Pete Townshend & Ronnie Lane - Rough Mix - 1977

In the land of side projects and one-off collaborations, lightning seldom strikes as strongly as it it does in the rock and roll real world. As devout followers of our favourite bands or artists, the side project can be seen as artistic breathing room, and often sheds a revealing light on the meandering musicians involved. That is to say that a rock god's musical vacation is never quite as interesting as his or her day job.

Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane's sole 1977 collaboration, however, stands as a major exception to this age old generalization.

Recorded during a lull in the respective drinking buddies' careers, Rough Mix lands between The Who's booze fueled Who By Numbers and their should-have-been swan song Who Are You. For (Small) Faces co-founder Ronnie Lane, the project came after a string of underappreciated albums made with his astutely named backing group, Slim Chance, and 4 years after leaving the Faces (who would ultimately disband in the wake of his departure).

An odd couple indeed, the Townshend/Lane collaboration doesn't make much sense on paper. It would be hard to imagine the Who leader; worshiped for his sprawling rock operas and pop masterpeices; getting on that well with Ronnie Lane, who's jagged, folk inspired songwriting often took a backseat to his flashy bandmates in the Faces. Yet it's this precice contradiction that makes Rough Mix such a successful collaboration. At no point do you hear either artist stepping on his partner's toes, in fact, it's quite clear that the Lane songs are Lane songs, and the Townshend songs are undoubtedly ruled by Townshend. The end result is what could have been half a solo record by either party, with the other sitting in as a prominent guest musician.

With a list of players that includes Charlie Watts, Eric Clapton, John Entwhistle, Ian Stewart, and Who sideman John "Rabbit" Bundrick, Rough Mix has no shortage of talent and prime musicianship. The opening "My Baby Gives It Away", is the prototypical Townshend love song, where at times it's hard to discern whether the lyric is one of worship, or simply a dig at his lover. Driven by a highly syncopated Charlie Watts beat, the rocker moves at a brisk, paranoid speed before clocking in just under the 4 minute mark. As if to excentuate the contrast in the two tunesmith's styles, the barnburning opener is followed by the breazy Lane-penned "Nowhere To Run", keeping Townshend's excentricity in check from the get go.

This formula of artistic personality ping-pong is the winning quality of Rough Mix. That is, whenever Townshend's genius edges towards excess, as it does in "Keep Me Turning", a radiant ode to his mentor Meher Baba; Lane steps in and levels out the playing field with his no-frills approach, evident in both his ballads ("Annie"), and the New Orleans inspired "Catmelody" that brings side one to a close.

The album's second side contains two of Townshend's strongest songs in years, the brash "Misunderstood", and the epic "Street In The City", (the latter featuring an orchestral score as grand as anything found on Quadrophenia). While Lane's "April Fool" features some exquisite dobro playing by Slowhand himself.

In the end, what sets Rough Mix apart from countless other one-off albums, is not only how well Ronnie Lane and Pete Townshend compliment each other's styles, but that the material is of such a high calibre. Every track stands on it's own, and even the most quaint moments (the album closing "Til The Rivers All Run Dry") stand tall beside the grandiose. An absolutely thrilling listen for fans of either artist's former bands, and a fitting introduction to two fantastic musical personalities.

Note On Availability: Rough Mix was remastered and re-released by Hip-O select in January 2007 with 3 non album bonus tracks. By all accounts the remastering is outstanding (though I have not heard a copy). Vinyl copies should be easy to find and inexpensive, for the true collector, seek out an original UK copy with the artwork seen above in a gatefold jacket, as apposed to American versions that feature a photo of Ronnie and Pete obscuring most of the album art, and no gatefold!