The Beatles member Pete Townshend fell in love with: “His spiritual commitment was absolute”
Pete Townshend wasn’t usually the kind of person to fall head over heels for the mystique of rock and roll.
He understood that every single musician who got up onstage was just a normal person like everyone else, and while they were great at performing their material, there wasn’t anything that said that they were any better than him for having that kind of musical gift. But even when in the presence of The Beatles, there’s a good chance that anyone would have turned into human gelatin if any of the Fab Four ever dared speak to them.
Then again, Townshend was far from impressed when The Beatles first came out. He was far more interested in The Rolling Stones when he listened to rock and roll, and when he talked about the backing tracks that The Beatles created for their songs, he had no problem calling them absolutely lousy from a production perspective. And while that’s categorically not true, it’s not like Townshend could write them off entirely.
Sure, the songs that they made were a lot more about puppy love when they started, but they weren’t going to spend the rest of their lives writing about girls. John Lennon and Paul McCartney were already moving outside their wheelhouse as far back as Rubber Soul, and when ‘Paperback Writer’ came out, you better believe that Townshend was paying attention at that point.
‘My Generation’ was slowly crawling up the charts and making the most raucous noise that England had ever heard, but when Townshend got to understand the band on a deeper level, George Harrison felt a lot more familiar with him. Compared to the jovial attitude of Macca and John Lennon being his usual sarcastic self, the sincerity of Harrison is what really hit home for Townshend before anything else.
He was clearly a different person after studying under his spiritual gurus, and Townshend felt deeply touched by Harrison whenever they spoke, saying, “George was happy to talk to me about Indian mysticism and music, even his use of cocaine. I found it hard to follow his reasoning that in a world of illusion nothing mattered. Not wealth or fame, drug abuse or heavy drinking, nothing but love for God. We sat in his wonderful recording studio and talked for two hours. I fell in love with George that night. His sardonic, slow-speed, Liverpudlian humour was charming. His spiritual commitment was absolute.”
While the spiritual angle tended to be the biggest stumbling block for fans during his solo career, that never stopped Harrison, either. He felt that he had discovered what he had been looking for for so long, and he wasn’t about to let his audience walk on by without letting them know about it. And when Townshend found his own spiritual calling, he felt that he would do the same thing as well whenever he made music.
A lot of the cosmic angle of a record like Lifehouse didn’t exactly come together like he thought it would, but it was never about purely finding the best music for every song. He wanted to get a message through, and even when the album was folded into Who’s Next, there’s not much difference than what Townshend was doing on a tune like ‘Getting in Tune’ and Harrison exploring his own faith on ‘Living in the Material World’.
Both of them realised that they were put on the planet to make the best songs that they could, and if they could use it as a means of communicating with God, that was an extra bonus. So while Townshend might have found a friend when working with Harrison, the former Beatle felt more like a musical confidante. They knew the power behind their music, and they were going to do whatever they could so that their fans could experience it as well.
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