shirt, put it all out there on “One of the Boys’ — ballads, rockers, a little country. Hoping something would stick.
Daltrey is a great rock vocalist and quintessential front man for one of rock’s greatest rock bands, The Who. But this album is fair at best. But not without ambition.
Best song (ironically): Avenging Annie.
I have Andy Pratt’s version of Avenging Annie — he wrote it. And you could certainly argue that Daltry’s is better.
Daltrey is a singer, an interpreter of other’s songs. Townshend did the lion’s share of writing of the Who’s classics not the chiseled, shirtless frontman with flowing blond hair.
Funny side note: In my album, which is a cutout has an advertisement sheet offering “RogerDaltrey Hologram’ pendant that makes Daltrey look like a cross between Andre the Giant and Thor.
Oh, it’s $9.95 plus $1 shipping.