Pete Townshend

Pete Townshend is not just the lead guitarist for The Who. He is an icon for the Mod generation with songs like “I Can’t Explain” and “My Generation.” To him The Who’s destructive live performances were a form of art. He was the first composer to write a rock opera, “Tommy”, which was followed by the rock opera “Quadrophenia.” Townshend was and is an innovator in sound systems and studio recording. In his personal life he became a follower of Meher Baba and created show more spiritual learning centers. After Keith Moon’s death and the short break up of The Who, he became an editor at Faber and Faber and wrote a short story compilation titled “Horses Neck.” His solo efforts proved to be as popular as his work with The Who. A few years back he created a musical for the Young Vic from the Ted Hughes story “The Iron Man.” He still tours as The Who with Roger Daltrey and is working on another stage production.

Unfortunately, he is known now as a pedophile, a tag that is undeserved. As a child he spent a year living with his mentally ill grandmother and believes that during that time he was sexually abused. He decided to become an advocate for abused children by exposing child pornography online. He used a credit card to show how easy it is to download child porn from the internet and how credit card companies allow it to happen. Townshend then wrote an online essay and hoped to write a book about it. Instead he was charged as a sex offender. He was exonerated, but decided to accept a warning and be put on a sex offenders list for five years. Even though he performs in charity concerts and gives money to charities he will never be honored in Britain like other musicians and performs.

Townshend has written a thoughtful autobiography. His writing style is easy to read and kept me engaged throughout. He is truthful about the mistakes he has made and is open about his negative personality traits. He is by no means a saint, although he feels guilty about cheating on his wife and playing the rock star. Like most artists he is self-obsessed spending all of his time working and enjoying his wealth and little time with his family. Still I admire him as an artist, he is truly a great song writer and a talented musician. show less

The definitive book on rock god Pete Townshend. There are probably better books on The Who if someone wants to read on the band specically. This book is about it's creative leader and guitarist Townshend and his colourful life and the demons he has fought.

Townshend tells in the book that his original script had some one thousand pages, with this clocking at roughly 500. I still think a bit of editing could have been done. It's not very complimentary to say that the most interesting part of show more his life ended in the late 70's (and I'm sure he disagrees) but from an outsider's point of view this is the case. So it took me quite a while to get the book finished . The latter part of the book is not poorly written or any such thing, I just don't find the stories about this or that musical or album that I haven't even listened to very interesting.

This book is not a band book. It has it's share of drugs, alcohol, women and generally doing stupid things, but that's what The Who was about and after all that's what Townshend is known for. However, this book is more about a troubled yet brilliant mind who has struggled with his demons all his life. He was traumatised as a child, clearly is an addictive personality and he can be a real bastard. I actually found it staggering that he thanked almost everyone else, but not Karen Townshend who he was married to for a quarter of a century and gave him three children! Townshend does not go easy on himself, he admits his problems and bad behaviour, although as everyone, sometimes tries to find excuses. For instance after one point on he seems quite indifferent to his infidelity. Yet he does not glorify the band life or his exploits either.

So if you are a fan of The Who or Pete Townshend, read this book. If you are interested in a complex yet brilliant artist, read this book. If you just want to read a band book about drugs and rock'n roll, skim the first half through. Or buy something else. show less

Long in coming, this is a rocker autobiography well worth waiting for. (And, waiting for me to get around to it.) In this audiobook, having Pete narrate it himself makes it more personal and adds dimension as he frequently chuckles or sighs in a way adding nuance to key passages.

So, this is not a Who memoir, but a Townshend memoir. Whole Who and even solo albums can be dispensed with by a sentence or two. There is none of the detailed session notes and track-by-track minutiae that often show more comes with such histories. Now, I like those too. This is about Townshend's career outside of the band; solo career, (book) publishing efforts and more, including his family life, life on the road, and battle with coke and the bottle.

Also in there is him grappling with the realities of his own remembered abuse as a child, being outed as a bisexual, and his child-porn arrest. There may be a lesson for anyone confronted with criminal charges here. While he claims to have been researching for his 2002 treatise, he also decided on admitting he used his credit card to gain access to a child-porn site. The guitarist was placed on the sex offenders register for five years while apparently no proof could be found that the credit card company took the money. (Maybe tht financial insitution was more circumspect than Townshend.)

Something that jumped out at me is while The Rolling Stones get mentioned about twenty times, Led Zeppelin is only-named dropped five times and seem to be a subject that is a present absence and there seems to be a dismissive tone to the few mentions. This made my Google:

"led zeppelin" "pete townshend"

Apparently, I am not the only one suspicious that Townshend harbors ill feelings for that group. One thing that does get mentioned much is his prescient vision for the internet as it would affect music distribution and creation. He seems so spot-on in hindsight on so much it makes me wonder if he could really have had the gift of so much accurate foresight.

This makes me feel a few aspects of the Townshend personality and story could be shaded differently with the perspectives of others close to his life.

Anyway, I had no idea of his deep adherence to Meher Baba, an Indian spiritual master who said he was God in human form, and how this affected the Tommy storyline. Also, Townshend is very forthcoming on his awkward attempts to participate in the changing sounds - punk included - while his hairline receded over his boiler suits and Doc Martens. He admits to a lot of unfortunate rage, fisticuffs, and destructive behavior if not to the lengths that eventually subsumed "John" and "Moonie". show less

A fantastic autobiography that manages to still be interesting long past the Who's prime years. Pete takes on his tangled upbringing, the mod and psychedelic years, his interest in Meher Baba, his struggles with alcohol and drugs, the deaths of Keith and John, and his alleged pedophilia, with gusto. As always with these sorts of books, there's things he doesn't discuss that you wish he would--in this case, particularly the MTV years, video-making, and the controversial "Rough Boys" seem to show more have been forgotten or edited out--however, overall, it's pretty comprehensive and he doesn't shy away from talking about his bi-curiosity, admitting the one guy he would "do it" with. I won't spoil it for ya. show less