Roger Daltry - Roger Daltry

At the risk of seeming like a Luddite I was never a big fan of The Who. Sure there are a lot of songs I like ... I mean a lot, but for whatever reason I just never think of them when I think of my favourite bands. I'd seen Roger's solo albums in the racks as a kid, and he had some cool covers, and I did have a couple of his solo efforts on CD. I really liked Under a Raging Moon, and to a lesser extent Rocks in the Head. 

The other day in between a couple of old Leo Sayer albums, and a badly beat up Rick Wakeman record (that looks really cool, but unplayable) there staring at me with his piercing blue eyes was a rather young (still under 30) Roger Daltry looking sultry with his wondrous curly mane haloed from behind. "Buy me." he said, "I'm only a dollar, buy me."

So I put down my loonie and went to walk out, but was told I was short the tax. Dang and we don't pennies anymore either so I ended up looking for more stuff to justify using my card.

Anyway, what I know about Roger's solo career I could fit into a thimble. When I'd see his records I always figured those early albums must be terrible, if they were any good surely I'd have heard of them. Of course when this came out I was ten and I had all the musical sophistication of ten year old. I could sing along to "Top of the World" by the Carpenters, and knew all the words to "Smokin' in the Boys Room" by Brownsville Station, so yeah by those standards I was a right genius.

After giving a Roger a bath (I have a vacuum, but I wasn't sure I should say suck, so I opted to not say it at all)  I put the album on and start reading the limited notes on the gate fold. The album starts off with "One Man Band" and this isn't a loud cacophony of drums and guitars, it's primarily acoustic and Roger book ends the second side reprising the song. Most of the songs stay within a sort of rock but not rock lane, and there are strings on many of the tracks. Roger while in fine voice throughout and wisely seemed to use the opportunity with a solo album to not try to make a Who record.

I have to say I was hoping I'd be able to have some fun at the expense of a young Mister Daltry by taking the piss almost fifty years after the fact - yeah, that's me wanting to kick a dead horse. I won't get the chance. I really liked this. Sure, it has that early 70s sound but what else was it supposed to have? The whole album was unexpected. There is some stellar guitar work on "Thinking" and "Reasons" featuring great work from Russ Ballard  (I don't think he gets the props he deserves) who at the time was a member of Argent. Speaking of Argent, drummer Bob Henrit plays on the album as well. 

I think part of the reason this feels so intimate is that Roger recorded the basic tracks at his own studio Daltry's and then added the strings and overdubs at Apple Studios in London.

What I wasn't expecting to see was Leo Sayer's name on almost all of the tracks as co-writer with Dave Courtney, who also played piano on the album and co-produced the album with Adam Faith. Come on, seriously? The "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" guy wrote most of the songs on the album? Damn, now I have to reevaluate some long held opinions. There are a lot of Leo Sayer albums in the bin, I may have to drop a couple of bucks.

Reading up on the album it would appear that critics were rather unkind, calling it a dumb concept album. I must be dumb as I didn't really pick up on the theme the first couple times through, it's subtle. It would appear that with the passage of time, this has aged really well. If there's a last laugh to be laughed here it'll be Roger doing the laughing and I hope he belts it out.