Pete Townshend’s two best guitar solos, according to Pete Townshend
Top guitarist lists favour electric lead players, often hailing from the psychedelic rock era. Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck are never far from guitar shop conversion. However, rhythm guitarists also deserve a mention, especially when they brandish the compositional eminence of Pete Townshend.
The Who’s guitarist may have inspired Hendrix’s destructive onstage antics, but he is an astute instrumentalist and songwriter under this explosive visage of rock ‘n’ roll mayhem. This formula seemed to work well for any successful rock star of the 1960s and ‘70s. “I was the child of the guy who played saxophone in a post-war dance band,” Townshend recalled in a 2021 interview with Apple Music. “He knew what his music was for – it was for post-war, and it was for dancing with a woman that you might end up marrying. It was about romance, dreams, fantasy.”
With such a background, Townshend claims to have been one of the first of his generation to understand the scope of rock music’s imminent impact on popular culture. The Who’s wild performances were calculated but no less a natural expression of emotion apt for the type of music they created through the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Behind the curtain of Keith Moon’s riotous percussion, Townshend worked meticulously and tirelessly to establish The Who as a band of substance. Distinguishing the band from contemporaries like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, he devised ambitious rock operas driven by a thirst for spiritual narrative and compositional elegance.
Hence, the extraordinary work on Tommy and Who’s Next? is rightly revered for Townshend’s songwriting package and the band’s collective efforts in the studio. With an overcrowding of talent within the band and Townshend’s multifaceted attributes, it can be easy to overlook his unique guitar virtuosity.
Granted, Townshend was never going to beat Hendrix in a lead solo battle, but his dexterity and accuracy as a compositional rhythm player were second to none. He could also weave his way into some impressive lead excursions where his compositions demanded colourful fills.
When assessing his own stature as a guitarist, Townshend is rather humble. “I find it astounding, and I find it hard to believe if anyone ever says that they rate me as a guitarist at all,” he told Rolling Stone in 1968. “Although I dig my guitar playing, I think it’s kind of an obvious situation: I play what I want to play within my own restrictions.”
Later, the Who songwriter discussed Hendrix as one of his most skilled contemporaries. “I really dig like Hendrix and would say I’m nowhere near someone like that as a guitarist and so the compliment feels out of place,” Townshend explained.
Although he saw his guitar playing a merely sufficient for what he intends to “put over”, Townshend recognised some of his finer accomplishments on the fretboard later in his career. “My own favourite solo is on ‘My Baby Gives It Away’,” he told Sound International in 1980. “I also like the one on the Rough Mix album on ‘Heart To Hang On To’ because it was just an off-the-wall thing. I’m starting to play better now and so I should because I’ve been playing a long time.”
Listen to Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane’s ‘My Baby Gives It Away’ below.