The Who - This Old Lifehouse-The Bootleg Reconstruction Project ver. 2.0 (Updated)

The Who
This Old Lifehouse
The Bootleg Reconstruction Project ver. 2.0 (Updated! now more complete)
Various sources, mainly soundboard, quality good to excellent
available in Lossless (FLAC) and mp3 (@ 320 kbps) versions
Custom Artwork and liner notes included

Here, finally, is the return of what was probably my most ambitious project for this blog, my Lifehouse compilation, and now it is even updated and improved, containing additional songs not included in the earlier version. I put this together more than 3 years ago, to gather together all the various songs  that were written for or originally intended for inclusion in the Who's epic, but abandoned, 1971 project, Lifehouse, because, quite surprising, this compilation was not available anywhere else (see additional notes regarding earlier compilation from original post here). It was finished and posted to the blog in fall 2009, where it has been available ever since (up until it was deleted in the megaupload debacle). But I waited to re-upload it, because I wanted to update it with songs that were not available when I first put it together. It always bothered me that I could not find unofficial versions to include for all of the songs, and thus had to leave some off ('Teenage Wasteland', 'Going Mobile', and 'Put the Money Down'). For those songs, the only available versions were Pete Townshend's original demo recordings, which at the time had been commercially released by Pete as part of his 'Lifehouse Chronicles' box set (on Pete's eelpie records, eelpie.com), so I did not think it was appropriate to include in my compilation, even though bootleg versions of the demos had been available for years. However, shortly after I put the collection together, Lifehouse Chronicles was deleted from production and was no longer available commercially, and Townshend's demo recordings have not been available at any time for these past 3 years. So, I decided to go ahead and include the bootleg versions of Pete's demos for some of the missing songs. In addition, over the past couple years, Roger Daltrey has begun including 'Going Mobile' in his live shows (and also acknowledged that this song was never played live by the Who), so I have now included Roger's live version in the compilation. So, now here it is, ver. 2.0, which is now complete, and includes versions of ALL the songs that I think should be in this compilation. I have also included Pete's demo version of 'Time is Passing' as a bonus track, which could be substituted for the live track used here (which is of poor recording quality), if desired.

Tracklist
Disc 1:

01. Teenage Wasteland (Pete Townshend – Demo recording)*

03. Love Ain’t For Keeping (Alternate Version/Mix – Record Plant Sessions 03/71 NY)
02. Time Is Passing (1971-05-14 - Liverpool)

04. Going Mobile (Roger Daltrey – 2010-07-02 – Noblesville IN) (Alt. Pete Townshend – Demo)*

05. Greyhound Girl (2006-7-14 – Locarno)
06. Mary (Townshend) (2000-3-23 – London)
07. Keep Me Turning (Townshend)(Alternate Version/Mix - Rough Mix Sessions – 1977)
08. I Don’t Even Know Myself (1970-07-07 – Tanglewood)
09. Bargain (1971-12-07 – Phoenix)
10. Too Much of Anything (Alternate Version/Mix – Record Plant Sessions 03/71 NY)
11. Music Must Change (1979-12-08 – Chicago)
12. Baba O’Riley (1975-11-20 – Houston)
13. Behind Blue Eyes (1975-11-20 – Houston)
14. Sister Disco (Alternate Version/Mix  - Shepperton Studio Sessions 1979)

15. Put The Money Down (Pete Townshend – Demo)* 

16. Baby Don’t Do It (1971-12-13 – San Francisco)

Disc 2:
17. Pure and Easy (Alternate Version/Mix – Record Plant Sessions 03/71 NY)
18. Getting In Tune (Alternate Version/Mix – Record Plant Sessions 03/71 NY)
19. Let’s See Action (2000-09-30 – Cleveland)
20. Slip Kid (1976-03-11 – New York)
21. Relay (2000-09-30 – Cleveland)
22. Who Are You Intro Jam (1st Time played – 1976-10-21 – Toronto)
23. Who Are You (1979-05-17 – Paris)
24. Join Together Intro Jam (1975-11-20 – Houston)
25. Join Together (1989-06-27 – New York)
26. Long Live Rock (1979-12-08 – Chicago)
27. Water (1970-07-07 – Tanglewood)
28. Naked Eye (1974-05-18 – Charlton)
29. Won’t Get Fooled Again (1973-12-04 – Philadelphia)
30. Song Is Over (Alternate Version/Mix – Olympic Studio Sessions – 4-5/71 London)

