Psychoderelict
ARTIST: Pete Townshend
RELEASE: 1993
INTERVIEWEES: Pete Townshend
From the beginning, Pete Townshend wasn't going to be satisfied merely crafting pop ditties for the masses. "I have to have a story in my head, or a theme," he says today. "I have to give myself a brief. I always like to have a 'big idea.'"
Elements -- musical and otherwise -- of previous works are scattered liberally throughout the hour-long Psychoderelict. Bits of the aborted early '70s Lifehouse project crop up repeatedly, and there are specific sonic references to 1979's Who Are You. While at the time few would have drawn conceptual lines connecting those projects, Psychoderelict seemed to piece them together in a way that made a kind of sense. "That was intentional," Townshend admits.