THE WHO's PETE TOWNSHEND: 'We Sort Of Invented Heavy Metal'

Blabbermouth ^ | December 21, 2019 | N/A

[DoodleBob]

In a new interview with the Toronto Sun, THE WHO guitarist Pete Townshend said that fans shouldn't be surprised that the band's first new album in 13 years, "Who", bears little resemblance to THE WHO in terms of that classic ferocious rock sound. "It doesn't sound like THE WHO from those early heavy metal years," he explained. "We sort of invented heavy metal with [our first live album] 'Live At Leeds' [1970]. We were copied by so many bands, principally by LED ZEPPELIN — you know, heavy drums, heavy bass, heavy lead guitar and some of those bands, like Jimi Hendrix for example, did it far better than we did. CREAM, with Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, they came along in '67, same year as Jimi Hendrix, and they kind of stole our mantle in a sense. So people who want to hear that old heavy metal sound, there are plenty of bands that can provide it. So it's not really what we can actually do today. Even if we wanted to, it was never high on my list of wishes."

Townshend told The Pulse Of Radio that THE WHO was among the most versatile bands of its era, and that its musical talent freed him to write material that frequently covered many different genres. "...THE WHO never gave me a clear brief," he explained. "They never said to me, 'We wanna be a comedy act,' but if I gave them comedy songs, they were brilliant at them. They never said to me, 'We wanna be a girl-friendly band,' but if I gave them a love song, they would do it brilliantly. They never said, 'We want to be a heavy metal group' — if I gave them a heavy metal song, they did it brilliantly.

[DeplorableGirl]

The Who can’t hold a candle to Led
Zepplin!.
And Pete knows it; hence the cheap
shot.
Who was never thought of as anything
close to heavy metal.

[major_gaff]

Try the devil's tritone. Sabbath did it first.

Hendrix used it on "Purple Haze" in '67, 3 years prior to Sabbath's first
album. That being said, I agree with you on Black Sabbath being the first
truly heavy metal band.

[Drumbo]

Notorious Mr. Baker died in October.

[SkyPilot]

Led Zeppelin.

How Led Zeppelin invented ‘heavy music’.....with a little bit of help from Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Free and more

[Karma_Sherab]

German name, English composer.
Been inbreeding for centuries. Just look at the house of Windsor

[Karma_Sherab]

Yep!! I agree. I mean, you put Pinball Wizard up against Metallica's No Leaf Clover.....

the Who..........metal kings - even brought Elton John over to the heavy metal side when he did pinball wizard....

[LittleBillyInfidel]

He was also in, decades, before STAR WARS. His Suite creates an entire galactic movie in and of the mind.

[Olog-hai]

Yes; so’s Mick (same age as Keef) and Charlie (two years older than both).

[Gay State Conservative]

I’m not sure what they did,or didn’t,invent but in their early days The Who were trailblazers...as were the Stones in *their* early days. But sadly they strayed from their roots (”I Can’t Explain”,”Happy Jack”,”I’m A Boy”) and they lost my record store patronage.

[waterhill]

I was gonna say Link Wray was the Grandfather of Metal...

[drjimmy]

Here’s a little heavy metal from The Who, recorded in April of 1967.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRsccsEKkbk

[Yardstick]

To me Led Zeppelin was more like Cream than the Who. Zep and Cream had a strong grounding in blues music. The Who was more like straight ahead rock with less attachment to the blues. This makes the Who more modern in a sense, because most modern rock has lost its “blues consciousness”.

[Drew68]

Townsend's primary contribution to the invention of heavy metal was in commissioning amplifier builder Jim Marshall to design a 100 watt tube head that could drive eight 12" speakers, meeting the volume requirements that Townsend demanded.

Thus, the first "Marshall stack" was born. This amplifier would dominate the rock world for the next three decades.

A billing disagreement with Marshall would force The Who's management to look elsewhere for amplification and Townsend would become most associated with Hiwatt, another British manufacturer of insanely loud guitar amplifiers.

Hiwatt would enjoy a small measure of success throughout the 1970s but Marshall would dominate the industry.

Indeed, it was not at all uncommon to go to any hard rock, heavy metal show and see a backline of 100 watt Marshall amplifiers.

Pete Townsend was instrumental in this.

[gymbeau]

Indeed. I guess he thinks the rest of the island is a paradise on earth.

I must have paid for the bands’ offsprings’ college many times over, with buying every version of their library I could get. But between this stuff and Pete’s autobiography I’m through with him.

Roger, otoh, I respect even more after his autobiography.

The new album has some okay songs but the production is muddy and it doesn’t sound Who-like. And no spark to it.

[Paradox]

I actually think that Deep Purple was stylistically closer to what we consider Heavy Metal, than even Led Zepplin. “Smoke on the Water”, classic.

[mad_as_he$$]

One of the local guitar shops has a sign that says:

“Playing Smoke on the Water will get you permanently banned from this store.”

[Sirius Lee]

Berlioz was metal before Wagner ever dreamt up the Wagner tuba.

You could take the backstory of Symphonie Fantastique and use it for lyrics and it would be the most epic metal song of all times.

[wardaddy]

Cogent point

I actually listened to the new stuff

It’s lite rock