{"id":20235,"date":"2014-03-17T16:00:21","date_gmt":"2014-03-17T20:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=20235"},"modified":"2014-03-17T16:23:37","modified_gmt":"2014-03-17T20:23:37","slug":"roger-you-went-outside-the-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/roger-you-went-outside-the-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"Roger, You Went Outside the Marriage for This?"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7oN6hbmrL_c?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe>\n<p>Perhaps you&#8217;re familiar with <a title=\"Rice a Rock Horse\" href=\"http:\/\/www.recordsale.de\/cdpix\/r\/roger_daltrey-ride_a_rock_horse.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">this album cover<\/a>. Go ahead, <a title=\"Ride a Rock Horse\" href=\"http:\/\/www.recordsale.de\/cdpix\/r\/roger_daltrey-ride_a_rock_horse.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">click the link<\/a>. Or <a title=\"Ride a Rock Horse (alternate image)\" href=\"http:\/\/images5.fanpop.com\/image\/polls\/953000\/953141_1329333489829_full.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">this one<\/a>. I want you to see <a title=\"Ride a Rock Horse (alternate image)\" href=\"http:\/\/images5.fanpop.com\/image\/polls\/953000\/953141_1329333489829_full.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">this<\/a> in as close to full size as possible.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p>Ok, are you familiar with that cover? Did you ever actually buy <strong>Roger Daltrey<\/strong>&#8216;s 1975 solo album, <em>Ride a Rock Horse<\/em>, his second release apart from The Who? I never did, nor did I knowingly know anyone who had, not even my old high school friend, Stuart, who seemed to own every other Who-related release, including bootlegs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/rogerdaltrey373084.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-21295\" alt=\"rogerdaltrey373084\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/rogerdaltrey373084-300x300.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/rogerdaltrey373084-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/rogerdaltrey373084-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/rogerdaltrey373084-96x96.jpg 96w, https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/rogerdaltrey373084-24x24.jpg 24w, https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/rogerdaltrey373084-36x36.jpg 36w, https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/rogerdaltrey373084-48x48.jpg 48w, https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/rogerdaltrey373084-64x64.jpg 64w, https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/rogerdaltrey373084.jpg 454w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Last October, my close, personal friend, <strong>sammymaudlin<\/strong>, bought a used copy in a Philadelphia record store. Someone had to rescue that thing from the dollar bin. Being that he is a web designer and graphic artist, with an interest in expanding his work in designing album covers, it was only right that I let him buy the album, so that he might research design mastery behind the cover art.<\/p>\n<p>Scant details on <em>Ride a Rock Horse<\/em> exist on the usually informative and completely accurate Wikipedia:\u00a0<a title=\"Wiki Ride a Rock Horse\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ride_a_Rock_Horse\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ride_a_Rock_Horse<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I wanted to learn something about the making of this album: the whos, the whys, the wheres. Mostly I wanted to get my head around the whys. Have you ever heard this album? It&#8217;s got all the bombast of mid-&#8217;70s Who music with the sort of horn charts John Entwistle might work into one of his solo songs. It&#8217;s weird that Roger &#8220;went outside the marriage&#8221; for an album that highlighted the beginning of the end of The Who, that pointed to the flaccid Kenny Jones years, that foreshadowed the years in which Pete Townshend toiled while encased in plexiglass. Listen to a couple of songs&#8230;<em>after the jump<\/em>, before we continue this investigation.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MzApNg5P0GY?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe>\n<p>What do you think? This one&#8217;s even better, in a worse way!<\/p>\n<iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DywInNM60gs?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe>\n<p>Daltrey was in the middle of his <strong>Ken Russell<\/strong> movie-starring phase when he recorded this album. Perhaps all the bombast that went into Russell&#8217;s films went to Roger&#8217;s head. Prior to hearing this album I only knew of Daltrey&#8217;s solo work on the <em>McVicar<\/em> soundtrack, which came out in 1980 and featured the unintentionally hilarious &#8220;Free Me.&#8221; Dig Roger&#8217;s cap-sleeved shirt!<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/l8Vh6rFHQLU?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe>\n<p>Like &#8220;Free Me,&#8221; many of the songs on <em>Ride a Rock Horse<\/em> were written by <strong>Russ Ballard<\/strong>, a noted &#8220;rock mistress,&#8221; whose career seems to have been founded on enabling misguided, flagging veteran rock legends to produce &#8220;commercial&#8221; records that have little to do with the artists&#8217; legendary works.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike Wikipedia&#8217;s details on the making of <em>Ride a Rock Horse<\/em>, the authoritative site contains extensive and fascinating details on Ballard&#8217;s cheese-rock escapades:\u00a0<a title=\"Russ Ballard\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Russ_Ballard\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Russ_Ballard<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I strongly suggest you put off what you should be doing and read his Wikipedia page. If we can&#8217;t explain the motivation behind Roger Daltrey&#8217;s mid-1970s solo career, perhaps we can shift gears and examine the works of Russ Ballard.<\/p>\n<iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_v0bDfZytwk?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe>\n<nav class=\"page-links\"><strong>Pages:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/roger-you-went-outside-the-marriage\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">1<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/roger-you-went-outside-the-marriage\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">2<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/roger-you-went-outside-the-marriage\/3\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">3<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/roger-you-went-outside-the-marriage\/4\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">4<\/span><\/a><\/nav>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Perhaps you&#8217;re familiar with this album cover. Go ahead, click the link. Or this one. I want you to see this in as close to full size as possible. Pages: 1 2 3 4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[179,127,33],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20235"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}