Pete Townshend

Names Index:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
| Authors Index | Scholars Index |

Behind Blue Eyes; The Life of Pete Townshend by Geoffrey Giuliano

An in-depth book about Pete Townshend is a must for any pop music library. Veteran rock biographer Giuliano, whose previous subjects have been members of precisely the clique of 1960s & 70s British rockers whose musical and personal self-indulgence brought on, first, punk rock and then all things alternative, gives us that book. As the Who's guitarist-songwriter-resident genius, Townshend, always more than slightly impressed with his and his band's magnitude, is another one of the aforementioned clique. Giuliano shares Townshend's high opinion of himself (in fact, the text occasionally hyperventilates with awe) but provides valuable insight and commentary, too. He is particularly revealing on Townshend's state of mind in the late 1970s, when several uneven albums put the Who's creative and, more important, profit-making future in doubt: turns out Pete was boozing. The drinking, the drugs, the groupies--all are here, along with everything you want to know about Meher Baba and Pete, and lots of overintellectualizing about rock. In other words, this is the perfect Pete Townshend bio. Mike Tribby

All the Best Cowboys Have Chin [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]  Pete Townshend

Many are calling this album Pete's best work and such, which I really don't agree with. Mind you, Pete is my favorite artist ever, and I like everything he has done. But I just don't feel this album is his *best* -- it's good, in the sense of having some unique sounding songs and some excellent subject matter, but at the same time it's also perhaps his strangest album, right down to the album's title! :) It's almost like an extension to his "change" on The Who's 'Face Dances' album. Luckily after Chinese Eyes, his got back to normal with The Who's excellent 'It's Hard' album, and his own superior and truly best work, 'White City: A Novel'. -- Anonymous Review

White City (A Novel) Pete Townshend

This is Pete solo work at his best. Although the album is not even 40 minutes long, it is superior in depth. Pete was (and always will be) ahead of his time when he recorded this. I don't really mean instrumentally, I mean the album as a whole (story, sound, etc.) defied the mid-80's... around at the time. He changed his style enough on this album to not be trapped in the "old school rock" genre. A bonus on this album is guest musician David Gilmour of Pink Floyd fame on a couple tracks. And in actuality, this is Pete's last solo work where he sings everything (no guest singers). All in all, this is the definitive Pete album to own on par with his best Who work (Tommy, Quadrophenia, and It's Hard).

Pete Townshend

Pete Townshend's official website.  

The lead guitarist of legendary rock band The Who, the site looks at the whole spectrum of Townshend's work both with The Who and as a solo artist.

A Brief Conversation with Pete Townshend 

By Mark Brown

Between awards show appearances, interviews, organizing a Who reunion and promoting his new greatest-hits album, the man who made The Who who they are, took some time to talk to ATN's Mark Brown about all of the above and more.

Gearing up for another reunion with The Who, Pete Townshend reflects on his past and present

By Jonathan B. Pont

When you have a history like Pete Townshend's-- guitarist, songwriter, and leader of The Who-- the battle to escape the past can never be fully won. How can it, when songs like "My Generation," "Won't Get Fooled Again," and "Pinball Wizard" remain the daily staples of classic rock radio stations across the country? But in recent years, Townshend has, to a degree, successfully merged his past and his present. He turned his twenty- five- year- old rock opera, Tommy, into a hit Broadway musical and a just- released CD- ROM. At the same time, he wrote and released a new rock opera, Psychoderelict, in 1993. But while his latest creation wasn't accorded the universal acclaim that greeted Tommy, Townshend remains undaunted. Last month he released an anthology of his solo work...

Brilliant Careers:  His Generation

From Solon.com

By Stephanie Zacharek

Excerpt:

There's a secret part of all rock 'n' roll fans that likes to see our old-time heroes doing well: recovering from their addictions; finding love and happiness or at least a kind of serenity; winning awards for recent work that they've done, even though we know that perhaps their best work is already behind them. Maybe these earnest vapors of well-wishing, something we send out across the land like weak radio waves, are about the best we can muster for our idols after years of making demands on them, entreating them to give us another hit song that will make us feel as good as the last one did. People who love Pete Townshend -- and I count myself among them -- should all be happy that he won a Tony Award in 1993 for the Broadway resurrection of his 1969 rock opera "Tommy," that he now keeps himself busy with solo touring and concept albums like 1993's "Psychoderelict." We all want to be reassured that it's possible to be a happy, productive and hip member of society even past age 30, if not 21...

