Pete Townshend – Let My Love Open The Door

A thank you to Dave for publishing this for Turntable Talk. The theme was looking for artists who left popular bands to go solo. I could have done a Beatle easily, but Pete was perfect for this. 

Pete recorded Empty Glass a little before the Who recorded their first album without Keith Moon, Face Dances. This was Pete Townshend’s only solo American Top 10 hit, but it charted as high as any Who song released in America… I Can See For Miles also peaked at #9.

This wasn’t The Who smashing guitars or railing against society. This was Pete, solo and sincere, pulling back the curtain and offering something deceptively simple: vulnerability, all wrapped in a three-minute pop song.

Pete always put his solo career on the back burner for The Who. On the surface, Let My Love Open the Door sounds like a pure pop song, but don’t be fooled. There’s gospel in its meaning. Townshend was deep in his Meher Baba-influenced spiritual quest at the time, and this song doubles as a kind of secular hymn. God, lover, self, take your pick. The message lands the same: let something bigger than your pain inside.

The song peaked at #9 on the Billboard 100, #5 in Canada, and #46 in the UK in 1980. The song was on the album Empty Glass, which peaked at #5 in the Billboard Album Charts, #2 in Canada, #21 in New Zealand, and #11 in the UK. Two of the musicians on this track, the bass player Tony Butler and drummer Mark Brzezicki, formed the Scottish rock quartet Big Country in 1981. Chris Thomas who produced this album, also worked with The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Sex Pistols, Badfinger, and U2, among others.

Pete’s manager at the time didn’t think the song belonged on the album and fought against it. He said it didn’t sound like a Townshend song. He called to apologize after the song hit.

Let My Love Open The Door

When people keep repeating
That you’ll never fall in love
When everybody keeps retreating
But you can’t seem to get enough

Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
To your heart

When everything feels all over
Everybody seems unkind
I’ll give you a four-leaf clover
Take all worry out of your mind

Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
To your heart, to your heart

I have the only key to your heart
I can stop you falling apart
Try today you’ll find this way
Come on and give me a chance to say

Let my love open the door
It’s all I’m living for
Release yourself from misery
There’s only one thing gonna set you free
That’s my love
That’s my love

Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door

When tragedy befalls you
Don’t let it drag you down
Love can cure your problems
You’re so luck I’m around

Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
To your heart

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

39 thoughts on “Pete Townshend – Let My Love Open The Door”

  3. Pingback: Pete Townshend – Let My Love Open The Door – MobsterTiger

  4. As I previously commented on Dave’s blog, you picked a great artist I love, who for some reason wasn’t even on my radar screen for this round of Turntable Talk.

    I feel Pete Townshend has always had a great sense of melody, and it’s on full display here. Yeah, it ain’t no “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” but who cares (no pun intended!)? “Let My Love Open the Door” is a great pop song!

    Coincidentally (well, not really entirely!😂), I’m currently listening to the album’s opener “Rough Boys” – another great melodic song with a catchy chorus. That one’s a bit more rock-oriented compared to “Let My Love Open the Door.”

    Now it’s on to “Gonna Get Ya” – for some reason, I’m in shuffle mode. Well, Pete, I guess mission accomplished. You got me and now I feel I have to listen to your entire friggin’ album!😂

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    1. LOL…I’ve conquered ya on Pete! …
      Yea it’s different than the Who for sure…and it it goes nicely with Pete’s voice.
      I always pick a Beatle…nohing wrong with that…but I wanted to pick someone different this time so I moved to The Who lol. Glad you liked it.

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  5. It seems odd that the Who didn’t do better on the American charts, but they were only played on FM stations at the time and the groups that were on the AM stations were the ones that dominated the charts.

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    1. You brought up such a good subject Jim. They had their UK hits in the 60s but they didn’t really reach over here except for I Can See For Miles…I guess they were like Zeppelin in that way in the 70s.

