HENRY HEARS A WHO!

According to Pete Townshend’s official blog, T Bone Burnett has officially signed on to produce the next Who album, due out sometime in 2009. T Bone of course had Pete guest on his classic album Proof Through The Night in 1983. Pete also states that none of his own material will be used for the album, that the band will be recording songs by other writers. We’re not making this up. Are we?

PROOF THROUGH THE QUARTER CENTURY

This week sees the music world observing a big anniversary – the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s Thriller album from 1983, which is still the largest selling album in the history of large selling albums. The number of units sold aside, it is also important to observe another significant anniversary in music; 1983 also saw the release or a relatively poor selling album, Proof Through The Night by T Bone Burnett. Most T Bone fans agree that it is his masterpiece. Oddly enough, the album and it’s other Warner Bros. counterpart, the Trap Door EP from 1982, had never seen release on CD, until 2007, when both were combined with the second U.K. Trap Door EP onto a 2 CD set issued as a limited edition on Rhino Handmade Records.

Even if one were not a T Bone fan, you can enjoy the guitar playing of Richard Thompson and Pete Townshend, both of whom were guest stars on the record. The lyrics are amazing and the sound is that of a Big Rock Record.

Sadly, the Rhino Handmade edition of 5,000 quickly sold out, and these magnificent recordings are yet again not currently available on CD, other than used copies on Ebay or Amazon. Seek them out, they are amazing records, and deserve a permanent home with a caring record company, if there is such a thing at this point. Ideally. Mr. Burnett should oversee the issue of a special 25th anniversary edition of Proof Through The Night in 2008, perhaps with a second disc of bonus tracks (demos, outtakes, live recordings) from that era. It is utterly mystifying that an album so great should suffer this fate. Oh, Warner Bros. Where Art Thou?

T BONE TO PRODUCE THE WHO?

Pete Townshend has said this month in his official blog that he wants T Bone to produce the next Who album, which he has begun writing. Pete describes his concept to be ‘more of a basic Who album,’ meaning that it might not be a micro-opera or audio novel gone awry. Odd that a guy who was well known in the 80’s for producing new acts of the 80’s (Los Lobos, Peter Case) has gone on to conquer the world of classic rock superstars. Pete will just have to wait until T Bone is through touring with Robert Plant. We are officially predicting he will go on to produce the Rolling Stones on their next album. Anything is possible at this point. Ultimately, we feel he should go on to produce his old employer Bob Dylan. Other new albums produced by T Bone coming out soon are new titles from John Mellencamp and The BoDeans. He also produced the debut album by the new G.E. Smith project, Moonalice. We think he may have cloned himself, so that evil T Bone Burnett robots can simultaneously produce every recording artist on earth.