Pete Townshend’s two favourite songs by The Beatles
Pete Townshend of The Who is known for having one of the most feared voices in rock ‘n’ roll, both musically and in terms of his outspoken, often scathing, opinions on other acts. Even The Beatles, arguably the most beloved band in history, have felt the sting of his sharp tongue. However, despite his occasional critiques, Townshend holds The Beatles in high regard. In fact, two songs in particular turned him into a devoted Beatles fan.
Often, with Townshend, his insulting remarks towards other acts must be taken alongside a healthy dosage of salt, and it doesn’t necessarily mean he hates the target. Even The Beatles were responsible for making countless jibes at The Rolling Stones, which worked as a marketing tool and helped spark a faux-feud between the two biggest bands in Britain.
Therefore, despite all the disdain that Townshend has shown towards the Fab Four in the distant past, there’s a deep appreciation of their contribution to musical history. Now, the dust has firmly settled on any competitive rivalry he may have once had when The Who were mouthy young upstarts on the scene, aiming to attack the king of the rock ‘n’ roll kingdom.
While he’s backtracked in recent years and opened up about his favourite songs from The Beatles’ extensive repertoire, Townshend’s past comments provide an important background to his complex relationship with the Fab Four. The one-way rivalry between the acts began in 1966 when The Who started their meteoric ascent to international superstardom. Backed by a thunderous lead single in ‘My Generation’, they quickly carved out a career based on the infectious energy of youth. By racing out of the blocks, The Who quickly received attention and a series of early TV interviews. One such discussion led to Townshend criticising The Beatles, which generated the hysteric reaction he intended.
While discussing “musical quality”, an attribute Townshend shrugged off as irrelevant to him and his band, the interviewers suggest that The Beatles prove him wrong. “Actually, this afternoon, John [Entwistle] and I were listening to a stereo LP of The Beatles — in which the voices come out of the one side, and the backing track comes out of the other,” he began his analysis by noting.
Then, Townshend delivered his most telling line on the band’s output, stating, “When you actually hear the backing tracks of The Beatles without their voices, they’re flippin’ lousy”.
With two words, Townshend successfully created an audible gasp from the audience, who were shocked by his attack on their favourite band. If the truth be told, by Townshend’s standards, The Beatles got off relatively lightly compared to other targets such as Led Zeppelin.
Furthermore, while speaking with Rolling Stone in 1982, Townshend was asked about McCartney’s then-recent record Tug of War. Kurt Loder, who was interviewing Townshend, suggested it had “virtually nothing to do with rock and roll”. In response, Townshend asked if McCartney “ever really had anything to do with rock”. Before giving Loder a chance to reply, Townshend answered his own question: “No, he never did. You know, I could sit down and have a conversation with Paul about rock and roll, and we’d be talking about two different things.”
Time is the greatest healer, of course, and as Townshend has become an elder statesman of rock, he has softened. Now, Townshend has seemingly stopped trying to be controversial to get a thrill from the constant conveyor belt of fires that he was stoking up, as his later remarks on The Beatles prove. “I wasn’t crazy impressed with the Beatles when I first heard them,” Townshend shared with Rolling Stone in 2019. “But I loved them”.
“I did love them,” he repeated. “They were joyful, they were funny. They were more a pop group than I would have liked [but] they had this incredible image. They were delightful, absolutely delightful. I suppose the first song [I heard] would have been ‘Please Please Me,'” Townshend recalls.
While ‘Please Please Me’ didn’t get his relationship with The Beatles off on the right foot, with two releases, the Fab Four amended their previous faux-pas. Townshend revealed, “[But] what really blew him away was single ‘Day Tripper ‘and b-side’ Paperback Writer.'”
For Townshend, those two songs, released as consecutive singles rather than on the same record, changed his perception of The Beatles. Crucially, they signified an elevation in John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s songwriting, as they stepped away from writing about young love by expressing their storytelling capabilities. The guitarist elaborated: “I just thought, wow, these two songs are really great. “They weren’t about falling in love, they weren’t about girls, girls, girls. They were about jobs, creativity. They were interesting songs those two. And it was then I realised they were going to do great things.”
By The Beatles’ own admission, during the band’s early days, when producing songs such as ‘Love Me Do’ or ‘Please Please Me’, they had yet to evolve into the best version of themselves and were at the teething stage. In the mind of Lennon, ‘Day Tripper’ and ‘Paperback Writer’ were two peas in the same pod, as he once remarked: “‘Paperback Writer’ is son of ‘Day Tripper’, but it is Paul’s song. Son of ‘Day Tripper’ meaning a rock ‘n’ roll song with a guitar lick on a fuzzy, loud guitar.”
Upon releasing tracks such as ‘Day Tripper’ and ‘Paperback Writer’, The Beatles bravely moved away from a formula that served them well, but it set a progressive precedent. With each album from Rubber Soul onwards, The Beatles refused to sit still and started creating musical trends rather than following them, making even their detractors, such as Townshend, fans.
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