"Lisztomania" Original Soundtrack

Original released on LP A&M AMLH 64546

(UK 1975, October 20)

This record is pretty different from Rick Wakeman's usual progressive work: the songs here have almost all a different style: from classical music to floating mellotron ballads, passing by clavinet pop rock and piano solos, the repertoire is broad. Roger Daltrey's ordinary voice can be heard on the simpler songs (listen to the wonderful "Love's Dream"); there is another singer on "Excelsior song" (Paul Nicholas) that almost sounds like a crooner. The music does not sound like a movie soundtrack. There are some very good & bombastic orchestral arrangements. However some of the Wakeman's fans could be quite disappointed: the often pop compositions are not really complex: they are just slightly progressive! Wakeman claims that in 1975 A&M took his original tapes and gutted/changed them so completely that this resulting soundtrack bears no resemblance to what he'd intended it to sound like. In 2002 he and Voiceprint released "Treasure Chest Volume 1: The Real Lisztomania", which he feels is the correct version. Whether or not it's any improvement for the listener is probably debatable. (in RateYourMusic)

ROGER DALTREY Debut Album

Original released on LP Track 2406107

(UK 1973, April 20)

Although Roger Daltrey was by no means the first member of the Who to take the solo plunge (both John Entwistle and Pete Townshend beat him to the punch), he was the first to make any kind of commercial impact. While "Giving It All Away" peeled off his self-titled debut album to hit the U.K. Top Five, the album itself went Top 50 in America and, almost as an afterthought, introduced the writing talents of the young and then-unknown Leo Sayer to the public at large. Eight months ahead of his own breakthrough hit, "The Show Must Go On," Sayer and writing partner Dave Courtney composed eight of Daltrey's ten tracks; Courtney co-produced the album with Adam Faith, then wrote the remaining pair with Faith himself. Of Sayer's contributions, both "Giving It All Away" and the opening "One Man Band" would subsequently reappear on his own "Just a Boy" album, itself titled for the chorus line of "Giving It All Away." Daltrey's majestically plaintive rendition remains the definitive version, however, all the more so when linked with the "It's a Hard Life" lament that serves as prelude to the song on "Daltrey". 

Far from the rocking bombast for which the Who were traditionally renowned, but far, too, from the somewhat maudlin melancholy of Pete Townshend's period balladeering, "Giving It All Away" showcases the sheer emotional dynamism that Daltrey was so capable of, a mood that the remainder of the album stretched in any number of directions. From the mock reggae of "The Story So Far" to the achingly fragile "You Are Yourself," Daltrey portrays its maker in colors that the Who could never have emulated - a sometimes horrifying shock for die-hard fans, but a pleasant surprise for anyone tired of hearing him voice the increasingly dictatorial Townshend's self-aggrandizement. Indeed, the string-haunted "When the Music Stops" could almost be an open letter to his bandmate, just as "One Man Band" should have determined Daltrey's own immediate future. Sadly, however, his solo adventuring would remain just that, something to do between Who projects, with all the sad baggage that implies. There was a time, however, when Daltrey proved himself capable of operating far outside the Who's sphere of influence. And "Daltrey" still bristles with the pride of that discovery. (Dave Thompson in AllMusic)