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All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes

Extra Tracks, Remastered

Pete Townshend Format: Audio CD

4.6 203 ratings

$25.17

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All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes

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MP3 Music, June 14, 1982

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Audio CD, Import, October 25, 1990

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Audio CD, Extra tracks, Original recording remastered, August 29, 2006

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Vinyl, Import, March 17, 2017

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Track Listings

1	Stop Hurting People
2	The Sea Refuses No River
3	Prelude
4	Face Dances Part Two
5	Exquisitely Bored
6	Communication
7	Stardom In Action
8	Uniforms (Corp D'esprit)
9	North Country Girl
10	Somebody Saved Me
11	Slit Skirts

Product details

Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 5.75 x 0.45 inches; 0.01 Ounces
Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Hip-O
Item model number ‏ : ‎ 1989229
Date First Available ‏ : ‎ October 22, 2006
Label ‏ : ‎ Hip-O
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000GFRIWW
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Best Sellers Rank: #284,976 in CDs & Vinyl (See Top 100 in CDs & Vinyl)
- #1,226 in Rock Singer-Songwriters
- #4,779 in Progressive Rock
- #7,515 in Pop Singer-Songwriters

Customer Reviews:
4.6 203 ratings

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4.6 out of 5

203 global ratings

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Shopper

Love it

Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2012

Verified Purchase

I think PT is a genius. A real prodigy. A true virtuoso. The man is a perfectionist, to a fault. This is a great record, and I have always enjoyed PT's solo albums, when I needed to sink my teeth into something that wasn't the Who, but had some real musical substance. The one thing about this genius, is that he can take the best musical composition, and the worst of circumstances in the lyrics where he tells a story, and combines them together. It's like a pleasure/pain principle. And it's evident in MOST of his music. It's intelligent, because it makes you think, and yet when you don't want to think, the music just carries you when you need it. I am really enjoying this album, and plan on getting Empty Glass. It brings me right back to that time where gifted people like Pete were creating. They were in creation. Love it.

2 people found this helpful

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David McMorris

Great Album with great sounds and lyrics

Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2022

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Jamming to a Great Artist

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Paul Haspel

All the best Pete Townshend songs have a confessional quality

Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2013

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Approaching Pete Townshend's work is always a complicated thing. Townshend is a brilliant musician and songwriter who did as much as any single figure to change the course of popular music during the second half of the 20th century. At the same time, there is often a frustratingly mercurial quality to his work. Townshend can be bathetic and profound, overblown and sublime -- almost always within a single album, often within a single song, sometimes within a single *line* of a single song. Such, I suppose, is the nature of genius -- a quality that Townshend possesses in abundance.

Those qualities of an extraordinarily creative mind constantly spinning out ideas, some of which may seem to contradict one another, come forth in "All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes." Questionable title and all, "Cowboys," released in 1982, was Townshend's third solo album, and is probably the one that made the biggest impact among music listeners who were not already dedicated Who fans, in large part because of the success of the song "Slit Skirts" on AOR FM radio and in a video that received heavy airplay on MTV. The album's liner notes offer a vague but intriguing prose/poetry critique of 20th-century society, of World War I and Hollywood, centering around a lament for the loss of love. Nine years after the release of The Who's 1973 album "Quadrophenia," Townshend was returning, thematically, to the ideas of that album's final song, "Love, Reign O'er Me."

In preparation for reviewing "All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes," I stopped by Penn State's library and checked out their copy of Townshend's autobiography "Who I Am" to see what the great Who guitarist had written about this period from his career. Townshend reports that when he was recording "Cowboys," he found that "The sound was epic", and adds that "I didn't drink very much [good news, that], and although there was cocaine around, not much of it found its way onto the rehearsal studio floor" (p. 351) -- a sad detail, considering that two of Townshend's bandmates from The Who, Keith Moon and John Entwistle, both died premature deaths relating to drug use.

With that background information in my mind, I listened to the songs on the album. The opening song, "Stop Hurting People," has spoken-word verses, and combines power-pop textures with what seems like almost a Philadelphia soul sound -- an intriguing combination. "The Sea Refuses No River" is very Who-esque, and would have fit right in on 1970's Who albums like "Who's Next" or "The Who by Numbers." The ultramelodic guitar solo is particularly fine. "Prelude" is piano-based and contemplative, with an anthemic synthesizer melody that provides a suitable accompaniment for Townshend's high, thin, urgent voice. "Face Dances Part Two," the title of which looks back to The Who's 1981 album "Face Dances," got some airplay in those days, and is very melodic, with echoes of a reggae beat.

"Exquisitely Bored" is bass-guitar-dominated -- very low-timbre, atmospheric and menacing, with a melodic chorus and lyrics that seem to refer back to the album's liner notes: "Exquisitely bored in California/Exquisitely bored -- just like all the rest." The energetic, driven "Communication" resembles the jazz genre of scat-singing in its endless plays on words. "Stardom in Action" is very Who-esque; the lyrics offer more fun plays on words, and this energetic, fast-moving song places power chords against a backdrop of ambient keyboards. "Uniform" gives us rap-like spoken-word delivery, supported by military-style drums and synthesized keyboards. "North Country Girl" is mellow and guitar-oriented, and Townshend's voice sounds particularly powerful here. "Somebody Saved Me" combines adroit acoustic-guitar work with striking lyrics about finding a friend dead.

