Sunday, September 2, 2007

Pete Townshend - Lifehouse Chronicles (2000)

The Lifehouse Chronicles is a 6 CD box set released in 2000 by Pete Townshend, and only made available through his website.
The set collects songs and other compositions relating to Lifehouse, a musical concept developed by Townshend in 1970 as a followup to The Who's highly successful rock opera, Tommy. Rooted heavily in the teachings of Townshend's spiritual mentor Meher Baba as well as in science fiction literature, Lifehouse was meant to explore the idea that music is the fundamental basis of all life - that every human being on Earth has a unique musical melody that "describes" them, and only them, perfectly. When the unique songs of enough people are played in unison, the result would be a single harmonic note - the One Note - akin to the quintessence sought by ancient alchemists. Lifehouse was to be a true multimedia project: a double LP rock opera, a motion picture, and an interactive concert experience.
The story was to take place in 21st century Britain, in an age where pollution has become such a drastic problem that most people never set foot outdoors in their life. This populace spends most of their time in "experience suits", devices not unlike those seen in the 1999 film The Matrix. These suits provide the people with artificial lives superior to any they could eke out in the real world, yet devoid somehow of spiritual fulfillment. One discontented soul, known only as "The Hacker", rediscovers 20th century rock and roll music, and breaks into the computer network controlling the suits to invite people to leave their suits and come together for a concert. Despite the best efforts of the fascist government, thousands of people gather at the Hacker's concert, with millions more watching through their suits, as the musicians and audience perform experimental songs like those described above. Just as the police storm in and shoot the Hacker, the audience and band manage to produce the One Note, and everyone participating in and watching the concert simply vanishes, presumably having departed for a higher plane of existence. The story is seen through the eyes of a middle-aged farmer named Ray, an "air-conditioned gypsy" from a remote unpolluted corner of Scotland, who travels south looking for his daughter who has run away to the concert.
A single-disc sampler of this box set, entitled "Lifehouse Elements", is available at most record stores.
Read more HERE

CD1 - Lifehouse Demos: 1. Teenage Wasteland, 2. Going Mobile, 3. Baba O'Riley, 4. Time is Passing, 5. Love Ain't For Keepin', 6. Bargain, 7. Too Much of Anything, 8. Music Must Change, 9. Greyhound Girl, 10. Mary, 11. Behind Blue Eyes, 12. Baba O'Riley (Instrumental), 13. Sister Disco.
Download: MegaUpload

CD2 - Lifehouse Demos Cont.: 1. I Don't Even Know Myself, 2. Put the Money Down, 3. Pure and Easy, 4. Getting in Tune, 5. Let's See Action, 6. Slip Kid, 7. Relay, 8. Who Are You, 9. Join Together, 10. Won't Get Fooled Again, 11. The Song Is Over.
Download: MegaUpload

CD3 - Lifehouse Themes & Experiments: 1. Baba M1 (O'Riley 2nd Movement 1971), 2. Who Are You (Gateway Remix - From Shepherds Bush Empire 1998), 3. Behind Blue Eyes (New version 1999), 4. Baba M2 (2nd Movement Part 1 1971), 5. Pure and Easy (Original Demo Reworked 1999), 6. Vivaldi (Baba M5 on Psychoderelict) with Hame 1999), 7. Who Are You (Live and Uncut at the Shepherds Bush Empire 1998), 8. Hinterland Rag (Piano Rag for Three Hands - Yamaha Disklavier 1999), 9. Pure & Easy (New Version 1999), 10. Can You Help the One You Really Love? (Demo 1999), 11. Won't Get Fooled Again (Live and Uncut at the Shepherd's Bush Empire 1998).
Download: MegaUpload
Some PC users has been having problems with unzipping this file - check the comments for a solution to this issue. Mac users shouldn't have any problems - as usual.

CD4 - Lifehouse Arrangements & Orchestrations: 1. One Note - Prologue, 2. Fantasia Upon One Note [Quick Movement], 3. Baba O'Riley, 4. Sonata K-212, 5. Tragedy, 6. No. 4 Aria, 7. No. 2 Giga, 8. No. 6 In D Minor, 9. No. 3 Adagio and Allegro, 10. Hinterland Rag, 11. Sonata K-213, 12. Overture, 13. Allegro, 14. Air, 15. Rondeau Minnet, 16. Air, 17. Jig, 18. Chaconne, 19. Air, 20. Minuet, 21. Overture [Reprise], 22. Tragedy Explained, 23. One Note - Epilogue, 24. Fantasia Upon One Note.
Download: MegaUpload

CD5 - Lifehouse Radio Play - Part 1: Track 1-10.
Download: MegaUpload

CD6 - Lifehouse Radio Play - Part 2: Track 1-9.
Download: MegaUpload

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is great thanks, but CD 3 refuses to unzip.

Bruunski said...

I just tried downloading disc 3, and it works fine for me - maybe you should try unzipping it from a program instead of just doubleclicking on it...

Anonymous said...

Hi
I also have a problem with disc 3 - with WinRar it comes up as 'unexpected end of archive' and then refuses to unpack.

5taipans

PS you have a great blog - keep up the good posts

Anonymous said...

Ditto with that Disc 3. Winrar shows only 1 file in the archive,
3-01 Baba M1 [1971].mp3 as a 0-byte file i.e. corrupt.

Wave~

Anonymous said...

Here's the fix for CD-3

In Winrar go to Tools and select "Repair archive". In the pop-up box select where you want to rebuilt the archive and check mark "Treat the corrupt archive as a ZIP" and press OK. The zip will be rebuilt and opens without a problem.

Wave~

Anonymous said...

Many thanks - the fix worked.

5taipans

Anonymous said...

Yep, all is fine. Thanks a lot!!

Anonymous said...

totally worked...totally cool...

thank you for the fix...

I was born on 2-14-70...the day of live at leeds and the day after, friday the 13th, when Black Sabbath rleased their first self titled album...

ain't life weird?!?!?!

JSinn

Jobe said...

My God what a great post. Thank you

Anonymous said...

Great post, thanks!!

Does anyone have the "Lifehouse Elements" single-disc comp? It has one new track, a demo for "New Song," which isn't on the Chronicles boxset. I don't want to shell out my hard-earned cash for ONE TRACK.

If someone here would be able to send me an MP3 of "New Song," why, I'd be super-grateful. Or maybe even upload it to this blog. Anyone?

Anonymous said...

so glad these links still work. Thanks so much. Townshend is truly a genius - a mad genius, but a genius nonetheless!

Thanks!

zeppo1

Anonymous said...

Hello, I do not know who you are but this is freakin awesome! And yes people you need to use WinRar for the 3rd disc. Thank you so much.

Anonymous said...

This is a real treat. THanks!

Anonymous said...

Thank you very very much.

Anonymous said...

nice links list

try www.allmusic.com too

Anonymous said...

Alas, MegaUpload seems to have yanked disc 4.

The frustrating thing about that is that the only other method I've found for getting this stuff is also not a good way to get disc 4, as it's incomplete there, too.

:/