Stunning Isolated Guitar Track for The Who's "Who Are You - Pete Townshend

Wow - this is a real treat for fans of this classic Who track. Townshend's last Masterpiece single?

 

Yea, the guy was a super underrated guitarist.

 

When the guitar is isolated it reminds me of some of Pete’s guitar work on Live At Leeds.

 

For years as a kid I thought the part from 2:38 - 2:53 was Entwistle. Sorry excuse for a Who fan I am.

 

I think that distinction still goes to “You Better, You Bet.”

 

Funky, jaunty, amazing! I'm assuming this is the Gretsch Pete used on tons of studio versions that he received from Joe Walsh as a gift circa 1970. There's elements of country and rockabilly all over this with plenty of Pete agressive style thrown in.

He famously smashed the Gretsch in front of a TV audience in 1973, but it was repaired. This is an amazing performance, live vocal and guitar mixed with the studio version or a hybrid of the studio version. Stick around for the surprise ending, at least for 1973 Who!

 

This is great. I think it gives a lot of insight into the amount of space his type of playing (predominantly chords) left Moon and Entwistle. He needed those guys to be busy players.

I thought this for years as a kid until I really paid attention to that bit.

 

Oh good, I thought I was the only one! l do have to admit....probably during some of my adult years too.

 

For whatever reason, he probably was playing that like John would. I've heard him say that on his demos, he would play the drums as he thought Keith would play them because he considered himself a Who fan that also wrote the material for the band. This makes sense because when I bought Scoop (probably the week it came out) I thought that it might be Keith playing on some of the demos because the drums sounded like him, but not quite exactly like him. Certainly not the same speed and power.

 

My favorite rock 'n roll guitar player. I suppose there are many more "skillful" players, but none have Pete's undefinable visceral power.

(At least to these middle-aged ears.)

 

I'm actually kind of surprised how bad that sounds in isolation (the part at 2:41 is cool though). Fairly sloppy, and let's be real, if you played this for guitarists and told them it was a $99 Line 6 amp no one would think you were lying. I'd want to redo a lot of it if it was my track! All IMO of course!

 

Guess there's no pleasing some people... this is The Who, not Mahavishnu Orchestra

 

Yes, his last

 

I wish I could believe this. But I can’t!
I can’t believe anything Pete says!!!!!
:—)

 

Amazing. I love the sloppiness. I have grown to appreciate Townshend the last few years as a guitarist and as a solo artist. Never gave him much thought before that. I've missed out.

 

Nobody sounds like him. That’s what makes him great.

 

Underrated I don’t think so

 

Wrong.

I suspect many isolated tracks by many of rock's iconic players would be declared "sloppy" in one way or another. In any event, I'm happy Pete didn't redo it to satisfy some predetermined requirement for muso excellence. And it's The Who, not The New York Philharmonic.

McLaughlin could get "sloppy" too, when he was really going for it. There was always a little grit in his playing.

 

Opinions, how do they work???

 

I don't know, you tell me. But in this case, maybe you should avoid tracks like the subject of this thread.

Yeah, yeah, I know....*you* could have played it better, with better tone, through a better amp, blah blah blah.

 

Consider the source!
A digital lossy compressed YouTube vid.

 

I actually could have, but, who cares?

I was remarking that in the context of the mix, the sloppiness disappears. Maybe that wasn't enough on-my-knees Who worship, but you should try not being offended when someone isn't as excited about a band as you are.

 

In the mix, Pete's guitar playing and tone was perfect. It had to compete with that buzz saw synth.

In this instance, his "muso" tendencies went into the synth track and overall arrangement - it's a pretty complex song, structure-wise. So when it came down to him cutting the guitar track, he really just had to feel it out and fill in the space - I suspect he cut that live, playing off Moon in particular. Also, his chord voicings on this are great.

 

Agreed 100%, he doesn't sound like anybody else when he cranks up that Gretsch hollow bodied guitar just at the edge of feeding back, he can really swing the guitar neck around like a conductor to wring out all that extra sustain and BITE. It really does sound like he's got a little extra dirt in the signal chain from his volume pedal being up all the way, too

 

Then you should have made yourself a little clearer to begin with. As it is, your original post comes off like you're checking out old rock 'n' roll recordings for mistakes, which would keep you busy for the rest of your life.

As for the typical "I could have played it better" garbage, ok. Thanks.