*New additions

------------- a BB Chronicles Exclusive Custom Compilation--------------

Compiled by BBKron exclusively for The BB Chronicles (http://bbchron.blogspot.com). This compilation gathers together unofficial recordings of songs originally intended for the Who’s abandoned Lifehouse project. All tracks have been previously available from various bootleg sources.

New Links! (Updated 09/27/21)
Mp3 part1: This Old Lifehouse_Bootleg Reconsruction_v2_mp3-Part1.rar
Mp3 Part2: This Old Lifehouse_Bootleg Reconsruction_v2_mp3-Part2.rar

Flac-Part1: This Old Lifehouse_Bootleg Reconsruction_v2_FLAC-Part1.rar
Flac-Part2: This Old Lifehouse_Bootleg Reconsruction_v2_FLAC-Part2.rar

Note: There are a few differences between the mp3 and Flac versions of the compilation. The Flac version contains Pete's demo recording for 'Going Mobile' and 'Mary' instead of the live tracks included in the mp3 version due to the lack of availability of lossless sources for those tracks.

Additional note (for those wishing to burn to CD): With the addition of the extra tracks, disc 2 is now a bit too long to fit on a single CD. For burning purposes, one song (4 min or greater) will need to be removed from the collection in order to fit on 2 CDs (your choice). But this is the complete collection   
 

Pete Townshend - 1974-04-14 - London (first solo show)

Pete Townshend

1974-04-14

Roundhouse, London, UK

Audience Recording, Good Quality

New! Now available in Lossless (FLAC) version in addition to Mp3 @ 192 kbps

Artwork Included

Here's a little gem for you, also from the mid-seventies, the first solo gig ever from from Pete Townshend. Pete presents a fascinating and fairly casual show using electric and acoustic guitars, piano, some synthesizer tapes and the original 'My Generation' demos as he ran through a set that included several early Who classics like 'Substitute', 'Behind Blue Eyes', 'Pinball Wizard', and 'Magic Bus' (with one lyric cleverly changed to "...I'm so nervous I guess it shows. Don't say a thing about my great big nose..." for the occasion). The set also featured numerous covers and songs rarely heard by Townshend, such as Jimmy Reed's 'Big Boss Man' and 'Goin to New York', 'If I was A Carpenter', and 'North Country Girl'. This is the complete performance sourced from a private collection, this audience recording is of better quality than some other previous sources. Although far from perfect, it's quite good and a highly listenable audience recording, capturing this unique show and great performance. A must-have for any fan of the Who and Townshend.

01 The Seeker

02 Big Boss Man

03 Substitute

04 Amoreuse

05 If I Were A Carpenter

06 Happy Jack

07 Tattoo

08 Join My Gang

09 Behind Blue Eyes

10 Goin' To New York (New York City Blues)

11 My Generation Demos I + II

12 North Country Girl

13 Corrina Corrina

14 No Face No Name No Number

15 Let's See Action

16 Pinball Wizard

17 See Me Feel Me

18 My Generation I

19 Magic Bus

20 My Generation II 

 

New! Now available in Lossless version (Updated 6/30/2021)

FLAC - Pete Townshend_1974-04-14_London_FLAC.rar

mp3 - Pete_Townshend_1974-04-14_London.rar

The Who - This Old Lifehouse - The Bootleg Reconstruction Project (Compilation)

------------- a BB Chronicles Exclusive Custom Compilation--------------


The Who
This Old Lifehouse
The Bootleg Reconstruction Project
Various sources, mainly soundboard, quality good to excellent
available in Lossless (FLAC) and mp3 (@ 320 kbps) versions
Custom Artwork and liner notes included

