Who is Pete Townshend anyway?

Tags

1960s, Bolivia, Inside Out, Keith Moon, Keith Richards, Motley Crue, Nick Mason, Pete Townshend, The Dirt, The Who

Precious few of the legendary musicians that defined the 1960s are still around.

Even fewer of those have bothered to tell their story, so it feels like a real privilege to crack open an autobiography by none other than Pete Townshend.

For those who’ve had their head in a bucket of sand in a cave in Bolivia for the past fifty years, Townshend is the guitarist for The Who, a band who always stood apart from their peers due to their association with cinema and favouring of huge album projects over collections of songs.

It’s safe to say the target audience of this book is Who fans – so it might be disappointing to some that this is not a book about The Who. It’s not even a ‘personal history’ like Nick Mason’s fantastic Inside Out was a ‘personal history’ of Pink Floyd. This is a book about Pete Townshend, his life, his relationships, his music (when relevant) and his personal struggles.

Given that Townshend didn’t even bother to smile on the cover, you may deduce that this isn’t exactly a barrel of laughs. This is a man who treats everything seriously – I don’t think there’s a single joke in the book.

Who fans may also be aware that many of the themes in their music, even in the grand concept albums they recorded, are drawn from Townshend’s own life; bullying, sexual abuse, self-loathing, sexual curiosity, alcoholism.

Yes, the astounding music Townshend made is profoundly secondary to his own demons, and he’s got plenty of them between his frequently disturbing post-War upbringing and frequently fractious relationships with those around him.

Few stones are left unturned – Keith Moon is depicted as the genius drummer he was, but Townshend doesn’t shrink away from describing the darker side to his insanity, particularly around the chapters covering his death.

Townshend also extensively goes into his arrest on child pornography charges; whether you believe his stories is hard to say, but he was acquitted after all and his reasoning seems plausible. I’ll leave that up to you in case you decide to read it.

I rattled through this whole book in around four days – Townshend’s writing is arresting, immediate and engrossing, but the seriousness can get a bit much. This is no Keith Richards-style catalogue of drug use either, so those seeking some Motley Crue’s The Dirt-type shenanigans may leave disappointed.

Ultimately, if you can’t get enough of Pete Townshend, the man, then this is the perfect book for you, because he’s here in spades.

For insight into some of the greatest music ever made though, you will probably have to look elsewhere.