“That was all”: Pete Townshend on the artists he called the miracle of rock and roll
There’s no doubt that rock and roll has had the ability to change lives. Even though many people saw it as nothing more than a typical teen fad when it first came to the forefront, every subsequent generation wanted to make their music mean something more than a few chords, and over the years, millions of people have had their hearts opened up the minute that they heard those ringing power chords. While Pete Townshend could justifiably be considered a missionary in the almighty church of rock and roll, he admitted that there were always a few artists who had some divine inspiration behind them.
Granted, Townshend was certainly no slouch when it came to his musical masterstrokes, either. Despite having a more punk rock approach to the way that he played many of his early tunes, Townshend turned himself into a musical genius over the course of his career, often throwing in different instruments no one had heard of before or defying conventions in terms of how a song should be played.
Although Townshend was born into rock and roll when he was first coming of age, it didn’t have a set style yet, either. Everything had originated from the blues ever since the early 1900s, and the minute that people started listening to people like Chuck Berry, it was about being as much into R&B music as it was rock, with The Who even throwing in some James Brown covers into their setlists in their early days.
Despite the different factions, Townshend is also one of the few who can remember the age before there was rock and roll at all. There had been many artists that changed the landscape of music, but before The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, or even Little Richard, all the records that were around the house usually catered to either classical music or the soothing sounds of people like Rosemary Clooney.
“When I started in the rock business, my grounding in music was probably trad jazz…”
Pete Townshend
That all had its place, but the minute that people like Elvis Presley and Bill Haley hit the airwaves, fans were eager to hear more. These guys were bending the status quo by dressing a bit more androgynous than normal and putting more of a backbeat behind every one of their tunes, so it didn’t take long for every adolescent to find a companion in this style of music later on.
Townshend always knew that music could change someone, but those early rock and rollers seemed to be touched by God in his mind, saying, “When I started in the rock business, my grounding in music was probably trad jazz rather than rock’n’roll. A little bit of classical music thrown in on the side, listening to my dad’s dance orchestra. And then, suddenly, the ‘miracle’ of rock’n’roll – in the shape of Bill Haley, and Cliff [Richard], and Elvis Presley, who I still don’t understand. And that was all.”
While Townshend knew that this supposed miracle wasn’t going to outshine Bach or Beethoven, he knew what could be done with that kind of spiritual energy. Looking at his work with The Who, the guitarist never forgot about that wild abandon that came from Presley or Haley, only this time filtered through more esoteric lyrics and questioning what we are all put on this Earth for in the first place.
So, while many condescending parents and even Townshend himself may have rolled his eyes at the idea of rock and roll having the power to change the world in the early days, there was a lot more to this music that was yet to be discovered. All it needed was those three artists to give it that extra push.
