One man band (Leo Sayer) (LP 2275 - 2281)

Roger Daltrey  Daltrey (Vinyl, 2 copies -Track Records/Polydor, 1973) *** 

Roger Daltrey  Ride A Rock Horse (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1975) ** 

Roger Daltrey  One Of The Boys (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1977) ***

Roger Daltrey  McVicar (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1980) ***

Roger Daltrey  Parting Should Be Painless (Vinyl, Atlantic Records, 1984) ***

Wilco Johnson/Roger Daltrey  Going Back Home (CD, Chess Records, 2014) ****

Roger Daltrey  As Long As I Have You (CD, Polydor Records, 2018) ***

Genre: Pop rock 

Places I remember: Daltrey - Chaldon Books and Records; Slow Boat Records; Ride A Rock Horse/One Of The Boys/McVicar - Chaldon Books and Records (Caterham on the hill); Parting Should Be Painless and the two CDs - Slow Boat Records.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Free Me (McVicar)

Gear costume: All Through The City (Going Back Home)

Active compensatory factors: Prior to his own success as a singer songwriter, Leo Sayer presented some of his songs to Roger for his first solo album, and Roger recorded ten of them!

Opinion is divided on the album but I quite like it. Roger just sings some well crafted songs with minimal musical backing. Those who wanted a Who style rockout frenzy missed the point I feel.

Sidebar Fabs mention: the album credits indicate that overdubs and mixing were done at Apple Studios. Wikipedia says that the vocals for "One Man Band (reprise)" were recorded on the Apple rooftop, where the Beatles had performed their famous final concert in January 1969.

Second solo album, Ride A Rock Horse, with that famous cover, hinted that this was going to be a full-bodied rock album. But it isn't. Instead, it's an album of Roger singing okayish songs written by Russ Ballard and others. There weren't any hits or even near hits on this one.

One Of The Boys is the third solo outing. This time Roger spreads the net wider and catches songs by, among others, Colin Blunstone, Andy Pratt and Paul McCartney (Giddy). It's very much lesser Macca though, I'm sad to report. Roger tries to make a good fist of it all the same.

Not too many highlights but it sounds slightly meatier, rockier than the first two albums. Avenging Annie does manage to rock and Leon is effective as well.

Into the eighties with McVicar, and you know what that means, right? You guessed it - freakin' synths! 

They're all over this album but at least Roger gives a heartfelt performance and the soundtrack album includes his best solo song to date with Free Me. No coincidence that Entwistle and Townshend both appear on the album, or that the whole album is the closest of his solo albums to sound like The Who.

Parting Should Be Painless was his response to the breakup of The Who. He assembled a collection of songs that summed up his feelings. No Who members appeared on the album.

I think it's a good collection of performances and the album hangs together well thematically but it's a pretty moody album and nothing stands out really. It's interesting though and I applaud his conviction. 

It's one of those albums that forms an interesting avenue in an artist's career - a nook, a crannie that rounds out the canon.

The dreaded eighties love affair with the synth rears its head again but it isn't too annoying on these songs. 

Far more to my taste is his collaboration with Wilko Johnson on some Dr Feelgood songs. I think Roger Daltrey inhabits these songs brilliantly. It helps that I like Dr Feelgood of the Wilco Johnson era, so this one is a no-brainer for me.

Still, it could have gone wrong but the band drives the pub rock sound superbly. It went to number 3 in the charts so it was a the highest chart position outside of The Who for Roger. Well deserved!

Last album on my list is Daltrey's last studio album, As Long As I Have You. Pete Townshend appears on a number of tracks playing guitar, so it's almost a duo album, except Pete doesn't contribute any songs, but... Roger does! Three in fact!

The title song gets things off to a great rocking start and then Roger's sometimes aged voice settles into a great groove. This is most effective on Into My Arms. It reminds me of Roy Harper's January Man.

I like the variety and the vulnerability on display here.

Where do they all belong? A worthwhile spot in the D's.