What Is Your View of Pete Townshend as a Soloist (Single Notes) on Guitar?

While The Who is second only to The Beatles as my favorite band to emerge from the 1960's, and while I greatly admire Pete Townshend's innovative and highly skilled work as a rhythm guitarist, only rarely has he impressed me on lead (single note) guitar in live performance. I stress single notes because most here know he used chords and fills to play lead, in effect, but I am not talking about that playing. I am talking about where he goes for a straight-out solo. Either it's bad where he seems to fall off the fretboard, or competent at best. I'm good with that because soloing, in this sense again, was not his role in the band.

Of the many examples of average or poor playing in this sense, the long solo in Heaven and Hell at Leeds stands out IMO, it is clunky, and sluggish - a term he has used himself to describe his lead work. It is no better at Hull.

Nonetheless to this day when I hear live work I've never heard before, occasionally he can surprise me. On this recent upload to YT, his solo on Summertime Blues is quite astonishing I think. I am not a guitarist and I have no idea what technically knowledgeable players think of it, but it sounds great to me, all the notes in key but with ideas that are kind of way out, not following the blues scale (I think) but maybe jazz influenced.

Listen also to the solo on See Me Feel Me, the tone and playing are excellent and I don't think I ever heard him play something like this again. It's not just a two note alternation that he knew how to make effective e.g. at Woodstock, but he adds a cool bluesy finish to it that sounds great.

My theory is, he just went for it, and usually it was just okay or didn't work but sometimes it did.

Other good leads he did live IMO include the Clapton-like solo at Pontiac stadium in the slow version of My Generation (I think 1976), some of the work on Leeds in the jam of My Generation, and the live work on Love Reign O'er me at Shea in '82 (also The Quiet One in Toronto, same year). The intro and soloing to Shaking All Over at Leeds is pretty good too.

This Electric Factory (soundboard I presume) is just killer, it got the way their sound completely enveloped the hall in a way even Leeds does not.

Comments?

 

I think he's stunning live and in the studio (he clearly works out his solos in the studio). He sometimes takes a chordal approach, which I've never really heard another player do as effectively. Solos I've loved throughout the years:

I Can't Explain
Join Together
I Can See For Miles
Goin' Mobile
You Better You Bet
Eminence Front
I'm Not Gonna Run Anymore
Over The Top

 

The guitar solo in 'I Can See for Miles' is a single note, and Townshend sells it with sheer attitude (and the fact that it's absolutely the right choice for that particular song). Alongside an achievement like that, who cares about mere virtuosity?

 

I meant more his live work. As was mentioned, he was able to work out solos in the studio.

 

Awesome. I tend to think of him as underrated, although that may just be by me.

 

I've not been blown away by any extended single note soloing in Pete's playing but that is not what makes him great in the first place.

 

I saw him/them live in a club in 1969 right after Tommy was released. I thought he was a much better lead guitar player then he was given credit for, which at the time was pretty much no credit at all.
Just as John Lennon was a better guitar player than he's generally given credit for ( except here on the forum ) I think Pete could hold his own as a lead player for a guy that didn't specialize in it. I've played in many three piece bands and being the only guitar player ( or only lead intrument in general ) means quite a bit of responsibility filling all the holes and I think Pete did that well. Of course John Entwistle helped out by sort of playing lead bass at times but that's for a different thread.

For a guy writing most of the material, singing some of it, playing killer rhythm, adding fills and also lead guitar, all the while jumping about and kicking furiously..he did well.

 

Aww yes, would have been better to completely read your post. Oops

 

I've always thought of Pete as a Great Rhythm Guitarist, and I mean that in the best way. His solos when The Who were just guitar, bass, drums were really full sounding,very chordal as he had no rhythm guitarist behind him.
But my feelings changed when i saw The Who for the first time, a few years ago doing Quadrophenia. His solos were outstanding, the solos were heavy on repeated riffs but he was playing great. I now think of Pete as a great guitarist.

 

I agree about the linear, single-note solos. Townshend is one of my absolute favorite guitarists, but when I first heard Live At Leeds I thought I was listening to a Led Zeppelin show. Blues solo cliches, like what Page was inclined to do live with Zep in the early days. Since they're both capable of great solos in the studio, I have to assume they were just uncomfortable improvising on stage with the musical spotlight on the guitar. The exact opposite of a guy like Richard Thompson, who's always been a monster lead player live but tends to over-think his solos in the studio.

Having said that, I think Townshend and Page both improved as live soloists as time went on. The solos on the Young Vic recordings are pretty great.

 

Pete was a in-the-moment player, in a similar mode as Keith Richards (I'm talking about the 70's) He took huge risks which could either fall flat or succeed gloriously. I don't believe either of them does it so much anymore, but in both cases they could hit the mark in the right place and time. Is that an evaluation of skill? Not really... it's something else altogether. Transcendence.

 

I think he's a great lead player who has only become better with age - partly out of necessity, as he acknowledges regarding having to play without Entwistle there to take up all the sonic space.

 

Pete tends not to play LONG solos, but he gets off a couple of licks on "it's hard" that are pretty awesome.

philo

 

I remember years ago reading an interview with Pete where he admitted that he wasn't as talented a guitarist as a Jimmy Page or Ritchie Blackmore,
but then added (in the typical fashion of the Pete we all know and love), that they weren't his equal as songwriters.

 

Would anyone really want to hear some guy shred all over the Who catalogue? Pete's playing is fine by me and thank God he's not blowing all over everything all the time... More than enough of that to go around if that's what blows someone's hair back without slathering it all over Who's Next or Tommy or....
I saw him saying in an interview that he was relegated to trying to play really solid rhythm guitar because Keith Moon was such a flailing drummer - he felt somebody had to hold the whole thing together.

 

Well, as always in these kind of threads it comes down to technique vs. soul. Some folks want a ton of scales and arpeggios etc., for a player to qualify as a good lead player and others may prefer three notes, played from the heart. Much of it comes down to what the listener is, um..listening for.

 

I always loved the solo for the Leeds' "Heaven and Hell". It's ragged but engaging.

 

Just listen to "Drowned" on The Secret Policman's Ball. Enough said.

 

Starting with the 2000 tour, Pete totally changed his electric guitar style. He stepped up and started playing out front lead.

 

Kinda off topic, but Pete is one of those guitarists who can play rhythm and lead in the same song, changing seamlessly.

 

In my view, Townshend is a monster lead guitarist. He was playing amazing stuff as far back as the My Generation album. He had strong fingers, played great rhythms and leads. He is a guitarist, a composer and a showman in equal measures. Again, my opinion.

 

he ain't a great lead player...great strummer.

 

I bet Pete would find this thread amusing.

 

Nice performance, great playing. The only problem is..unless I missed something, there is virtually no single note soloing in evidence here.

 

What about tons of scales and arpeggios played from the heart?