The Sea Refuses No River by Pete Towshend

Of all the rick musicians this world has been blessed or cursed with, Pete Townshend is on the top of my list. I so connect to his music. I don't know what it is that drew me to him first. Likely it was The Who album Who's Next. When it came out my brother played it all the time. I know many of the songs by heart as a young boy. When I started collecting my own horde of music, Who's Next was one of the albums I had to have recorded on cassette. I remember when I got my first car stereo, it was Who Next that I popped into the cassette player.

Oddly enough, I'm not talking about any Who songs today. I'm focusing on Townhend's solo career. Townhend released a solo project in 1972 called Who Came First. It was meant to be a tribute album for his religion as a devotee of Meher Baba. So, at least in Pete's mind, the album was not a solo career launch. He was very much into the creative possibilities of The Who and the Liftehouse project, which was expressed Who's Next, Who Are You and a bit of a few other albums. In 1977 he released a solo project with his friend Ronnie Lane called Rough Mix. Again the album was more about helping a friend than it was a serious attempt to launch a solo career. Lane had basically been kicked out of his band The Faces by Rod Stewart, or that's one of the rumors.

In 1980, after the 1978 death of Who drummer Keith Moon, Pete Townshend pursued a solo career in earnest. He released Empty Glass in 1980 and in 1982 he released All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes. Whereas Empty Glass went to number 5 on the album charts, Chinese Eyes went only to 26. Empty glass has several radio hits. Chinese Eyes singles did not make top forty, but managed to chart int he album oriented rock stations in the top 100.

The song I am drawn to the most on Chinese Eyes is The Sea Refuses No River, a composition inspired by faith and poetry. Alan Rogan co-wrote the song with Pete. Rogan was The Who's guitar technician. He's been with the who for over 30 years.

Give it a listen and read the lyrics below.  http://youtu.be/RQ3LzvMqfHw

The Sea Refuses No River
Songwriters: Pete Townshend and Alan Rogan

I remember being richer than a king
The minutes of the day were golden
I recall that when the joint passed round
My body felt a little colder
But now I'm like a sewer channel - running lime and scag
Let me get at the master panel - let me at my stack

The sea refuses no river

And right now this river's banks are blown
The sea refuses no river
Whether stinking and rank
Or red from the tank
Whether pure as a spring
There's no damned thing stops the poem
The sea refuses no river
And this river is homeward flowing

I have seen a trace of strain
In other's eyes not spoken
I must admit that I enjoyed their pain
But this time it's me that's broken
I demand for you and His
This must be the time
When we decide what freedom is
Turn water into wine

For the sea refuses no river
We're polluted now but in our hearts still clean
The sea refuses no river
We tried not to age
But time had it's rage
We're washed over stones
From babes into clones of the mean
The sea won't refuse this muddy river
Nor deny the sulfurous stream

There was a fool in a dressing robe
Riding out the twilight hour
Lonely and cold in an empty home
Trying to assess his power
But now he's like a stream in flood
Swollen by the storm
He doesn't care if he sheds his blood
Let him be reborn

For the sea refuses no river
Remember that when the beggar buys a round
The sea refuses no river
And rain fills the gutters
No time for stutters
This is our chance
To sing and to dance and to clown
The sea refuses no river
And rivers were sprung to drown

The sea refuses no river
No pecking code respected for the damned
The sea refuses no river
Whether starving or ill
Or strung on some pill
Just 'cos you own the land
There's no unique hand plugs the dam
The sea refuses no river
And the river is where I am

The river is where I am.

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Putting Pete Townshend in his historical setting helps me get after what is going on in this song. When Keith Moon died in 1978, The Who tried to continue on, but it became apparent to Townshend that it was over. The magic was gone. Whatever chemistry there was between the four musicians that made the Who what they were had vanished with Keith's death. Moon was a bit of a muse for Pete. He drive Pete crazy and he loved Keith like a brother. They drove one another on stage and sometimes off stage.

Pete's solo projects in 1980 and 1982 were released the same time he was working on Who albums. Chinese Eyes was released the same year as The Who's It's Hard and was promoted by The Who's Farewell Tour that same year. Townshend was very busy and at the same time very conflicted. He wanted out of the band. He wanted to move on into something other than being a part of The Who. Popularity and fame made it nearly impossible. In addition, Pete truly cared about the remaining members and knew that they needed him. they needed The Who to remain an entity. That kind of confusion, torn between the desire to reinvent yourself and the entanglements of commitments to others is present throughout the album and especially in the song The Sea Refuses No River.

