“He was the first”: Pete Townshend on the most important American guitarist
All great rock and roll is always traced back to the guitar. Most people like Little Richard or Elton John have done a lot for what the piano can do in a rock content, but the minute that someone straps on a guitar, they not only look the part but can also express themselves in a much different way whenever they bend the strings or come up with that one magical lick right out of the blue. Although Pete Townshend should be given his due credit for inventing what’s known as the power chord, he felt that this American rock pioneer is the reason why modern guitar sounds like it does.
But by the time Townshend wrote his own melodies, he was already looking to go further. All of the British Invasion bands seemed to bore him apart from The Rolling Stones, and since none of them were trying anything new, hearing him storm out of the gate with ‘My Generation’ louder than anything else was more than enough reason to pay attention.
Not only was it incredibly loud, but it became the lynchpin for the punk movement. Suddenly, all guitarists needed was the knowledge of one power chord and a fire in their belly when it came time to write songs, but that’s not really what Townshend envisioned for himself either. He wanted to be a craftsman, and James Burton taught everyone how to operate like a studio technician on one guitar.
Long before The Beatles came to America, Burton was a session player weaving together pieces of rock and country music. Even though not every one of his songs was a hit, his work with everyone from The Everly Brothers to Merle Haggard put him at the forefront of rock and roll history, with his guitar serving as a separate lead vocal compared to what everyone was singing.
Which is strange because he wasn’t all that flashy a guitar player. In fact, his role was a precursor to what Townshend would be doing, as he played through the chord changes rather than using every new section as an excuse to play whatever he felt like. It’s one thing to be able to play fast, but what’s the point when a few stabs are all you need?
Although Townshend would eventually morph his sound into something different with The Who, he thought Burton should be considered one of the most revered figures in rock and roll, telling Guitar World, “The first guitarists I listened to were country and pop players. People like James Burton playing with Rick Nelson. Burton is probably the most important guitar player in American music in some ways. He was the first guy I ever heard make a normal guitar sound like a pedal steel, bending those strings, which was also something that came out of the blues and connected blues with pop.”
It’s hard to really hear too much country music in Townshend’s playing, but listening to some of the acoustic-driven cuts like ‘Sunrise’, he was still a student of what Burton taught him. And when it comes to that bendy style, no one really shook the life out of a chord like Townshend did, practically sounding like he wanted his guitar to go right through the speaker and into people’s living rooms.
But the most important thing that Townshend learned from Burton is what it means to be a song weaver. Anyone can glide over the changes, but when it starts sounding more like a symphony, there’s no limit to where things can go.
