The artist Pete Townshend hailed as a master craftsman: “Never gone back”
With his windmill strumming, mod rock rebellion, and rock opera masterpieces, The Who’s Pete Townshend has had an unavoidable impact on the landscape of rock and roll.
Townshend’s songwriting soundtracked an entire generation, from the band’s earliest origins, when they were hopped-up young mods in the nightclubs of London. His career hasn’t been limited to that 1960s golden age, either. Townshend has enjoyed a decade spanning six decades, countless albums, and various side projects, but he still hasn’t had to spin as many plates as some of his contemporaries.
Some artists are content with sticking to one lane throughout their musical career, while others seem to have a constant need for development and diversification. Pete Townshend exists somewhere between those two. He has, after all, stuck with The Who consistently since back in the 1960s and, although the band developed their sound tenfold over the years, going from youthful rock anthems to profound rock operas and stadium rock masterpieces, he is still playing the same songs all these years later.
Although he’s done a few side projects, collaborations, and solo albums along the way, The Who has always been Townshend’s bread and butter, and why not? The group are among the most iconic, influential, and important rock bands to ever grace the airwaves. That hasn’t stopped the songwriter from occasionally dreaming of spreading his wings outside of the group, however. For that kind of career diversity, he can only look upon artists like Neil Young with a kind of jealousy.
Young has enjoyed one of the most diverse careers in music, going from his time at the heart of American counterculture to his time with Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, and, of course, his incredible solo material, too. The Canadian songwriter boasts a unique ability to spin all of those plates at once, without sacrificing the musical quality of any one aspect. Young doesn’t have to rely on the crutch of anybody else, as he is more than capable of going out on his own, but he also has the freedom to call upon his various groups and collaborators if needed.
That is a sense of freedom that isn’t afforded to Pete Townshend. Aside from some, let’s be honest, misguided solo efforts, the guitarist has only really felt at home in the bosom of The Who. “Neil manages the two strands of his career in a way I admire and try hard to emulate,” the guitarist once wrote in his online blog, highlighting the unique position of Neil Young, in stark contrast to his own career.
Youn isn’t the only artist who has managed to take naturally to these distinct areas of expertise, either. In the same blog post where he highlighted the unique power of Neil Young, Townshend also heaped praise onto The Police’s enigmatic frontman, Sting. The pair have something of a loose connection, given that Sting starred as the Ace Face in the film adaptation of The Who’s Quadrophenia, but it was the songwriter’s music which really endeared him to Townshend.
“I don’t want to be like Sting (though I do think he’s a master craftsman in his work) and leave the band entirely behind as he did with Police,” Townshend boldly declared, reaffirming his ultimate commitment to The Who. “It was a clean divorce, and he’s never gone back.”
The guitarist then added, “Neither do I want to be like AC/DC, God bless them forever and a day, who just keep working the same seam of gold and don’t seem to stop for breath.”
It seems as though Townshend would like the freedom and security to perform outside of The Who, while still maintaining his position within the iconic rock outfit. Despite his clear admiration of Sting, he was never going to be somebody who abandoned his bandmates in favour of an all-encompassing solo career. Townshend has always returned to his mod rock comrades eventually.