"Slit Skirts" reminds me of another thing that Townshend wrote in "Who I Am" regarding the recording of the "Cowboys" album: "We only worked for a week or so before we got stuck. The problem was that the songs I'd written were incredibly hard to perform" (p. 352). With its frequent changes in tempo and key, "Slit Skirts" is an intricate and sophisticated song, and one that sounds as modern now as it did 30 years ago. The piano on the verses and guitar on the chorus work well together, and the lyrics provide a moving, mournful elegy to the passing-away of youth -- "Slit skirts/Janie never wears no slit skirts/And I don't ever wear no ripped shirts/Can't pretend that growin' older never hurts." Check out the old MTV video on YouTube, performed "live" and not lip-synched -- a great performance, with harmonica that does not appear on this album version. "Slit Skirts" was a great way for Townshend to finish off the original album.

This edition of "Cowboys" has three extra songs. "Vivienne" begins as a slow song, with music-hall piano and a ringing church bell, and Townshend's high clear vocal helps the song segue back and forth between the slow parts and speedy power-pop interludes with Who-style guitar, bass, and drums. "Man Watching" is hard-rocking, with almost a funk quality on the verses. And "Dance It Away" has energetic power chords, and reminds me of the Who song "Another Tricky Day."

The "Cowboys" album offers plenty of Pete Townshend's unique style and worldview. This is a sharp, intelligent album. Make no mistake: there is much more to Pete Townshend than a windmilling guitar motion and the breaking-up of instruments on stage.

12 people found this helpful

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Tony

His best

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2015

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The really irritating thing about this recording is that I cannot seem to find it on CD for any sort of reasonable price, so I had to download it in the MP3 format ( the 8-track of the digital age), which does not have the dynamic range of a CD or an LP. That being said, for me this always was PT's best solo effort. The album has a great flow to it and the songs seem very personal to him. As a kid, when it first came out, I loved it and I still do to this day. You really cannot go wrong with this album if you like Pete Townshend.

13 people found this helpful

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Keith R. Fleischer

great album wish i could buy the making

Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2013

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When i was 15 I bought the album when it came out. I uses to sit and listen to it on headphones over and over. The Who and Pete Townshend have always been my favorite. The writing, uncensored Pete's thoughts, struggles, just the way he writes and composes it is amazing. The album is a watremark of who he was at the time what he was going through at that point in his life but this ia typical of him. Fantastic album...not sure if he needed to write his autobiography any true fan knows it was all expressed in The Who's music and even more so in his solo albums.

7 people found this helpful

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Dave Moses

Great Record!

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2020

Verified Purchase

After the success of "Empty Glass" Pete went out of tyhe house a little to record "All the best cowboys" I am a Who fan so for me it was natural. I got this when it came out and it actually sounds better now then I remembered it sounding.

2 people found this helpful

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jeanie worthey

Brutal honesty

Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2017

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This is probably my favorite Pete solo work. The music on this is incredible! There are so many great lyrics involved here. Plus I was on Cloud Nine when I heard "Slit Skirts" for the first time and heard Pete sing my name. Outside of being extremely prejudiced about that song there really some very profound lyrics we fans are enabled to hear: "We're washed over stones from babes to the clones of the mean."

One person found this helpful

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Ken M

Different...and still really powerful

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2017

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This album is really different from a lot of Townshend's work. Some of it is a little overblown (e.g., "The Sea Refuses No River"), but overall it is a powerful statement from a man facing mid-life angst. "Slit Skirts" touched my heart when I was a 20-something in 1982, and it has done nothing but grow in power and sadness over the years.

8 people found this helpful

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Steven1966

A Great Record

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2020

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This isn't as great as Empty Glass, but that doesn't take anything away from this fine album. There's a lot more synthesizer and less guitar here than on Empty Glass, but it works well. I certainly wouldn't change it if I had the opportunity. There are some great and memorable tunes on here, like 'Face Dances Pt. 2', 'Exquisitely Bored' and 'Slit Skirts', though there are no weak links, no filler. It works best as a whole, which is the mark of a good album. Recommended

Lemon Pip Kid

Uniforms

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2015

Verified Purchase

I bought this for the classic single "Uniforms" must have heard it dozens of times when my mate owned it and couldnt see a compilarion with this single on it ....cant judge the whole album as ive not listened to it probably but its okay and gets a 4Star for Uniforms alone

Juergen Wernicke

Wunderschön, bewegend, allererste Sahne

Reviewed in Germany on February 21, 2007

Verified Purchase

Townshend war gerade dem Tod von der Schippe gesprungen, in allen möglichen Krisen, Drogenentzug, Who-Ende (Klappe die erste wie sich später herausstellen sollte) und macht die schönste Platte seiner Solokarriere. Endlich konnte er zu seinem Anspruch stehen, Kunst machen zu wollen, entledigte sich aller Deckmäntelchen. Und so ist diese Platte schlichtweg ergreifend persönlich, tröstend, witzig, galgenhumorig, nachdenklich, naiv, leidenschaftlich, perfektionistisch bis ins Detail und doch ausdrucksvoll und warm. In der remasterten Version außerdem perfekt klingend und um drei Bonustracks angereichert. Nett sie zu haben, das macht das damals veröffentlichte Material dann vollständig. Für meinen Geschmack bringen sie nichts wirklich Entscheidendes dazu, sind aber gut anhörbar. Townshend schreibt liner notes, dazu gibt's ein booklet mit Texten, einer Kurzgeschichte und ein paar Photos, die in der ersten Ausgabe nicht dabei waren.

Eine unbedingte Kaufempfehlung.

13 people found this helpful

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Mr.Vinyl

Shane Eyes

Reviewed in Canada on March 10, 2018

Verified Purchase

Great 3rd solo outing by Pete Townshend. The Sea Refuses No River could be used to demo high end audio equipment. The recording quality of this Andy Johns (I believe) recording that followed Empty Glass is great.

2 people found this helpful

stu

Slightly more commercial Townsend, but good songs as always.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 10, 2017

Verified Purchase

Really good songs, a move away from the sound of the Who, possibly slightly more commercial. Great songwriting, of course. Worth a punt.

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