All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes

Along with the 11 songs on the album, other songs were also recorded, including "Body Language" (subsequently released in 1983 on the compilation album Scoop), a track called "Man Watching" (released as the B-side of "Face Dances, Pt. 2"), and "Dance It Away" (which was also performed in various forms live by the Who between 1979 and 1981, usually as a coda to their cover version of Martha and the Vandellas's 1964 song "Dancing in the Street"), and which was released as the B-side of "Uniforms". One further song "Vivienne" was listed on the cover of some early LP copies but not released at the time. This, along with "Man Watching" and "Dance It Away", were released as bonus tracks on the 2006 reissue. Album title Townshend explained the album title as referring to the "average American hero – somebody like a Clint Eastwood or a John Wayne. Somebody with eyes like slits..." On the Listening Time promotional LP, Townshend said he should have won a "Stupid Title of the Year" award. == Video release ==

A 30-minute companion video was also released, featuring concept videos set to the musical backings of "Prelude", "Face Dances, Pt. 2", "Communication", "Uniforms (Corp d'Esprit)", "Stardom in Acton", "Exquisitely Bored", and a re-recorded version of "Slit Skirts", with a harmonica performance on the last song, not used on the studio cut. Chalkie Davis, the director (with Carol Starr) of the video, said: This has been out of print for years, though Pete Townshend put the videos up on his website in 2000, which were then subsequently uploaded to other sites on the Internet. == Critical reception ==

All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes was panned by most music critics upon its release. In a contemporary review for the Village Voice, Robert Christgau found it "pretentious at an unprecedented level of difficulty" and said that Townshend twisted "such long words into such unlikely rhymes and images and marshal arrangements of such intricate meaninglessness." Stereo Review called it an "ambitious failure" and felt that Townshend tends to indulge in his ideas on rock music and life on his songs. In a positive review for Rolling Stone, Jon Pareles called the album "a mess of contradictions", but an exceptional listen because of Townshend's arrangements, which "surge and subside as gracefully as anything in rock; they're neither static nor jolting." Rob Hughes of Classic Rock included "The Sea Refuses No River" in a list of the top 10 most underrated Townshend songs. == Track listing ==

Credits are adapted from the All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes liner notes. Musicians • Pete Townshend – vocals; guitars; keyboards (Prophet 5–10 Synthesizer, ARP 2500 and Synclavier) • Virginia Astley – piano • Tony Butler – bass guitar • Peter Hope-Evans – harmonica • Mark Brzezicki – drums • Simon Phillips – drums • Jody Linscott – percussion • Chris Stainton – additional keyboards • Poli Palmer – tuned percussion • John Lewis – Fairlight CMI programming • Ann Odell – brass arrangement on "The Sea Refuses No River" Technical • Chris Thomas – producer • Bill Price – engineer • Mark Freegard – assistant engineer • Tim Young – mastering engineer • Alan Rogan – Guitar Technician Artwork • Carol Starr – photography • Chalkie Davis – photography • Richard Evans – typography, calligraphy and graphics • Michael Spry – photographic prints • Ike King – hair • Jacqui Lefton – makeup • Kenny McDonald – tailor == Charts ==