Playboy Interview:  A candid conversation with the wizard of rock about life with The Who, bisexuality in music, "Tommy" on Broadway and, of course, how to smash a guitar.

Excerpt:

PLAYBOY: How is your audience different from the Who's audience?

TOWNSHEND: I released Empty Glass and then went on to do the Who tour, and I could see the difference immediately. There were all these girls coming backstage asking, "Which one of you wrote Let My Love Open Your Door?" So there were all these girls, very different from the Who audience, the Who Rottweilers, I called them. Even the women were quite macho--they had to be to survive the front-row nonsense. Maybe five percent of the audience was female at Who concerts, whereas I seem to have a mixed audience. Then I started to get letters from young gay men who were delighted with Rough Boys, because they thought that I had come out, so they were in the audience, too.

PLAYBOY: What was behind all the reports of your coming out?

TOWNSHEND: It was that song, which is ironic because the song is actually taunting both the homosexuals in America--who were, at the time, dressing themselves up as Nazi generals--and the punks in Britain dressing the same way. I thought it was great that these tough punks were dressing as homosexuals without realizing it. I did an interview about it, saying that Rough Boys was about being gay, and in the interview I also talked about my "gay life," which--I meant--was actually about the friends I've had who are gay. So the interviewer kind of dotted the t's and crossed the i's and assumed that this was a coming out, which it wasn't at all. But I became an object of ridicule when it was picked up in England. It was a big scandal, which is silly. If I were bisexual, it would be no big deal in the music industry. If I ran down a list of the men who have tried to get me into bed, I could bring down quite a few big names in the music business. And no, I won't do it.

PLAYBOY: In the recent unauthorized biography of Mick Jagger, he was said to have had affairs with almost every pop star there is.

TOWNSHEND: Yeah, and if you ever tried to pin him down about it, I don't think he would disclaim it because he's smart enough to know there's value in that mystery. In my roasting of the Stones at their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, I joked about the fact that I am one of the few people lucky enough to have slept with Mick Jagger. [Laughs]. So when it all came out about me, I fought like hell not to comment.

PLAYBOY: Do you like to keep people guessing?

TOWNSHEND: No. But I don't want to let anybody down. I don't want to let it be known that it is in any sense an important part of my self-image to be thought of a breeder. I don't want to deny bisexuality as if I were being accused of child molestation or murder, as if it were some crime or something to be ashamed of, because that would be cruel to people who are gay. But I was bitter and angry at the way the truth had been distorted and decided never to do any interviews again. Not because I had been manipulated but because I didn't trust myself to be precise about what I was saying...

Excerpt:

Timothy White publishes his mammoth book of interviews with rock performers, Rock Lives. It contains a 1989 interview with Pete where he states "one of the things that stunned me when Empty Glass came out was that I realized I'd found a female audience, just by being honest. Not necessarily by saying, 'I am gay, I am gay, I am gay.' But just by being honest about the fact that I understand how gay people feel, and I identify. And I know how it feels to be a woman. I know how it feels to be a woman because I am a woman. And I won't be classified as just a man. To an extent the gay lobby infuriates me sometimes. With Empty Glass I got lots of letters from gays who said, 'Good on you, Pete, for coming out.' And I would write back and say, 'No, I haven't come out.' And then I realized maybe that was just pride. That in a way it was a coming-out. That it was a real acknowledgment of the fact that I'd been surrounded by people that I really adored -- and was actually sexually attracted to -- who were men. And that the side of me that responded to those people was a passive side, a subordinate side." This part of the interview makes all the headlines as the British tabloids scream "My Gay Secret," "Out Of The Closet" and "I Am Woman." Pete gets classified in the "gay" category. Although those close to Pete know his sexual tastes are hetero, Pete does not officially deny the rumors until late 1999...

After 15 years with Decca/MCA, the Who signed a contract with Warner Bros., and Townshend got a solo deal with Atco. His Empty Glass (1980) included the U.S. Top Ten hit "Let My Love Open the Door" and "Rough Boys," a song long believed to have been an angry reply to a punk musician who had insulted the Who during an interview. Much later, in a 1989 interview with writer Timothy White, Townshend denied that was the case, saying, "It's about homosexuality," and adding that "And I Moved" was as well. Townshend's admission of having "had a gay life" and his statement that "I know how it feels to be a woman because I am a woman" came as a surprise to many, including his bandmates...

Names Index:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
| Authors Index | Scholars Index |