|
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend (pron-en 'ta?nz?nd; born 19 May 1945) is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for The Who, as well as for his own solo career. His career with The Who spans more than forty years, during which time the band grew to be considered one of the most influential bands of the rock era, in addition to being "possibly the greatest live band ever."
Townshend is the primary songwriter for the Who, having written well over one hundred songs for the band's eleven studio albums, including concept albums, and the rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia and popular rock radio staples including ''Who's Next, plus dozens more that appeared as non-album singles, bonus tracks on reissues, and tracks on rarities compilations such as Odds and Sods. He has also written over one hundred songs that have appeared on his solo albums and various compilations of rarities. Although known primarily as a guitarist, he is also an accomplished singer and keyboard player and has played many other instruments - such as banjo, accordion, synthesizer, piano, bass guitar and drums) - on his solo albums and on some Who albums.
He has also written newspaper and magazine articles, book reviews, essays, books, and scripts. Townshend was ranked #3 in Dave Marsh's list of Best Guitarists in The New Book of Rock Lists and #50 in Rolling Stone magazine list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Early lifeBorn in Chiswick, London into a musical family (his father Cliff Townshend was a professional saxophonist in The Squadronaires and his mother Betty a singer, with his brother Simon also being a musician), Townshend exhibited a fascination with music at an early age
. He had early exposure to American rock and roll (his mother recounts that he repeatedly saw the 1956 film Rock Around the Clock) and obtained his first guitar from his grandmother at age 12, which he described as a "Cheap Spanish thing". Townshend's biggest guitar influences include Link Wray, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley and Hank Marvin of The Shadows.
In 1961, Townshend enrolled at Ealing Art College, and a year later he and his school friend from Acton County Grammar School John Entwistle founded their first band, The Confederates, a Dixieland duet featuring Townshend on banjo and Entwistle on horn. From this beginning they moved on to The Detours, a skiffle/rock and roll band fronted by Roger Daltrey. With the encouragement of his old classmate Entwistle, Daltrey invited Townshend to join The Detours. In early 1964, due to another band having the same name, The Detours renamed themselves The Who. Drummer Doug Sandom was replaced by Keith Moon not long afterwards. The band (now comprising Daltrey on vocals and harmonica, Townshend on guitar, Entwistle on bass, and Moon on drums) were soon taken on by a mod publicist named Peter Meaden who convinced them to change their name to The High Numbers to give the band more of a mod feel. After bringing out one failed single ("I'm the Face/Zoot Suit"), they dropped Meaden and were signed on by two new managers, Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert. They dropped The High Numbers name and reverted to The Who.
Music careerBreakthrough
Copyright Citations
This article is licensed under the GNU License
Click here for original article: Pete Townshend
|
|
Photo by: www.rickenbacker.com
|
|
|
|
