The guitarist who “changed our view of the world”, according to Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend played a vital role in his generation changing the dimension of music. Rock ‘n’ roll was no longer just the puckish passion of young folks, but now it was rock music, the opiate of the masses and a key tool in establishing a world that was their own. It was thanks to bands such as The Who that kids who were brought up in the throes of suburban ennui could dream of a life outside of the nuclear family and suffocating gender roles. Within the limits of the law, they were the masters of their own destiny, ushered into the future by this new breed of rock stars.
Despite their early mod aesthetic, there is a strong claim that The Who were the first punk band. Off the back of Roger Daltrey’s anarchic lyrics, such as their ultimate anthem, ‘My Generation’, an era-defining battle cry featuring lines such as “I hope I die before I get old”, Townshend’s furious playing, and a hard-hitting rhythm section, they were the first musically and thematically heavy band.
The group looked and sounded like the cultural revolution of the 1960s. Although they participated in ample dangerous hellraising, their defiant stance against the status quo and the expectations of tradition placed them firmly at the forefront of the British Invasion. Each member was a legend in their respective field, and they led by example, opening up sonics to future forms such as hard rock, punk, and even metal.
It’s a testament to Townshend’s significance as a guitarist that, whether in explosive tracks like ‘My Generation’ or more melancholic efforts like the intro to ‘Behind Blue Eyes’, he remains one of the most influential players, even decades after The Who’s peak. However, while Townshend and his contemporaries were undoubtedly innovators, the musical forms they pioneered were not entirely original. They built upon a rich history of blues, jazz, and early rock ‘n’ roll, reinterpreting and expanding these genres in ways that defined their generation while still nodding to the traditions that came before.
Every notable guitarist and rock musician of the 1960s were inspired by the blues and rock ‘n’ roll pioneers of the previous decade. The founding fathers of all guitar music, as well as many ubiquitous aspects of popular music at large, they were the ones who first made the six-string a weapon to be used at the forefront of a song and not in the background as it had been in jazz and big band.
While Townshend has discussed many of the era’s greats, from Link Wray to Bo Diddley, for him, Howlin’ Wolf was one of the most significant. The Mississippian was a critical force in transforming the acoustic Delta blues sound into the electric Chicago blues that opened the gates for all that came in the 1960s. According to Townshend, Wolf was the man who changed “our view of the world” and helped harden their sonic form of expression. In short, he added real grit to guitar music.
Townshend first came across the music of Wolf through a fellow student at Ealing Art School, Tom Wright, an American. He had an extensive collection of R&B, which included music by Wolf, including the classic track ‘Smokestack Lightning’, which stood out to him because of its guitar tone. It wasn’t just the guitar tone, though; it was also Wolf’s overall style that would fully enamour Townshend. He was the first man to make him realise that it wasn’t just about being a good guitarist; to stoke real change, artists have to be the complete package.
“He is not just some guy with a band, he helped to change our view of the world and to harden up this new way we have found to express our deepest feelings,” he once said of Wolf. “Unlike the radio pop of that period Howling Wolf had real teeth; he showed us we could let our music be unapologetically masculine without being chauvinistic.”
Demonstrating just how shared influences were back then. Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant believes that ‘Smokestack Lightning’ is the track that formed the “basis” of all rock moving forward. It’s fascinating to see how just one song spawned so many different offshoots.
