ENDLESS WIRE (THE WHO ALBUM)

'''Endless Wire''' is the 11th studio album by The Who, and their first new studio album of original material in twenty-four years following the release of ''It's Hard'' in 1982. The album was originally to be released in Spring 2005 under the working title '''WHO2'''. The release date was pushed back to 30 October 2006, due to drummer Zak Starkey's commitments to work with Oasis on their album ''Don't Believe the Truth'' and subsequent tour.
''Endless Wire'' debuted at #7 on the Billboard album chart and #9 in the UK. Portions of it have been featured on The Who Tour 2006-2007.
"Mike Post Theme," "It's Not Enough", "Mirror Door", "A Man in a Purple Dress", "Fragments" and "We've Got a Hit" have received selective radio play. Most of the songs from this album were used in the rock musical adaptation of ''The Boy Who Heard Music'' which debuted in July 2007 as part of Vassar College's Powerhouse Summer Theater workshop series.

Contents

Track listing

Bonus tracks on some editions

Bonus DVD: ''Live at Lyon''

Bonus CD: ''Live at Lyon''

Singles

Personnel

The Who

Additional musicians

History of the album

Song breakdown

Additional songs

Adaptation as a rock musical

Miscellanea

External links

Track listing

All songs written by Pete Townshend, except where noted.
#"Fragments" (Townshend, Lawrence Ball) – 3:58
#"A Man in a Purple Dress" – 4:14
#"Mike Post Theme" – 4:28
#"In the Ether" – 3:35
#"Black Widow's Eyes" – 3:07
#"Two Thousand Years" – 2:50
#"God Speaks of Marty Robbins" – 3:26
#"It's Not Enough" (Townshend, Rachel Fuller) – 4:02
#"You Stand by Me" – 1:36
#
★ ''Wire & Glass: A Mini-Opera''
#"Sound Round" – 1:21
#"Pick Up the Peace" – 1:28
#"Unholy Trinity" – 2:07
#"Trilby's Piano" – 2:04
#"Endless Wire" – 1:51
#"Fragments of Fragments" (Townshend, Ball) – 2:23
#"We Got a Hit" – 1:18
#"They Made My Dream Come True" – 1:13
#"Mirror Door" – 4:14
#"Tea & Theatre" – 3:24

Bonus tracks on some editions

#

"We Got a Hit" (extended version) – 3:03
#"Endless Wire" (extended version) – 3:03

Bonus DVD: ''Live at Lyon''

Recorded at the Vienne Amphitheatre, Vienne, France on 17 July 2006.
#"I Can't Explain" – 3:04
#"Behind Blue Eyes" – 4:39
#"Mike Post Theme" – 3:41
#"Baba O'Riley" – 5:59
#"Won't Get Fooled Again/Old Red Wine" – 10:03

Bonus CD: ''Live at Lyon''

Recorded at the Vienne Amphitheatre, Vienne, France on 17 July 2006. Included as an extra in Europe, Asia, and at Best Buy stores in the United States.

Single cover for ''Tea and Theater'', U.S. (promo), 2006.

#"The Seeker" – 2:36
#"Who Are You" – 6:58
#"Mike Post Theme" – 3:55
#"Relay" – 7:40
#"Greyhound Girl" – 3:04
#"Naked Eye" – 8:26
#"Won't Get Fooled Again/Old Red Wine" – 10:40

Singles

The songs "Tea & Theatre" and "It's Not Enough" were released separately as singles on Universal in 2006, and "Black Widow Eyes"/"It's Not Enough" on Polydor, also in 2006. "It's Not Enough" reached #37 on the U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock charts.

Single cover for ''Black Widow Eyes''/''It's Not Enough'', U.K. (promo), 2006.

Personnel

The Who

★ Roger Daltrey – lead vocals

★ Pete Townshend – guitars, vocals, bass guitar, drums, piano and keyboards, violin, banjo, mandolin, drum machine

Additional musicians

★ Pino Palladino – bass guitar

★ John "Rabbit" Bundrick – hammond organ

★ Zak Starkey – drums (on "Black Widow's Eyes")

★ Simon Townshend – backing vocals

★ Billy Nicholls – backing vocals

★ Peter Huntington – drums

★ Stuart Ross – bass guitar (on "It's Not Enough")

★ Jolyon Dixon – acoustic guitar (on "It's Not Enough")

★ Rachel Fuller – keyboards (on "It's Not Enough"), orchestration supervisor (on "Trilby's Piano")

★ Lawrence Ball – electronic music (on "Fragments")

