by Stephen Thomas ErlewinePete 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.