Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Howling At The (Keith) Moon





Two Sides Of the Moon is the only solo album from the original drummer from The Who, Keith Moon. Surprisingly, rather than using the album as a chance to showcase his legendary drumming skill, Moon chose to sing on all the songs. He only drums on "Crazy Like A Fox", "The Kids Are Alright" and "Move Over Ms. L" and plays percussion on "Don't Worry Baby". The album features contributions from Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson, Joe Walsh, Jim Keltner, Bobby Keys, Klaus Voorman, John Sebastian, Mark Volman & Howard Kaylan of The Turtles, Spencer Davis, Dick Dale and Suzi Quatro's sister Patti Quatro.

Keith Moon was inspired to release a solo album after bandmates John Entwistle and Roger Daltrey both released their own albums. With Pete Townshend soon to write a solo album, Moon decided to make one too. Moon, a big fan of Beach Boys-style surf rock decided to make a cover album, with help from his good friend Ringo Starr. The album was widely considered a joke, with Keith showing his poor singing voice, and received many bad reviews.

Moon was not dissuaded by the reviews, and started work on another similar album. The album was never finished, though. Two Sides of the Moon was re-released by Repertoire Records in 1997, including the finished songs that Moon had made for his next album.

Two Sides... was again re-released by Castle Music and Sanctuary Records in July, 2006, as a two-disc Deluxe Edition, featuring the original 10 songs plus 41 bonus tracks.

Swedish model Annette Walter-Lax, then Moon's girlfriend, appeared on the cover of the album.

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