# The Iron Man: The Musical by Pete Townshend

Professional ratings :
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Hi-Fi News & Record Review | A*:1/2 |
| Rolling Stone | |
The Iron Man: The Musical by Pete Townshend is the sixth solo studio album by Pete Townshend of The Who, released in 1989 as a concept album adaptation of Ted Hughes' story The Iron Man. It also stars Roger Daltrey, Deborah Conway, John Lee Hooker, and Nina Simone.
The three then-surviving original members of The Who (Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, and Townshend) performed as a group in two songs, "Dig" and "Fire", although the latter was a cover of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown's hit. (The Who would later perform "Dig" live during their 1989 reunion tour.)
"A Friend Is a Friend" and "I Won't Run Anymore" were commercially released as singles; "Fire" was issued as a promo-only single in the United States. Cash Box said that "A Friend is a Friend" "finds Pete in an uplifting vein, with falsetto vocals and strummed guitar."
A stage version was mounted at the Young Vic theatre in London in 1993. On the strength of this, Warner Bros. optioned the story for a movie that, with a very different adaptation of the story, became The Iron Giant; Townshend received an executive-producer credit.

## Characters

* Hogarth: Pete Townshend
* The Vixen: Deborah Conway
* The Iron Man: John Lee Hooker
* The Space Dragon: Nina Simone
* Hogarth's Father: Roger Daltrey
* The Crow: Chyna
* The Jay: Nicola Emmanuelle
* The Frog: Billy Nicholls
* The Owl: Simon Townshend
* The Badger: Cleveland Watkiss

## Track listing

All songs written by Pete Townshend except where noted.
* "I Won't Run Any More" – 4:51 Vocals by Pete Townshend with Deborah Conway
* "Over the Top" – 3:31 Vocals by John Lee Hooker
* "Man Machines" – 0:42 Vocals by Simon Townshend
* "Dig" – 4:07 Performed by The Who
* "A Friend Is a Friend" – 4:44 Vocals by Pete Townshend
* "I Eat Heavy Metal" – 4:01 Vocals by John Lee Hooker
* "All Shall Be Well" – 4:02 Vocals by Pete Townshend with Deborah Conway and Chyna
* "Was There Life" – 4:19 Vocals by Pete Townshend
* "Fast Food" – 4:26 Vocals by Nina Simone
* "A Fool Says..." – 2:51 Vocals by Pete Townshend
* "Fire" (Arthur Brown, Vincent Crane, Mike Finesilver, Peter Ker) – 3:47 Performed by The Who
* "New Life/Reprise" – 6:00 Vocals by Chyna with Pete Townshend and Nicola Emmanuel. Contains small extract of a live performance of "Magic Bus"

### Bonus tracks from the 2006 US Hip-O Records release

* "Dig" (Simon Townshend vocal version) – 4:09
* "Man Machines" (long version) – 4:34
* "I Eat Heavy Metal" (demo) – 4:04

### Bonus tracks from the 2006 Japanese Imperial release

* "A Friend Is a Friend" (live at the Fillmore West, 1996)
* "All Shall Be Well" (live at the Fillmore West, 1996)

## Non-album tracks

* "Real World" (instrumental released on 12" and CD singles of "A Friend Is a Friend", a different mix of it was on Scoop 3 in 2001)
* "Penny Drop" (appeared on the Timothy White Radio Show; promo copies of the interview were pressed on vinyl by DIR Broadcasting)
* "Dig" (demo released on the 1989 UK CD single of "I Won't Run Anymore")
* "Iron Man Recitative", "Can You Really Dance?", and "Man and Machines (demo)" appeared on Scoop 3 in 2001
* "Dig" (concert version appeared on The Who's 1989 reunion tour concert album Join Together)