★ Gil Marley, Brian Wright, Ellen Blair and Vicky Matthews – violins, violas, and cellos (on "Trilby's Piano")
Design and Art Direction by Richard Evans utilising elements created with the Visual Harmony software designed by Dave Snowdon and Lawrence Ball
The only remaining original members of the band are Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey. Keith Moon died in 1978, and John Entwistle died in 2002. Kenney Jones, the Who's second drummer, hasn't played with the group since 1988. Entwistle's place is currently being filled by Pino Palladino. Zak Starkey (son of Beatles drummer Ringo Starr), Peter Huntington, and Pete Townshend play drums on the album. Starkey, the longest-term fill-in for Keith Moon, has played with The Who since 1996. Additionally Simon Townshend (Pete Townshend's brother) and Billy Nicholls (who has played with both Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend on solo albums and tours, and provided backing vocals during The Who's 1989 reunion tour are providing some backing vocals for the album, with John "Rabbit" Bundrick playing some of the keyboards.
Palladino has worked on some of Pete Townshend's solo projects. When Entwistle died unexpectedly on the eve of the Who's 2002 tour of the United States, Palladino was called in, and the new group were performing within days. Palladino has remained with the Who, and played on the 2004 track "Old Red Wine".

History of the album

Most of what is known about the development of the album has come from Pete Townshend's website. On March 21, 2005, Pete Townshend officially announced the postponement of the new Who album [1]. On December 24, 2005, Townshend announced that manager Bill Curbishley had introduced a "great scheme" to allow the band to tour in Summer 2006 in support of new material, even if Townshend did not have "a full thirty tracks ready to go." [2] On March 20, 2006, Daltrey announced that he and Townshend were making progress with the album and that Townshend had written a song about Stockholm Syndrome, entitled "Black Widow's Eyes". Daltrey also said that Townshend is playing some bass on the album [3].
On March 28, 2006, Townshend announced through the diary portion of his website that a mini-opera, entitled "The Glass Household" now forms the core the album. It is based on his novella "The Boy Who Heard Music". He also announced plans to have a shortened version of the opera released this summer, prior to the release of the full album. [4] This diary entry also confirmed the current lineup of the band: Pino Palladino on bass, Pete Townshend on guitars, his brother Simon Townshend is helping on backing vocals, and John "Rabbit" Bundrick is tackling keyboards. Peter Huntington, from Rachel Fuller's band, is on drums because Zak Starkey was still on tour with Oasis.
On April 9, 2006, Townshend announced that the shortened version of "The Glass Household" has been played to executives at Polydor, and a release date has been set for June, with a tour of Europe following, and the album in September [5]. On May 3, 2006, Pete Townshend posted on his diary page that the mastering for the new EP, titled ''Wire & Glass'', is complete and that the tracks will soon be sent to Polydor. Townshend anticipated a mid-June release for the EP, and a mid-September release for the full album. He has also announced that in 2 weeks The Who would begin rehearsing for their tour, during which time Townshend would finish recording the rest of the album with Roger Daltrey [6].
On May 13, 2006, Pete Townshend reported that his daughter is helping find a video director, but there may be some problems with releasing the mini-opera in North America at the same time as the rest of the world. However, he said he was certain "the Who have a new record in the can - almost finished, and it will be a good one," [7]. On June 10, 2006, Pete Townshend revealed that songs rehearsed for the upcoming tour would include "Cry If You Want" (last heard in 1982 and apparently requested by Roger Daltrey), "I Don't Even Know Myself", "Relay", "Getting In Tune", "The Seeker", "Another Tricky Day", "Naked Eye", "Bargain", "Pure And Easy", "I'm A Boy", "Tattoo", and "Let's See Action", while the North American shows will also get Roger Daltrey's second self-penned song, "Here For More", and the ''Who By Numbers'' track "Blue, Red And Grey", to be performed by Townshend on ukulele. He also mentioned the truncated rock opera, ''Wire & Glass'', will be rehearsed and includes the following titles: "Sound Round", "Pick Up The Peace", "Endless Wire", "We Got A Hit", "They Made My Dreams Come True", and "Mirror Door" (the latter which has been getting radio play in the UK).
A version of "It's Not Enough" was released online at artistdirect.com. "It's Not Enough" has tenatively been announced as the first single off the album, to be released simultaneously.
On October 3, 2006, "It's Not Enough" was made available on iTunes. "Tea & Theatre" was also made available. Then on October 14, 2006, Polydor built a website for the album. It was announced from Pete Townshend's website.
On the website endlesswire.co.uk the songs "We Got A Hit" "Endless Wire" "It's Not Enough" "Black Widow's Eyes" "Mike Post Theme" and "Man In A Purple Dress" are available to listen to, but not to download.
As of October 23, 2006, the entire album is available to stream on music.aol.com.

