Pete
Townshend is known for his uncompromising scathing nature. Infamously, there
are very few of his contemporaries that Townshend hasn’t unleashed fury upon
with his uncompromisingly sharp tongue. The Beatles are no exception, with The
Who axeman speaking on plentiful occasions about what he dislikes about the
iconic band from Liverpool. Despite all the disdain that Townshend has shown
towards The Fab Four in years gone by, there’s a suggestion that perhaps he
overplayed the negativity somewhat. Appearing to backtrack in recent years, the
musician opened up about specific songs from The Beatles’ extensive repertoire
that he considers to be his favourites.
The one-way
rivalry between the two acts began in 1966, a time when The Who were beginning
their meteoric ascent to the top of the rock and roll pile. Backed by a
thunderous lead single in ‘My Generation’, the band carved out a career based
on the fervent energy of youth. It got The Who some attention and, with that, a
series of early TV interviews. One such discussion led to Townshend referring
to the Fab Four as “flipping lousy” in what appeared to be a blatant attempt to
speak out of line.
After a conversation
around the idea of “musical quality”, something Townshend shrugs off as
irrelevant to him and his band, the interviewers suggest that The Beatles have
“quality” to rebuff his claims. “Ooh, that’s a tough question,” the guitarist
replied with a sneering smile. “Actually, this afternoon, John [Entwistle] and
I were listening to a stereo LP of The Beatles — in which the voices come out
of the one side, and the backing track comes out of the other,” he continued.
Townshend delivers his most telling line on the band’s output when he states:
“When you actually hear the backing tracks of The Beatles without their voices,
they’re flippin’ lousy,” it’s enough to hear an audible gasp from the audience.
Whether or not Townshend has softened his view on The Beatles won’t ever really
be known, but, at this moment, you can tell that the guitarist has no love for
the most famous band in the world.
Later though,
while speaking with Rolling Stone in 1982, Townshend was asked about
McCartney’s then-recent record Tug of War. Kurt Loder, who was interviewing
Townshend, suggested it had “virtually nothing to do with rock and roll,” to
which Townshend replied by asking if McCartney “ever really had anything to do
with rock”. He then answered his own question: “No, he never did,” Townshend
said before adding: “You know, I could sit down and have a conversation with
Paul about rock and roll, and we’d be talking about two different things.”
However,
years later, Townshend seemingly stopped trying to be controversial just for the
sake of getting a thrill from the constant conveyor belt of fires that he was
stoking up and dramatically changed his tune on The Beatles. “I wasn’t crazy
impressed with the Beatles when I first heard them,” The Who’s Pete Townshend
shared with Rolling Stone in 2019. “But I loved them”.
“I did love
them,” he continues. “They were joyful, they were funny. They were more a pop
group than I would have liked [but] they had this incredible image. They were
delightful, absolutely delightful. I suppose the first song [I heard] would
have been ‘Please Please Me,'” Townshend recalls. “[But] what really blew him
away was single ‘Day Tripper ‘and b-side ‘Paperback Writer.'”
“I just
thought, wow, these two songs are really great,” he enthuses. “They weren’t
about falling in love, they weren’t about girls, girls, girls. They were about
jobs, creativity. They were interesting songs those two,” Townshend then
poignantly reflected, “And it was then I realised they were going to do great
things.”
Even when
Townshend is praising The Beatles, he can’t resist throwing in a medley of
backhanded compliments such as suggesting that most of their songs lacked
sustenance. However, The Who guitarist clearly adores the band and has changed
his opinion from 1966. This backtracking on The Beatles also offers a stark
reminder always to take the hyperbolic insults thrown out by Townshend with a
heavy pinch of salt.
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