The problem for me, still today, is that I write purely with one dramatic structure and that is the rite of passage. I'm not really skilled in any other. Rock and roll itself can be described as music to accompany the rite of passage. Pete Townshend accompanydramaticmusic share on social
A lot of writing I do on tour. I do a lot on airplanes. At home, I write a lot, obviously. When I write a song, what I usually do is work the lyric out first from some basic idea that I had, and then I get an acoustic guitar and I sit by the tape recorder and I try to bang it out as it comes. Pete Townshend acousticairplanebang share on social
My father had played the guitar when he was young, and my uncle Jack had worked for Kalamazoo, before the war, developing guitar pickups. So there was a kind of family thing about the guitar, although it was considered something of an anomaly then. Pete Townshend anomalyconsiderdevelop share on social
English banjo players really were a law unto themselves - you don't find that kind of brisk banjo playing on the original Louis Armstrong or Bix Beiderbecke records. Pete Townshend armstrongbanjobeiderbecke Change image and share on social
It wasn't just about flashing lights and pinball machines blowing up and things like that. It was about using encores, bringing back the good songs and using techniques that I knew about from rock performance. Pete Townshend backblowbring share on social
What I took back, because of my exposure to the Jewish music of the 30s and the 40s in my upbringing with my father, was that kind of theatrical songwriting. It was always a part of my character. This desire to make people laugh. Pete Townshend 30s40sback share on social
As a young man, every bone in my body wanted to pick up a machine gun and kill Germans. And yet I had absolutely no reason to do so. Certainly nobody invited me to do the job. But that's what I felt that I was trained to do. Now no part of my upbringing was militaristic. Pete Townshend absolutelybodybone share on social
I have to say that anger is the blanket that comes around me, and that blunts and blurs my sense of proportion. Pete Townshend angerblanketblunt Change image and share on social
I've learned a huge amount because I've been tested and, more importantly, I've been trusted. Pete Townshend amounthavehuge Change image and share on social
I saw the Internet as being something which would allow power mongers to control us, and that we would willingly go to that if it promised us salvation - if it promised to show us who we were and let us find ourselves as we had, uniquely in our generation, through rock music. Pete Townshend controlfindgeneration share on social