Song breakdown

On September 6, 2006, the track listing for the album was released on Pete Townshend's personal website [8]. On September 27, 2006, a press release was issued which featured track-by-track commentary by Pete [9]. All songs written by Pete Townshend except as noted.

★ '"Fragments"'''(Townshend/Ball)''
This song was performed live throughout the 2006 US tour.

★ '"A Man in a Purple Dress"'
Another song performed throughout the 2006 US tour, Pete and Roger also appeared on the David Letterman Show on September 14, 2006, to perform the song, though it was reduced by two verses.

★ '"Mike Post Theme"'
In addition to the mini-opera, "Mike Post Theme" was debuted live at their Leeds University gig on June 17, 2006. When announcing the song, Roger said that it hadn't been recorded yet, leading fans to believe that it wouldn't appear on the album despite strong favorability among those who had heard it. It appears that a version was recorded during a brief break in the tour.

★ '"In the Ether"'
Debuted live by Pete at a solo gig for the Poetry Olympics at the Royal Albert Hall on September 25, 2005. The song was later released as a download on Pete's website, but fans were put off by Pete's strange vocals, reminiscent of Tom Waits, and Roger reportedly passed over singing the song for the album.

★ '"Black Widow's Eyes"'
Roger talked about this song in an interview in the spring of 2006, saying it was written about Stockholm syndrome and quoting it as one of his favourite tracks on the album. The song was performed infrequently on the 2006 US tour.

★ '"Two Thousand Years"'
Pete debuted this song on the "In The Attic" program in 2005.

★ '"God Speaks of Marty Robbins"'
Pete had recorded an instrumental demo simply titled "Marty Robbins" in June 1984, which was released on his 2001 Scoop 3 album. He later debuted the song at an Internet-only streaming concert titled the Basement Jam on December 4, 2005.

★ '"It's Not Enough"''' (Townshend/Fuller)''
"It's Not Enough" started off as a Rachel Fuller track, but Pete liked the music and asked her if he could use it for the new album. The song was released as an Internet download single in October 2006, where it reached #37 in the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks.

★ '"You Stand by Me"'

★ '"Sound Round
★ "'
Reportedly, this track, the following track ("Pick Up the Peace"), and an unreleased track titled "Ambition" (see below) were written in 1971. The character of Ray High also appeared as the protagonist of Townshend's solo album Psychoderelict.

★ '"Pick Up the Peace
★ "'

★ '"Unholy Trinity"'
To date, this was only performed on three occasions throughout the US 2006 tour (Philadelphia, Wantagh, and Calgary).

★ '"Trilby's Piano"'

★ '"Endless Wire
★ "'
Pete performed this song solo at Joe's Pub on September 14, 2006. The Who had also performed it live in full in Berlin on July 12, 2006, separate from the mini-opera, which wasn't performed that night. On both occasions, when not performed with the mini-opera, the full version with a reprise of the first verse and an additional chorus was played; Pete has said this variation is one of two bonus tracks that will feature on special editions of the album.

★ '"Fragments Of Fragments"' ''(Townshend/Ball)''

★ '"We Got a Hit
★ "'
Another song that was "extended" for a special edition of the album, with an additional verse not heard on the mini-opera version.

★ '"They Made My Dream Come True
★ "'

★ '"Mirror Door
★ "'
This song was released to the radio stations ahead of the mini-opera in June 2006, but was remixed for the ''Wire & Glass'' release later in July.

★ '"Tea & Theatre"'
Fans have interpreted this song as being about the death of John Entwistle and Pete's and Roger's decision to carry on as The Who, though Pete refuted this in interviews, saying that it was the concluding track of ''The Glass Household'', but that he was pleased that people interpreted it differently. "Tea & Theatre" was the final performance of The Who's concerts throughout the US 2006 tour, with just Pete (on acoustic guitar) and Roger at the front of the stage; the studio version utilizes a drum machine and bass guitar.
An asterisk (
★ ) denotes songs included on the ''Wire & Glass'' EP.
There are two special edition versions: One contains a Bonus DVD with 5 live songs: Mike Post Theme, Baba O'Riley, Who Are You, Behind Blue Eyes, and Won't Get Fooled Again. The second version contains a Live CD from Lyon 2006: The Seeker, Who Are You, Mike Post Theme, Relay, Greyhound Girl, Naked Eye, and Won't Get Fooled Again

Additional songs

In addition to the nineteen tracks listed above, three songs were either considered for inclusion on the album or reportedly recorded for the album but were left off:

★ '"Ambition"'
Reportedly written in 1971 for the Lifehouse concept, Pete debuted this song on In The Attic in 2006.