OK, here it is, at along last, my Lifehouse compilation. This compilation gathers together unofficial recordings (live concerts, studio outtakes, and unreleased demos) of songs performed by The Who that were originally written for, intended for, or otherwise associated with Pete Townshend and The Who’s aborted 1971 project, Lifehouse. All tracks have been previously available from various bootleg sources. This compilation represents, as far as I know, the first comprehensive collection of the Who's Lifehouse songs. I put this together because, in the 38 years since the initial demise of Lifehouse and the release of Who’s Next in it’s wake, there has not been any attempt to collect all of the remarkable music written for that project as performed by the Who in a single collection. So, here it is, my version of Lifehouse, which I have dubbed ‘This Old Lifehouse – The Bootleg Reconstruction Project’. I believe Lifehouse, and this assemblage of songs represents the greatest rock album never released. I have spent well over a year tracking down, listening, compiling, and sorting through countless available bootleg recordings to find the best assemblage of tracks for this compilation. I also wanted to try, as much as possible, to use recordings from the original group (Townshend, Entwhistle, Daltrey, and Moon) near the time of Lifehouse itself, so an emphasis is on recordings from 1970-1976. Originally, I wanted to include as much as possible from the original 1971 Lifehouse shows, unfortunately, most of the available recordings from these shows are not very good, and in most cases I had to use other better recordings. Most of the tracks used come from soundboard recordings, thus the overall sound quality is very good. The one glaring exception to this is the recording of ‘Time is Passing’ which comes from a relatively (compared to the rest of the tracks) poor audience recording. However, this is probably the only live recording of this track (other than the officially released Young Vic show from 4/26/71) in existence, as this song was dropped from the setlist after only a few performances. Thus, it is included here, but is not up to the quality of the rest of the collection. This set is as complete as I could make it, but unfortunately, there are still a few tracks for which I could not find any unofficial recordings (‘Teenage Wasteland’ was apparently never recorded by The Who, and ‘Going Mobile’ and ‘Put The Money Down’, have apparently, and quite surprisingly, never been played live, and thus no unofficial recordings exist). Full details, compilation notes, and individual track notes are included. For further descriptions and the listing of the officially released versions of the Lifehouse songs, see my previous post on 'This Old Lifehouse - The D.I.Y. Compilation'.
I give a big Thank You to all those that have made these recordings available. I have prepared two versions of this collection, a lossless version (in FLAC), and an mp3 version (@320 kbps). The tracks contained in each version are identical, with the exception that the FLAC set does not include ‘Mary', as I could not find a lossless source for that track. The compilation consists of songs compiled from 15 different live concerts and 4 studio sessions ranging from 1970 to 2006. 17 of the 27 tracks come from the core group years (1970-1976) and 22 of the 27 from the 1970’s. I hope you like it. --BBKron

Track List:
Disc 1:
Teenage Wasteland (No unofficial recordings – Never played live)
01. Love Ain’t For Keeping (Alternate Version/Mix – Record Plant Sessions 03/71 NY)
02. Time Is Passing (1971-05-14 - Liverpool)
Going Mobile (No Unofficial recordings – Never played Live)
03. Greyhound Girl (2006-7-14 – Locarno)
04. Mary (Townshend)(2000-3-23 – London) Note: FLAC version does not contain this one track, as no lossless source was found
05. Keep Me Turning (Townshend)(Alternate Version/Mix - Rough Mix Sessions – 1977)
06. I Don’t Even Know Myself (1970-07-07 – Tanglewood)
07. Bargain (1971-12-07 – Phoenix)
08. Too Much of Anything (Alternate Version/Mix – Record Plant Sessions 03/71 NY)
09. Music Must Change (1979-12-08 – Chicago)
10. Baba O’Riley (1975-11-20 – Houston)
11. Behind Blue Eyes (1975-11-20 – Houston)
12. Sister Disco (Alternate Version/Mix - Shepperton Studio Sessions 1979)
Put The Money Down (No Unofficial Recordings – Never Played Live)
13. Baby Don’t Do It (1971-12-13 – San Francisco)
14. Pure and Easy (Alternate Version/Mix – Record Plant Sessions 03/71 NY)

