Songoftheday 8/15/14 - You must have heard the cautionary tale, the danger's hidden on the cul-de-sac trail..

Pete Townshend - "Face The Face"
from the album White City: A Novel (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #26 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 7

Today's Song of the Day comes from one of the most revered rock and roll guitarists, Pete Townshend, who had played axe for the Who since their start in 1964. He began to release a couple of independently-issued albums under the guidance of Indian spiritual guide Meher Baba in the early 1970s, with a compilation Who Came First popping into the American albums chart in 1972. However, it wasn't until his first true solo album Empty Glass that he found mainstream success. The record went to #5 in the U.S., with the single "Let My Love Open The Door". In 1982, at the same time the Who were about to release what was then their swan song, It's Hard, Pete put out All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes, and the first single from the set, "Face Dances Part Two", climbed to #15 on the newly formed Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in Billboard.

It took another three years for Pete to record another solo album, and the result, White City, was a concept-style album like his previous Quadrophenia and the aborted Lifehouse. Inspired by the western London slums where he grew up, the album was full of calls to anarchist action and fighting the powers that be. The first single, though, "Face To Face", almost seemed sing-songy and trivial compared to the rest of the effort, but it did give Pete another hit across the pond. His daughter Emma cameos as backup singer as well...

"Face The Face" became Pete's second and final top-40 pop hit in January of 1986, while climbing to #3 for three weeks on the Mainstream Rock radio chart. It would be his last time on the pop list in America or Britain, although the album's more worthy follow-up, "Give Blood", peaked at #5 on the rock radio chart. In 1989, Townshend returned to the top-3 on the rock list with "A Friend Is A Friend" from his Iron Man musical. His most recent solo studio album, Psychoderelict, placed "English Boy" into the top-20 on the rock chart in 1993. By the end of the decade, he would be back with the Who (minus deceased drummer Keith Moon) for Quadrophenia live performances. THey would have one album of new material, Endless Wire, come out in 2006. He's been hinting in interviews and in his biography at his bisexuality, but other than his statements (and sometimes denials), it's pretty cloudy.

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Here's Pete on the Deep End tour performing the song...

and from his 1985 TV appearance with Pink Floyd's David Gilmour...

Up tomorrow: a Caribbean king heads east for some Egyptian gems.