It’s never easy to spot Townshend’s contributions when listening to some of The Who’s classics. While he contributed an odd line or two to some of their best material, there was no real need for someone like Townshend to step up to the mic when they had someone like Roger Daltrey delivering some of his generation’s most muscular vocal lines. Then again, the only way to appreciate what Townshend gave to the band is to put his voice beside Daltrey’s on ‘The Song is Over’.

After trying his hand at different conceptual songs in The Who’s early years, Tommy was the first time Townshend started to hone his craft. Spanning across the album, Townshend takes his audience on a trip through a young deaf, dumb and blind kid’s psyche as he tries to find a place to fit in after closing himself off from the world. Since this marks the first time The Who made such a huge jump towards something ambitious, it’s only natural that the first voice heard on the album is from Townshend. You know, I think I laughed when you asked that first question because I knew it was going to be the first thing you’d say. I am looking forward to it, but I don’t like touring. I have to be honest with people. I’m not going to bark at people I meet. I like what happens when we tour. I like the whole feeling of it. I’m somebody that if someone says, “Do you want to go to a party? There are going to be a lot of your friends there,” my first response will be to say, “No.” [ Laughs.] I’ve been enjoying working with other musicians, and we’ve been doing that work in my studios. I’ve got two studios in the U.K. I’ve kept myself busy musically. Being set in the future where everyone lives in different robotic suits, Townshend penned this song as an ode to the travelling lifestyle, painting the picture of a commune where he and his friends all drive around together in a mobile unit. In the context of the story, this would be some innocent fun to break up the story of Bobby as he tries to find some salvation through a single musical note.

Navigation and Disclaimers

Coming right in the middle of Who’s Next, Townshend is celebrating all of the music finally being written and having the opportunity to shout his salvation from every mountaintop he can. Although Daltrey eventually takes over for the choruses, Townshend’s voice overpowers his in terms of pure emotion, almost sounding like a spirit leaving his body as he ascends towards musical Nirvana. verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ When we phoned up Pete Townshend last week at his new home in the English countryside, our only real goal was to talk about the Who’s upcoming American tour where the band will be paired with local symphonies. Before we knew it, an hour had passed and we’d covered everything from the Neil Young–Joe Rogan spat to the inflation crisis, the unlikelihood of a new Who record or solo LP, the brilliant use of his music on Freaks and Geeks, and his hatred of NFTs. If you take a couple of hits from that era like “Athena,”“You Better You Bet,” and “Eminence Front,” they’re all very rich. They have a lot of orchestral harmonics in them already. For me, having the orchestra, what was amazing about it was that it actually gave me space.

I’d done the demo, by the way. The difference between my demo and his was really the difference in age, the difference in experience, the difference in craft. It’s a masterpiece. It’s the last thing he did, sadly, since he didn’t live long enough to do Faust. He’d learned all the lines, apparently. I’m happy that they paid us, but one of the stipulations is that when we travel, we’re not allowed to leave our hotel rooms. We have to travel in a very small bubble. And when we’re at the show, we’re not allowed to leave our dressing rooms. And this is something he’s had close to his breast since 1993. He has to tell his own story; he has to have his own way. He sometimes crashes in sideways into my projects. [ Laughs] But if I don’t like it, I will say so in the press. I might have a moan about it if there’s something I don’t like, but I will never go to war in the way that some bands have. Pete Townshend — vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass guitar, drums, percussion; harmonica on "Day of Silence"I’ve been reading about a Keith Moon biopic for about 20 years. It seems like it’s finally happening now.

Opening up the overture with the report that Tommy’s father has been killed in action and will not be returning home from war, ‘1921’ sets the scene of the protagonist’s everyday life, with his mother finding a new man and feeling optimistic about the next year. Although Townshend might sound strained while hitting the high notes of the mother’s dialogue, there’s a sense of innocence to his words, knowing that she can brave any bad weather as long as her significant other is beside her. We live in a very polarized society. As musicians, we really sincerely hope that music brings the two sides together. If we can do that, that would be great. If we can’t, so be it. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrateded.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p.312. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.

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I have somewhat of a random question, but I just re-watched Freaks and Geeks. They used a ton of your songs in really poignant and interesting ways. I’m wondering if you ever saw it. That sums it up. I’ll let you go. I know you aren’t looking forward to the tour all that much, but I’m really looking forward to seeing the show when it hits New York. Yes, I did. It was a real buzz. I remember being very moved by it and very honored. It was a dark comedy show with deep, swinging connotations about performance and education and all the things I’m talking about. The uses were very, very smart. In a sense, it redeemed and gave credence to the fact that I’ve always felt the worst person … Let’s get into real trouble here. The worst person to have control of Neil Young’s catalog is Neil Young. [ Laughs] Give it to me. I just think there’s so much stuff there that could be just turned into joy. He’s such an incredible writer, and so much of his stuff is just unknown, partly because he keeps it tied so tight to his chest. A lot of the Who’s music is already fairly heavily decorated and dense harmonically anyway, so we’re not like the Stones or the Kinks. With an an album like Quadrophenia, for example, there was brass and there was violins. There were lots of synthesizers on it. On subsequent albums, I’ve always used a lot of synthesizers and keyboards. We kind of cruised through the 1980s, even though our recording career ended in 1982, but we cruised through that period with our music sounding really quite rich.