Who Came First

Studio album by Pete Townshend

Released

October 1972

Recorded

1969-72

Studio

Eel Pie Sound, London, England

Genre

Rock

Length

38:04

Label

Track/Polydor (UK)
Track/Decca/MCA (US)

Producer

Pete Townshend

Pete Townshend chronology

I Am
(1972)

Who Came First
(1972)

With Love
(1976)

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Allmusic

Who Came First is the debut album by Pete Townshend, released in 1972 on Track Records in the UK and Track/Decca in the US. It includes demos from the aborted concept album Lifehouse, part of which became Who's Next. The original release had a gatefold cover and included a poster with additional photos of Meher Baba from the Louis van Gasteren film Beyond Words. It peaked at number 30 on the UK album chart and at number 69 on the US Billboard 200.

Townshend had already participated with other artists on two previous albums in tribute to his guru Meher Baba, Happy Birthday and I Am. These albums were privately distributed in very small quantities between 1970 and 1972 in the UK. Soon after Decca asked Townshend for release rights, as inferior copies were circulating in the US as bootlegs. Rather than re-issuing the original albums Townshend decided to change the track list substantially for his first "official" solo album. Three of Townshend's demos for Lifehouse were selected, along with two songs each from the earlier tribute albums and two additional songs.

The Lifehouse demos included are "Pure and Easy" (edited from its original length of 8:35), "Let's See Action", and "Time Is Passing" (with minor overdubs). Of these, only "Let's See Action" had seen prior release; the Who's version was released as a single in 1971. (The Who's versions of the remaining two Lifehouse songs were eventually released on Odds & Sods and on reissued versions of Who's Next. All of Townshend's Lifehouse demos were eventually released on Lifehouse Chronicles in 2000.)

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