It’s certainly not easy to determine which are some of the greatest songs ever recorded. For musicians, it might be even harder, since they can hear and understand much more in a song than we music fans who don’t know much about the technical aspects of it. But Pete Townshend, who led The Who and built a praised solo career, became one of the most important songwriters of all time, once mentioned one song that he considers to be among the greatest ever put on a record.
The song Pete Townshend said is one of the greatest ever recorded
Pete Townshend is a big fan of the late American singer Marvin Gaye and believes one of his songs is among the greatest ever recorded. He mentioned the song while recalling the time he had the chance to meet Gaye, when he also told him that he had a voice that came from God. “Bill Szymczyk was producing Face Dances, The Who’s first album with Warner Brothers. He chose to work in Odyssey studios in London because he needed an American MCI board for recording. We did a test session there in March and it proved to be a good studio for the project. It was there that I met Marvin Gaye, who took over Studio 2 for a few weeks.”
“I think ‘Baby Don’t You Do It’, one of his first hits, is one of the greatest recordings ever made, certainly one of the finest from Tamla. Marvin didn’t write the song, but his voice is what makes the lyric so affecting and moving. ‘Baby don’t you do it, don’t break my heart’. Marvin was in terrible shape – worse than me. He was my hero, and I found it hard to see him this way,” Pete Townshend said in his autobiography “Who I Am”. According to him, at the time Gaye was in conflict with Tamla records. He was being “courted” by the London high society establishment. “Marvin was still very good looking. the London coterie seemed to be showing him off in a way that ultimately seemed to help them more than it did him.”
He continued:
“I struggled to process the music he was making: he played all the keyboard parts himself over drum-machine rhythms. When I was in the room I didn’t understand what I was hearing, but it was a work in progress. I, of all people, understood how huge changes can come about. He was producer and engineer on his own record; he had help, but he did most things all by himself. One night, while I sat with Marvin as he negotiated to buy a rock of raw cocaine as big as a tennis ball, I decided to tell him what his music meant to me. ‘The lyric comes from the head,’ I said, ‘the music from the heart.’ I paused for effect.”
“‘But the voice, Marvin,’ I said, delivering a punchline, ‘that’s from God.’ ‘Thanks, Pete,’ he said, gracious as ever. He turned back to his keyboard synthesiser and resumed his improvisational noodling. Marvin may not have been a great keyboard player, but if he noodled around long enough he found what he wanted. ‘In Our Lifetime’ was excellent when it was finally released,” Pete Townshend said in his book.
“In Our Lifetime”, mentioned by Pete, was Gaye’s penultimate album, released in 1981. The late musician recorded the vocals, keyboards and drums, besides having written, arranged, composed and produced all the tracks. Some of the most famous songs on that record were “Praise”, “Life Is for Learning” and “Far Cry”.
The Who covered Marvin Gaye’s “Baby, Don’t You Do It”
Pete Townshend had the chance to cover “Baby, Don’t You Do It” with The Who several times on stage. In 1972, their first live recorded version was released as the B-side of their single “Join Together”. From 1964 to 1965, the track had already been featured on their setlists. One of those versions was later released on the remastered CD of “Odds & Sods”. A studio version, recorded in 1971, was made available in 1995 on the reissue of “Who’s Next”. Curiously, the studio version featured Mountain’s legendary guitarist and singer Leslie West.
When Rolling Stone asked which version of The Who as a band he preferred, the one from “The Who Sell Out” (1967) or from “Who’s Next” (1971), Pete mentioned Marvin’s song. “What’s interesting is that yesterday or the day before, I listened to some early recordings for Who’s Next that we did in New York. This was straight after one of the workshops we did at the Young Vic theater in London.”
He continued:
“And, again, what’s interesting is that although the songs were treated with great care in the studio, we also did a warm-up version of “Baby, Don’t You Do It” by Marvin Gaye. I’ve used the word already, but it’s brutal. It’s absolutely brutal, it’s mind-numbing. It’s a huge sound, it’s Live at Leeds with knobs on,” he said in 2015. Around the time the band recorded that first version in 1971, Pete told Melody Maker that it was one of the songs that brought tears to his eyes when they played it live.
“I talked to a load of kids at a gig at Hammersmith at the end of our last tour. They reminded us of songs we used to play years back that we’d forgotten about ourselves. One, ‘Baby Don’t You Do It,’ a Marvin Gaye number, we play again today. It beats ‘Summertime Blues’ in the Who nostalgia stakes. Brings tears to my eyes,” he said.
Marvin Gaye tragically died in 1984 after being shot by his own father with a gun he had previously given him as a gift. A few days before, Marvin had to intervene in his parents’ arguments, and on the night he died he once again had to intervene. During the confrontation, he physically attacked his father, who then shot him twice. He would have celebrated his 45th birthday the next day.