Disc 2:
15. Getting In Tune (Alternate Version/Mix – Record Plant Sessions 03/71 NY)
16. Let’s See Action (2000-09-30 – Cleveland)
17. Slip Kid (1976-03-11 – New York)
18. Relay (2000-09-30 – Cleveland)
19. Who Are You Intro Jam (1st Time played – 1976-10-21 – Toronto)
20. Who Are You (1979-05-17 – Paris)
21. Join Together Intro Jam (1975-11-20 – Houston)
22. Join Together (1989-06-27 – New York)
23. Long Live Rock (1979-12-08 – Chicago)
24. Water (1970-07-07 – Tanglewood)
25. Naked Eye (1974-05-18 – Charlton)
26. Won’t Get Fooled Again (1973-12-04 – Philadelphia)
27. Song Is Over (Alternate Version/Mix – Olympic Studio Sessions – 4-5/71 London)

Compiled by BBKron exclusively for The BB Chronicles (http://bbchron.blogspot.com/)
This compilation gathers together unofficial recordings of songs originally intended for the Who’s abandoned Lifehouse project. All tracks have been previously available from various bootleg sources. To be freely shared with others, but please always include all related files and give credit to this source.

Updated and expanded Version 2.0 now available, see new post and links here:
who-this-old-lifehouse-bootleg.html

The Who - Lifehouse Compilations - This Old Lifehouse

The Who

This Old Lifehouse

The ‘Official’ D.I.Y. Compilation

Since I first became aware of it in the 1970's, I have been fascinated with the music of Lifehouse, Pete Townshend and the Who's abandoned 1971 musical project. Although most of the songs have been released sporadically in various bits and pieces over the years, I have been waiting ever since that time for a comprehensive collection of The Who's Lifehouse songs to finally be released. Except for Townshend's Lifehouse Demos (which are simply fantastic, but still demos, and not the Who's versions of the songs) which was released in 2000 as part of the Townshend's 6-CD Lifehouse Chronicles, I am still waiting. A few years ago, when I discovered the vast warehouse of unreleased and bootleg material available, I immediately searched for anything related to Lifehouse, but was again disappointed to find that no one had actually attempted to reconstruct a Lifehouse bootleg. So, it came down to me doing it myself.
        As anyone knowledgeable of Rock ‘n Roll history knows, in 1970, as a follow-up to their enormously successful rock opera Tommy, Pete Townshend proposed an even more ambitious project, Lifehouse, a multimedia event that would encompass live concerts, a motion picture, and a double album. The concept combined teachings from Townshend’s spiritual mentor, Meher Baba, with a science fiction-based storyline. Lifehouse was meant to explore the idea that music is the fundamental basis of all life - that every human being on Earth has a unique musical melody that "describes" them, and only them, perfectly. When the unique songs of enough people are played in unison, the result would be a single harmonic note - the One Note. As a very brief synopsis, the story was to take place in 21st century Britain, in an age where pollution has become such a drastic problem that people spend most of their lives in impervious "experience suits" which are connected to a universal grid and supplied with entertainment and artificial life experiences by the government. Along comes Bobby, an electronics wizard who rediscovers 20th Century rock and roll music, takes over a disused rock theater, renames it “The Lifehouse”, and breaks into the computer network controlling the suits to invite people to leave their suits and come together for a concert. Despite the best efforts of the government, thousands of people gather at the Lifehouse, as the musicians (The Who) and audience perform classic rock n roll, as well as experimental songs interacting with the audience designed to eventually achieve the ‘One Note’. However, the details of the story are immaterial at this point, what matters most is the great music that Townshend had written and planned for the project. Townshend wrote close to 30 songs either specifically for or to be used in some way (such as for the rock concert portions) in the project. This was undeniably Townshend’s most productive period, and much of the best music he ever wrote went into Lifehouse. Lifehouse is probably the greatest rock album never released, and could have been The Who's best album. But, as problems in the development of Lifehouse mounted, and the grand scale of the project was falling apart, it was decided to abandon the concept and just put out a single album containing some the best stuff, and to make it just a solid hard-rock album. The resulting ‘compromise’ album, of course, was Who’s Next, generally considered the Who’s Greatest album, and one of the greatest rock albums of all time. But it still is not what it could have been, with dozens of great songs left behind.

