“Like heaven”: Pete Townshend on the artist he was happiest listening to
Rock and roll has always been about some type of excitement whenever it comes on. Although a lot of people like to think that all the genre is about is someone screaming into a microphone about all the problems in the world, the real testament to any good rock and roll band is whether or not the music makes you want to raise your fist in the air whenever it comes on. It may be a bit nasty sometimes, but Pete Townshend knew that there was a lot of joy to come out of the genre if you knew where to look.
Outside of the heavy subject matter with The Who, Townshend seemed to truly believe in the power of rock and roll. This was the kind of music that could help shape someone into a more positive person if they were given the right push, and many of Townshend’s greatest songs include him looking for the answers that exist beyond a few chords.
And since Townshend was born of the generation that was looking to change the course of music history, he wasn’t alone in his quest, either. The Beatles had already opened up people’s minds as to what could be done with the medium, but there were also people like The Kinks and The Rolling Stones that were starting to make rock and roll a bit nastier than usual, whether that was using fuzzboxes or increasing the volume loud enough to blow out anyone’s eardrums.
Even though change was happening left and right, there was always going to be some questions about whether it was going to last. The Woodstock generation may have been considered a pipe dream later down the line, but when people started listening to Jimi Hendrix, they knew that he was the perfect package for everything rock and roll was supposed to be.
As opposed to the other hippie idealists strumming an acoustic guitar, Hendrix was far more interested in pushing himself forward. There was a lot left to explore on the guitar, and while he will forever be remembered for being one of the wildest frontmen to ever touch a fretboard, the criminally neglected side of Hendrix was his sense of taste, whether it was the bluesy distortion he got out of ‘Spanish Castle Magic’ or the gorgeous clean tone on ‘The Wind Cries Mary’.
While Townshend had his favourites like The Kinks up until this point, he knew that there was no better cure for his troubles than listening to Hendrix, saying, “I started out as a rhythm player, and a few of my lead licks are things I’ve basically developed in recording sessions. I’ll never be able to play the kind of leads I want. I was happiest listening to Jimi Hendrix – that, to me, was like heaven.”
And despite Townshend having a few tricks up his sleeve, nothing that he did on Live At Leeds was ever going to eclipse what Hendrix could do live. No one before or since has even been that in control of their own instrument, to the point where the guitar felt like an extension of Hendrix’s body whenever he played, even if it ended with him lighting his guitar on fire.
Townshend may have dared artists to dream bigger in terms of the story structure of rock and roll, but Hendrix was into something totally different. He was making the musical equivalent of tone paintings whenever he played, and even if he was taken far too soon, his legacy will forever be known as the one person who shaped everything about lead playing that most people take for granted now.
