Pete Townshend adapted "The Iron Man," a children's fable written by the British poet Ted Hughes, for his sixth studio solo album,
Iron Man: A Musical. Casting himself,
Roger Daltrey,
Nina Simone, and
John Lee Hooker in leading roles, the album doesn't suffer from a lack of talent, it suffers from a lack of songs.
Townshend has failed to come up with a set of compelling melodies for Hughes' poems and the arrangements are obvious and overblown, making
Iron Man an overwrought, ambitious failure. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine