The musician Pete Townshend called “a genius at the highest level”
For many rock bands, the frontman is the central focus. Yet, when it comes to The Who, Pete Townshend, the guitarist and creative lead, best resembles the band’s spiritual outlook with his windmill rhythm, destructive on-stage antics and seminal album concepts. Alongside one of Britain’s greatest rock vocalists and finest rhythm sections, he changed the face of rock music forever throughout the 1960s and ’70s.
Although The Who played second fiddle to the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones during the 1960s, they distinguished themselves with rock operas and thunderous live performances. Tommy, Townshend’s successful opera of 1969, inspired a generation of songwriters, while the band’s energetic live presence laid the foundations for heavier rock genres like metal and punk.
Classic hits like ‘My Generation’, ‘Pinball Wizard’, and ‘Baba O’Riley’ were at once accessible and progressive. With Keith Moon’s crashing percussion and Townshend’s thrashing rhythm guitar, such songs influenced the evolution of rock and roll’s heavier and more experimental fringes, but their popular appeal also enlightened a generation of pop artists.
Among the enlightened was Elton John, who soared to fame in the early 1970s following his eponymous breakthrough album. Famously, the Rocketman covered ‘Pinball Wizard’ in Ken Russell’s 1975 film adaptation of Tommy. By this point, Elton had befriended Townshend, with whom he remains close to this day.
In a 2023 interview with Far Out, Townshend revealed that Elton “appears on Facetime every other morning, often when I’m in bed”. Continuing, the guitarist praised Elton as “very smart” and compassionate. “He’s also a wonderful musicologist. He really keeps up with what’s new,” Townshend added. “See, when he attaches onto somebody, he’s sincere about it. I still find myself pretending to like people that I’m not sure that I like because they appear to be unbelievably cool.”
In the interview, which mainly focussed on the recent graphic novel adaptation of the abandoned Life House rock opera, Townshend conveyed a deep interest in any artist with a hunger for musical knowledge and novel ideas. One such artist Townshend considered “unbelievably cool” was Prince.
When the ‘Purple Rain’ singer passed away in 2016, aged 57, Townshend wrote a brief yet touching tribute: “Goodbye sweet Prince. Pure, certified genius at the highest level. Too soon.”
Prince and The Who’s Venn circles may not have superimposed, but they shared plenty of territory. Above all else, Townshend and Prince shared a passion for cinematic concepts, elaborate performance, progressive composition and catchy hooks. The latter left a little more glitter in his wake, but Townshend could discern a kindred spirit a mile away.
In a 1990 conversation with Guitarist magazine, Townshend opined that to make “quantum jumps” in the music industry, “intuitive players and composers” should have an “armoury” of diverse talent before they rely on intuition. “Look at somebody like Prince. He has that armoury,” Townshend suggested. “He can write an orchestral score, sit at a piano and read a part, knock out a fairly good version of the Moonlight Sonata or study Gershwin if he likes. Then you’ve got this impetuous, imp-like character grafting all this intuitive waif-like feel. You come up with that kind of magical quality.”
Indeed, Prince was a jack of all trades. Many other peers seem to concur with Townshend’s assertion of the Purple One’s “genius”. Not only was he a virtuosic guitarist and composer, but throughout his recording catalogue, he is credited with playing a mind-boggling 27 instruments.