Because so many of the songs intended for Lifehouse have been officially released in some form or another, as I began looking into making this compilation, it became clear that there should be 2 distinct collections: one that compiled all the officially released studio versions of the Lifehouse material, and one that contained unofficial recordings, mainly live versions, of the Lifehouse songs, that could be shared, distributed, and downloaded among fans. The ‘official’ collection, is presented only as a tracklist and information on where to find (what official albums contain) the appropriate tracks. I have put both collections under the umbrella title of ‘This Old Lifehouse’, with the ‘official’ collection dubbed ‘The D.I.Y. Compilation’ (Do-It-Yourself), as it requires Who fans to compile the collection themselves using their own purchased album collections. The other set, designated ‘The Bootleg Reconstruction Project’ is the compilation of various unofficial live recordings, studio sessions, and demos, that have not been officially released, and that will be dealt with in a subsequent post. Here is the information for putting together the D.I.Y. compilation.

The Who

This Old Lifehouse

The 'Official' D.I.Y. Compilation

Track List:

Disc 1:

01. Teenage Wasteland (Lifehouse Demos from Lifehouse Chronicles or Sadler’s Wells 2000-2-25)

02. Time Is Passing (Odds & Sods – Remastered Edition)

03. Love Ain’t For Keeping (Who’s Next)

04. Going Mobile (Who’s Next)

05. Greyhound Girl (Pete Townshend – Lifehouse Demos)

06. Mary (Pete Townshend – Lifehouse Demos)

07. Keep Me Turning (Pete Townshend – Rough Mix)

08. I Don’t Even Know Myself (Who’s Next – Remastered Edition)

09. Bargain (Who’s Next)

10. Too Much of Anything (Odds & Sods – Remasterd Edition)

11. Music Must Change (Who Are You)

12. Baba O’Riley (Who’s Next)

13. Behind Blue Eyes (Who’s Next)

14. Sister Disco (Who Are You)

15. Put The Money Down (Odds & Sods)

16. Baby Don’t Do It (Who’s Next – Remastered Edition)

Disc 2:

17. Pure and Easy (Odds & Sods or Alt. version on Who’s Next – Deluxe Edition)

18. Getting In Tune (Who’s Next)

19. Let’s See Action (Ultimate Collection or 30 Years of Maximum R ‘n B)

20. Slip Kid (Who By Numbers)

21. Relay (30 Years)

22. Who Are You (Who Are You)

23. Join Together (Ultimate Collection or 30 Years)

24. Long Live Rock (Odds & Sods)

25. Water (Odds & Sods – Remastered)

26. Naked Eye (Odds & Sods)

27. Won’t Get Fooled Again (Who’s Next)

28. Song Is Over (Who’s Next)

The ‘Official’ D.I.Y. Compilation provides track information regarding where to find the officially released tracks (on what albums they are located), so that one can use this information to compile their own ‘Lifehouse’ collection from their existing Who music collection (thus D.I.Y. – Do It Yourself).

Note: Track order was arrived at by combining information from existing available sources (such as Townshend’s Lifehouse Demos, Lifehouse Chronicles, the 2000 Sadler’s Wells Lifehouse Concerts, and other live shows) and arranged into a reasonably accurate and aesthetically pleasing sequence.

Coming Next: The long-awaited Lifehouse Bootleg Compilation