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

So I think he ran it direct into the desk, with some preamp distortion maybe? Perhaps split and blended with an amp?

In TKAA, he does that version on one of his LPs. But I hear some of the Bigsby on this isolated track.

 

That appears to be an overdub on a different guitar; in The Kids are Alright movie, which is a different recording entirely, it exists as an overdub so it might be something he plays on acoustic here, not sure what model

He's certainly using lots of care to get every note right in the following harmonized lead part that finishes in time with the descending piano lick

 

Well, I was mainly writing to an audience of adults who can handle differing opinions?

It's not Segovia, I've been playing for 25+ years. I'll never be the pioneer he was, never. But I could probably play that solo cleaner, and if you look up people playing guitar solos on YouTube, many people can play cleaner stuff than the original recordings. All I said was that I'd want to redo some of it if it was my track. But you're welcome bro!

 

To be fair, they had problems running way deeper recording that particular album than whether or not Pete's guitar tracks were spot on...

There's probably some stray notes and finger noise bc he was conducting Moon through it to get a good take before Moon fell off his drum stool and that was it for the week.

 

Nobody punishes the guitar like Pete as well

 

IMO, there is a certain human character that is vital in music. A "perfect" performance with a "perfectly" intonated instrument could often be stale as month old bread. Emotion and synergy of other band members tops all.

 

Yes but Pete HIMSELF re-did the part for the movie cameras, so how attached was he really to this album take performance? It was just another performance, tossed on the pile against all the keyboard and handclap and backing vocal overdubs he did with half of their time in the studio at this point. Not all of that energy comes from the OTHER band members over top of this, it's Pete laying down all the extra effort to make the record sound good

 

It's acoustic. It does sound like he's imitating Entwistle's style, but by then Pete had probably internalized it to a degree.

Pete was more of a Gibson acoustic player -- can't remember him ever being pictured or even seen with a Martin or Martin-style guitar.

 

I also hear a tympani overdub during the middle part of the song, which they didn't bother to re-create in the Kids Are Alright movie version (although on the deluxe bonus DVD that has a 5.1 mix of the original studio track, you hear it clear as a bell in the center and LFE channels), but it doesn't sound like an unrestrained wild-man Keith performance -- more like an orchestral part played by a guy who orchestrates everything

 

It is often surprising listening to tracks like this how much they were willing to just leave on the records and not clean up. I'd be going, oh I'd better redo that bit, and yet Pete, knowing his song will be heard and scrutinized by millions of people, doesn't worry about fixing bum notes or muffed chords....ultimately, as long as the part sounds good in context nobody notices these little things.

One of Brian Eno's maxims when recording is never to play anything in isolation, even though the people he works with often want to.... he says, nobody is going to hear it that way (or at least that used to be the case) so why bother? Just think about how it sounds with everything else.

 

Mr Townshend is one of the greatest, but surely the most underrated Rock Guitarist ever.

 

It sounds like a shred video!

 

Did he record the electric part live as part of a band performance or is it an overdub?

 

Nobody cares what you would have done and supposedly how you could have played it better!
It's Pete F**Kin' Townshend.

 

I love his playing so much. Such a great talent.

 

you can take it up with the other guy who made it about me being able to play better.

 

one of the right hands in the business

 

He known for being a songwriter first and foremost. kind of like roger waters for pink floyd.

However he did have that windmill guitar strum that he was also famous for. jumping while playing. destroying his guitar at the end of the show.

But most people don't realize how gifted he was technically.

 

This is so great, as it shows the full gamut of Pete's style. I think I like this better as a solo piece!

 

The way this isolated guitar part 'fills in' around the gaps left by the rest of the track is pretty enlightening... so I decided to isolate everything *else* on the recording, from the aforementioned 5.1 mix (by turning off the other channels) letting the acoustic, drums, and bass (dig that AMAZING overdubbed Alembic-set-to-stun part for the final rave-up) and especially Roger's awesome lead vocal shine through without a lot of guitar or keyboard drawing away attention

Take a listen to it, here

 

Not sure how someone who constantly is rated as one of the most important guitarists of the rock era could be considered "underrated"

 

There are perfect examples in this very thread. "Shreds video" is not a compliment

 

Technically not the greatest, by any means, but so what? Inventive and expressive- yeah, I'm good with that. Add in the whole band, catch them live in their prime- marvelous!

 

I do wish during the outro at about 4:40 he would not have been quite so loose and would have punctuated that chord change there ( with a power chord ) like they've done subsequently in concert. Or at least John being aware of it!
But then that's what makes their recordings so great. It's so much more about feel and the real spirit of rock music than anything else, when you listen to this isolated track it's very evident. I can't imagine there were too many takes of this.

 

Yes. Thats why Bands like the Who will outsell note perfect Philharmonic recordings everytime.