The first verse speaks of how stardom and wealth lead to drug excesses and a cold empty soul. He feels like a filthy sewer inside. He feels toxic like industrial waste being dumped into the river. And this feeling of toxicity inside drives him to run to music to get away from himself. He loses himself in the guitar power of the Marshall stack and the creativity of the studio. 

Towshend was once asked in an interview by Time-Life why he felt the guitar has being the instrument synonymous with rock'n'roll. Townshend replied, "To understand one simply has to plug a Gibson guitar into a Marshall stack and hit an A chord. Then they'll know why." Won't Get Fooled Again, anyone?

The refrain of the song is the title. It is the hopeful image that the immense ocean will accept any stream, no matter how filthy and eventually cleanse that filthy away. This of course is a metaphor for hope in God's love and mercy. It is a hope that no matter what a mess we have made of our lives, God will not refuse us when we come to Him.

The singer knows he's a stinking mess, but he's flowing homeward to God where he knows there will be acceptance and healing love. There he will be able to rebuild and renew.

I demand for you and His

This must be the time

When we decide what freedom is

Turn water into wine.

Even though Pete is not a Christian, I've seen him wearing crosses. He cannot deny his Christian upbringing. His allusion to God includes an allusion to Christ. While Pete believes Meher Baba was God on earth, the Christian believes that Jesus is the incarnation of God. Through faith in Him God lives in us. We are changed through our faith in Christ like water is miraculously changed into wine.

Townshend sings of the human condition. We are all not living to our potential. We are all polluted by poor choices. And we know that there is an purer innocence within us, what we once were, and what we could be again. God created us in His image. (Gen 1:27) We know we are not living as God desires. We know that there is a higher calling we must attain.

When Townshend reflects on his own journey, he was just a child when he began rocking with The Detours, later to become The Who. He cynically remarks that they were once wide eyed babes, but now they are just "clones of the mean." It take this to mean that The Who is no longer the creative and explosive band it once was. They have simply become mainstream, no longer controversial or compelling. This is death to creative types who long to express the new thing, something above the mundane middle of the road. Rebirth is required.

Townshend in the song reveals his desire to leave The Who behind and reinvent himself. "No time for stutters" is a direct reference to The Who. My Generation, one of The Who's biggest hits, includes vocalist Roger Daltrey stuttering. It's Townshend's way of saying, "I'm done with all that."

Townshend feels trapped by The Who and the recording industry that wants him to stay put. He rails against them by appealing to a higher authority. There's no pecking code respected in God like there is for the damned music industry. So as Pete flows homeward bound, he knows and trusts that God will renew him and he will find a way to reinvent himself in the midst of the confusion and frustrations he is feeling.

I will assure you can relate. I certainly have struggled with life's direction and where I fit in it. For years I lived frustrated believing I had some grander purpose than what I had achieved. It has become my understanding that my fear of being ordinary is part and parcel of humanity's fall. My insecurities were the direct result of my separation from God through my own stinking sewer like soul. Once I realized that my greatest worth is union with my creator, I made that my ambition. 

You may feel your life is pointless or meaningless. You haven't done anything extraordinary. The fact is you are already extraordinary. there is no one exactly like you. There is no one with your DNA code. You are a unique occurrence in history. There's not another person like you and there never will be. Even if you were cloned, that clone would end up with different experiences than you and become a different person altogether. So be who you are. Your greatest work is to become you. You will find that in the bounteous love of God there is freedom to become who you were always meant to be. So flow homeward.

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Php 3:14)

The apostle Paul wrote about sharing in the glorious resurrection of Christ, to become a new creation. Jesus spoke of being born again by the Spirit. (Jn 3:5-8) The homeward route to rebirth is to flow toward God who loves you and sent His Son to save your from your sulfurous streams. In Him there is cleansing and healing and hope.

Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1Co 6:9-11)

When you realize the course of your life is leading nowhere good, come to the Sea, the eternal love of God and be washed clean in the blood of Jesus Christ. Rebirth is always possible. Flow homeward.

Dear Lord, thank you for cleansing me and continuing to perfect me. I pray for all who continue to live in corruption and without You. Help your church to find a way to welcome them into your wide mercy that they too might be reborn in the love of God through Jesus Christ. Amen