He was the greatest ever.
Posted on 07/20/2018 7:30:52 PM PDT by DoodleBob
In the seconds immediately after The Who concluded "Pinball Wizard", from Tommy, Hoffman, who had ingested LSD after working the past few hours at the medical tent, abruptly walked onto the stage and began addressing the crowd from Pete Townshend's microphone. He shouted, "I think this is a pile of sh**! ... While John Sinclair rots in prison ..." Alerted to the disturbance, Townshend (who apparently had been too distracted to notice Hoffman ambling onto the platform), snarled at Hoffman, "F*** off! F*** off my f***ing stage!" He then struck Hoffman with his guitar (which you can hear in the sound clip), sending the interloper tumbling. As the crowd let out an approving roar, Townshend returned to his microphone to add a sarcastic "I can dig it!"
Following the conclusion of the next song, the short "Do You Think It's Alright?" (on which the guitar is horribly out of tune, presumably due to it being used to beat Hoffman), Townshend issued a stern warning to those in attendance: "The next f***ing person that walks across this stage is gonna get f***ing killed, alright? You can laugh, [but] I mean it!"
Townshend later said he actually agreed with Hoffman on Sinclair's imprisonment, though he insisted he would have knocked Hoffman off stage regardless of his message. The incident can be heard in its entirety on unedited Woodstock tapes and bootleg CDs of The Who's performance. Additionally, an edited fifteen-second sound bite of the incident can be heard on The Who compilation set Thirty Years of Maximum R&B (Disc 2). The Woodstock documentary also depicts this event.
My first concert I was going to go to in my life was The Who at Providence, RI. I had just got out of the Navy, and had never been to one (scheduled for December 17. 1979) but a bunch of people died in a stampede trying to get into a Who concert earlier in the month, so they cancelled it.
The first time I went to a concert may have been 1984 to see Blue Oyster Cult.
I had seats on the floor about 15 rows back, and I could not hear a thing when I left...my ears were ringing!
There are so many great Who songs that for some reason never really got the attention they deserved.
Here’s one, that probably only diehard fans know.
Melancholia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG1HJdEuCn0
I think this was one of the songs that was abandoned when Pete decided to focus on Tommy.
That Fender axe had more heft to it
He was the greatest ever.
Judging by Pete’s hair there that looks like 1973.
And I’m sure there isn’t one of us here
Who’d say “NO” to somebody’s daughter.
Lots of reasons why The Who are one of the great rock bands of all time, but for me the topper is Townshend's lyrics.
"The beach is a place where a man can feel He's the only soul in the world that's real."
"The radio blasting the girls are glancing the dash is dancing with gleaming dials"
I loved the close-up of Moonie yukking it up during the “I don’t mind if I cry...” part of “I Don’t Even Know Myself”.
Funny, I was just listening to Pete’s “Chinese Eyes” album. Really one of the first albums I got into when I get started my Who phase.
Great songs, like “The Sea Refuses No River” and “Slit Skits”, “Stardom in Acton”, didn’t really sell very well, but it’s still one of my favorites.
“The Who wipes the floor of Chicago.”
From a pop music vs rock perspective, yes, but I have to say that Terry Kath was a much better guitarist and musician than Townsend. He never got proper credit (except from Hendrix, who said Kath was better than him), and then died young.
BATTER UP!!!!!
“Pummeling a hippie”... Chuckle...
Time to play that game again.
I hadn’t read your post before I posted a similar opinion. Kath was incredible.
I guess when it came down to HIS stuff ... Jerry Garcia was a capitalist.
But I've been waiting such a long time...
Pete’s a pretty damn good musician, especially if you listen to his demos, where he’s playing all the instruments. He’s pretty decent on the keyboards, he programmed those patterns you hear on Baba O’Reilly and Won’t Get Fooled again.
If I had to compare Kath, it would be to SRV. Only I think Kath had a better voice and was a better rhythm and lead player than SRV, and I love SRV, too.
If Kath went solo, I think he would have done very well.
Where does Pete belong amongst guitarists?
Pretty damn high up I’d say. Definitely one of the best acoustic guitarists, and his rhythm playing is definitely up there too. Some say his leads can be sloppy, but it still works for me, that’s part of his charm to me. Although, his use of the tremolo bar recently annoys me, it doesn’t sound like the classic Townshend guitar sound.
“If Kath went solo, I think he would have done very well.”
I agree, and I agree with the SRV comments. Kath had soul, and you could hear and feel it in his guitar and his voice. He gave Chicago a bit of edginess that they lost after he died, in my opinion.
A friend worked backstage security at the local outdoor concert venue a few years ago when Pete Townshend came to town on tour. She made arrangements for me to get get a backstage pass. But alas, my wife had plans for me to go to an out of town wedding for a family friend.
Bad as that was, what made it worse was that it was a marriage in some fundamentalist sect and it was a dry reception. In the adjoining reception room was a Serbian Orthodox reception, and that was clearly not a dry reception. It was like the episode of Night Gallery where John Astin went to hell.
Personally, I put Steve Howe way up there. His versatility, technique, and creativity is amazing.
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