★ '"Uncertain Girl"'
Another song that was debuted by Pete on In The Attic in 2006. It was recorded in the studio with Zak on drums, and Roger on vocals, but Pete expressed doubt on whether it would make it on the album or not when he first played it on In The Attic, and it wasn't included. However, it did make an appearance in the Vassar College workshop performance of the rock musical ''The Boy Who Heard Music''.

★ '"How Can I Help You, Sir?"'
On December 18, 2005, Pete Townshend posted a diary entry that chronicled the recording of this track:
Sadly, the song was not included on the album, but fans were approving of the track anyway. The video can be found here [10]

★ '"Certified Rose'"
A Roger Daltrey-penned song, rehearsed with John Entwistle on bass, was rumoured to be recorded for the album. It was also supposed to include a bass line from Entwistle that had been recorded at a soundcheck or a rehearsal, though this has not yet surfaced.
At least three other songs were demoed, rehearsed, or recorded for the album. According to a Mojo article by Dave Marsh, the titles were "Cinderella" (about a friend of Townshend's who was abused as a child), "He Said, She Said" (about a relationship told through the views of both the man and woman), and "There's No Doubt" (based on something said to Townshend by The Who's manager Bill Curbishley when asked if his new wife was "the one").
Poems were posted on Pete's site throughout the spring of 2006 leading up to his 61st birthday, which fans thought could turn into song lyrics; indeed, Pete had posted an entry which gave lyrics to a song titled "You're Useless, But You're Mine" (about Townshend's dog) which were later removed. Fans thought Pete removed the lyrics because it was going to be recorded as a Who song but it's likely the song wasn't recorded; no explanation for the removal was ever given.

Adaptation as a rock musical

Pete Townshend is also working the songs from this album into a full-length rock musical, a rough version of which debuted 13 July 2007 as part of Vassar College's Powerhouse Summer Theater workshop series. The production was adapted and directed by Ethan Silverman and presented as a staged concert reading with minimal dialogue. The cast included John Hickok as Ray High, Jon Patrick Walker as Josh, Matt McGrath as Gabriel, and Bree Sharp as Leila. Songs in this adaptation included:
Act I

★ "Prelude"

★ "Pick Up the Peace" - Ray

★ "In the Ether" - Josh, Ray

★ "God Predicts Marty Robbins" - Gabriel, Ray

★ "Unholy Trinity" - Gabriel, Josh, Leila

★ "Trilby's Piano I" - Gabriel

★ "I Can Fly" (by Fuller) - Leila

★ "There's No Doubt" - Gabriel, Josh, Ray

★ "Endless Wire Prelude" – Josh, Leila, Gabriel, Ray

★ "Sound Round" - Ray and Company

★ "Real Good Looking Boy" - Ray, Josh, Gabriel

★ "Trilby's Piano II" - Trio

★ "Fragments" - Company

★ "Endless Wire" - Company
Act II

★ "We Got a Hit" - Company

★ "She Said He Said" - Gabriel, Leila

★ "Uncertain Girl" - Josh

★ "Heart Condition" - Leila

★ "It's Not Enough" (by Townshend and Fuller) - Gabriel, Josh, Leila

★ "They Made My Dream Come True" - Ray

★ "In the Ether" - Ray

★ "Trilby's Piano III" - Gabriel, Josh, Leila

★ "Mirror Door" - Company

★ "Fragments" - Company

★ "Tea & Theatre" - Ray, Josh, Leila
The song "Real Good Looking Boy" was previously issued on The Who's compliation album ''Then and Now''. The song "I Can Fly" was previously issued on Fuller's EP Shine.

Miscellanea

★ On the song "Mirror Door", Townshend's lyric consists of mentions of a number of music icons, all of whom, with the exception of Doris Day, are dead. It was only after recording the song and mass producing it on the maxi-single that Townshend discovered that the American singer and actress was in fact still alive.

★ The Bonus DVD's on-screen ending slate incorrectly states that the concert was filmed in Lyon, Switzerland. In fact, it was filmed at the "Les Côtes du rock" Festival in Vienne, Isère (approx 30 km south of Lyon, France).

External links

★ "It's Not Enough", "Tea & Theatre", "Black Widow Eyes", and "Man In A Purple Dress" streaming site

★ Townshend demoing "How Can I Help You Sir?"

★ New Who Album May Appear Next Spring

★ Townshend Delays Who CD, Rolling Stone, Sep 08, 2005.

★ Making Progress on New album

★ Recording The Who's Mini-Opera

★ The Glass Household

★ Wire & Glass

★ Release Date

★ Endless Wire

★ The Who Forum: Includes "Endless Wire" discussion area, reviews and polls.

★ Endless Wire Review

★ Endless Wire Review

★ Pete Townshend talks to ''Being There Magazine'' about ''Endless Wire''

★ Endless Wire liner notes - Song-by-song liner notes for the album