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  6. Thanks again for taking part in ‘Turntable Talk’ Max. Good pick- I always liked this one, something I must admit I wouldn’t say about every last Who single. He certainly could write a catchy tune & had (has?) a good voice

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    1. I’m running late this morning…My pleasure Dave! He sang some of The Who songs like Goin’ Mobile and Acid Queen on Tommy…he does have a good voice.

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  7. I posted on it a few years ago. In fact, I assumed I got it from you since I’m the least bit knowledge of him or The Who. I like this song of course. It’s interesting that Townsend preferred his minor hit song – A Little Is Enough – from the same album over this.

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    1. That is…and his manager tried to get Pete not to release this song on the album because it didn’t fit…well it did! It helped me get into the Who at the time.

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  8. I read an interview where Pete called this one a “ditty”. He’s right, of course, but it’s a great one. This came out when I was working at a summer camp, and a guy who worked there was into The Who and helped me get into them too. We had the radio going constantly in the kitchen, so we heard it a lot that summer. Great album too.

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    1. Around this time I was around 13 or so….it made me get into the Who more….I had a Rolling Stone magazine then and I saw an article about it…and I saw the big Who documentary The Kids Are Alright…from then I was a huge Who fan….
      Songs do that…tie us back to a memory.

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    1. That live version CB…really caught my eyes and ears as well. They turn it into a tougher rock song basically and that bass player was all over the place…I guess Pete was used to that. He was bouncy in that period.

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      2. Oh yes. Maybe you know this guy but on bass…which he was incredible was Mick Karn, and Midge Ure on guitar. The Karn guy I looked up that day I wrote this…he was a hell of a bass player.

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  10. hearing Townshend on the secret policeman’s ball was a revelation for me…(actually Sting on those albums was the same for me) I wish that Townshend had/did more of just him and a guitar…okay I hated the slit skirts thing, bit everything else yeah….I’m a songwriter guy, so hearing these guys like even Clapton with just a guitar and voice is always great……there’s a version of this song by Luminate which is great….sort of like Placebo’s Running Up that Hill….always just a little different take on great tunes

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    1. I just listened to Luminate’s version of it…wow…I like that. It really explodes into a huge sound.
      I love when we hear songwriters with just guitar.
      Your a musician…and you might have heard of him….but on that live version…a guy named Mick Karn is playing bass…he is terrific! I never heard of the guy but he was a big deal in the 80s for other people.

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  11. My housemate at the time was a follower of Meher Baba and a Pete Townshend fan so I knew the background of this song. I tried listening to it just now pretending I didn’t know that. It sounds egomaniacal from that viewpoint.

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    1. Yea…and it’s a pure pop song by the structure. I always read that about him and Meher Baba…it sounded close to being a Buddist but I may be mistaken.

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  12. I don’t know Max- I have this cut off-point with the Who and the various solo work that came after ‘Tommy’ roughly. The parts are all there but to me the product isn’t made better, which is what the best bands do, you get more than the individuals input somehow. The Who and Co into the earlier 70s on lost me. Sorry Max, for me the early years are where I go. Ah well, we cain’t win ’em all.

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    1. Yea we can’t win them all! I’m like that with Springsteen…anything after Tunnel of Love I won’t really pay attention to. Funny with the Who…I’ve known people who will only listen to Who’s Next and after. My favorite album by them though you would like…Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy

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      3. It’s not very political if that’s what you’re trying to avoid. Actually that and Nebraska are my top two of his as far as whole albums go. Just try it. No pressure.

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      4. Yea…I don’t like political on any side…it grates me but yea…oh if you cast it that high…I’ll listen!

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  15. I listened to the whole of the album this came from, as well as the album Townsend did with Ronnie Lane. None of it took except this song, which I love.

    Never made the connection with his faith in Meher Baba. But now that its been pointed out, I can’t see how I missed it.

    Great, simple record. I loved it and love it.

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