Roger Daltrey Releases Soulful Album

Today, Roger Daltrey released As Long As I Have You, his ninth solo album after 1992’s Rocks In The Head. The voice of the 74-old-year-old frontman of The Who has never sounded better, which is amazing. In September 2015, Daltrey was diagnosed with viral meningitis during The Who Hits 50! North American tour, forcing the band to reschedule the remaining dates until 2016. “I was a month in the hospital, touch and go for a few days,” Daltrey told British tabloid The Sun during a recent interview. “I had a long recovery and you never quite get over it…My feet hurt and my thumbs have gone.”

Daltrey credits his longtime bandmate and brother-in-arms Pete Townshend for finishing the record, on which he had started work after the March 2014 release of Going Back Home, his great collaboration album with Wilko Johnson. “I had eight of the 11 tracks,” he explained to The Sun. “I listened to them and thought, ‘None of this will do anything’…But my manager sent the material to Pete, who rang me and said, ‘What’s up with you? This is fabulous, you’ve got to finish it…Then out of the blue, he said he’d like to play guitar on it. That gave me the confidence to carry on.”

The result is a compelling 11-track collection. Among the nine covers are the title track (Jerry Ragovoy and Bob Elgin), How Far (Stephen Stills), Where Is A Man To Go (Jerry Gillespie & K.T. Oslin), Get On Out Of The Rain (Parliament), Into My Arms (Nick Cave) and You Haven’t Done Nothing (Stevie Wonder). There are also two original songs, Certified Rose and Always Heading Home, a co-write with English novelist Nigel Hilton. Townshend plays acoustic and some electric guitar on seven of the tracks. Other guest musicians include Mick Talbot (keyboards) and Sean Genockey (lead guitar). The album was produced by Dave Eringa, who also served in that capacity on the Wilko Johnson collaboration album. Time to get to some music!

One of the album’s standout is the opener and title track with its groove and soulful backing vocals. The tune was first recorded by soul singer Garnet Mimms in 1964 and is a song The Who covered when they were starting out.

Where Is A Man To Go is another soulful gem. Daltrey’s voice shines.

Another nice cover is Get On Out The Rain, which originally was recorded by American funk band Parliament as Come In Out Of The Rain and included on their 1970 debut album Osmium.

I’ve Got Your Love is a tune written by Boz Scaggs, which was included on his 1997 studio album Come On Home. This is one of the songs, on which Townshend plays lead guitar. Daltrey described his solo to The Sun as “beautiful and sensitive.”

Certified Rose, one of the two original tunes on the album, has a nice Stax vibe and is about watching Daltrey’s eldest daughter Rosie grow up. “I had Rod Stewart in mind for that but I woke up one day a few months ago and I could hear Certified Rose as a soul song,” Daltrey told The Sun. “I just needed to add the right ingredients and change the bridge.”

The last track I’d like to highlight is the record’s closer Always Heading Home, the original tune Daltrey co-wrote with Hilton.

“For Pete to say he wanted to play on my new record was such an honour because he’s my ultimate guitarist,” Daltrey told The Sun. “He’s the most original. He can play like Clapton if he wants and he can play like Hendrix but when Pete plays Pete, where does that come from? It’s that rhythmic thing he does. He will always take chances and doesn’t mind playing a hundred bum notes for four great ones that make you go, ‘Wow!’ Rock doesn’t need to be perfect, it needs bum notes and beads of sweat.”

He added, “We love each other and always have. We used to do this wrestling in public but if anyone came between us, God help them! I’m very happy just to be his singer and have him, at the end of my life, saying, ‘Roger sung my songs better than I ever could.’ That means a lot to me.”

Sources: Wikipedia, The Sun, The Who official website, YouTube