Pete Townshend is the genius behind one of rock’s greatest bands, The Who. His songs “My Generation” “I Can’t Explain” “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere” “Happy Jack” “The Kids Are Alright” “I Can See for Miles” “Magic Bus” “Pinball Wizard” “Won’t Get Fooled Again” “Baby O’Riley” “Love Reign O’er Me” and many, many more are among the best of all time. He composed the two greatest rock operas in history: Tommy and Quadrophenia. Pete doesn’t make pretty music. He makes loud, angry, thoughtful, spiritual, rite of passage music – the kind that lives forever.

“We didn't need light & shade, irony or humor. An iconic Daltrey bellow could convey an extraordinary range of human emotion: withering sadness, self pity, loneliness, abandonment, spiritual desperation, the loss of childhood, as well as the more obvious rage & frustration, joy & triumph.”
― Pete Townshend, Who I Am

Pete was born Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend, in Chiswick, west London, England. Nature and nurture were both at work. His parents were professional musicians – dad a saxophone and reed player in one dance orchestra, and mom a singer in another. Still, Pete didn’t play music other than some harmonica until he got a guitar at age 11. Rather, the loner child spent his time reading, adventure books mostly, and wanting to become a journalist. His future changed shapes in 1956, when he saw the movie Rock Around the Clock, and later attended a Bill Haley and the Comets concert.

“For the first time, a whole generation had the economic & educational opportunity to turn their backs on the dead end factory jobs of their parents, who, traumatized by two world wars, had responded by creating a safety blanket of conformity.”
― Pete Townshend, Who I Am 

The Detours: Roger Daltrey left, Pete Townshend center, John Entwistle right

The gangly kid with the big nose was bullied in grammar school, but found refuge in playing jazz on his banjo, with classmate John Entwistle, playing horns. The Confederates, they called themselves. Pete, entirely self-taught, with no formal training, went on to add keyboards, accordion, ukulele, mandolin, violin, synthesizer, bass guitar, and drums to his portfolio.

With his poor grades, Pete was not university material, and instead went to Ealing Art College to study graphic design. Ron Wood and Freddy Mercury were fellow students there. In 1961, John Entwistle joined Roger Daltrey’s skiffle/rock band The Detours, and recommended Pete as a guitar player. Pete’s mom got them a manager who started booking them as an opening band for popular English acts of the day.

The Who: Pete Townshend, Keith Moon, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle

1964 was quite a year. Pete dropped out of school to focus on music. The Detours discovered another band with the same name and changed theirs to The Who, a name suggested by Pete’s roommate. They got a new drummer, Keith Moon, and a new manager, who got them to change their name again, to The High Numbers. It didn’t take. They fired him after their first single recording flopped. Back on stage as The Who, Pete accidentally broke the top of his guitar when it hit a low ceiling, so he smashed the rest to bits and discovered the audience rather liked that. It became part of the act and soon Moon the Loon was destroying drum kits in sympathy. Pete also developed his signature windmill thrashing of power chords, after seeing Keith Richards do it as part of his pre-show warm-up.

The Who recorded their first hit singles and albums in 1965, and toured the US in 1967. They became infamous for their manic, destructive show on stage, as well as in hotel rooms across the country. They were making 4,000 pounds per night, and destroying 5,000 pounds worth of equipment. Pete often tells the story of Moon driving his car through the glass front of a hotel, up to the registration desk, where he got out and asked for his room key.

From 1969 to 1973, The Who released Tommy, Live at Leeds, Who’s Next and Quadrophenia. The albums were nearly all written and composed by Pete. Keith Moon was once asked how much the songs changed from what Pete brought to the studio as demos. “Not a hell of a lot.” Pete had laid down all of the parts and lyrics, right down to Keith’s drum flourishes. It is sometimes overlooked that most of Who’s Next, perhaps the group's greatest album, started out as another rock opera to follow Tommy. The work was supposed to be called Lifehouse, a multi-media presentation about the relationship between artist and audience. In rehearsal, the rest of the band objected that the work was confusing and that they just wanted to produce a conventional album. Pete retreated to his home and suffered a nervous breakdown. The opera was never completed, but the bones are there in every song besides Entwistle’s “My Wife”.

In 1973, Pete organized Eric Clapton’s Rainbow Concerts, to re-introduce the heroin-addicted Slowhand to the stage, and send him off to drug rehab. The rest of the 70s brought Tommy, the film for which Pete received an Oscar nomination, Who By Numbers, and Who Are You. Pete took a year off after the end of The Who’s 1975-1976 tour. In 1978, Keith Moon died of from a drug overdose following a party to celebrate Buddy Holly’s birthday. Kenny Jones took Keith's seat but didn't replace him, and the group toured again in 1979, including the tragic concert in Cincinnati where 11 fans were killed in a stampede to get through the doors at Riverfront Coliseum.

Rainbow Concert: Ron Wood, Eric Clapton, Rick Grech, Pete Townshend (The Palpitations)

The 80s brought Face Dances (1981) and its tour, and It’s Hard (1982), and what was announced to be The Who’s farewell tour. By that time, Pete was worn out from touring. He had gone through drug and alcohol addiction himself in the early 80s, getting sober in 1982, and announced that the band was finished.

Pete had built a solo career dating back to 1968, when he formed and produced Thunderclap Newman, and played bass under the name Bijou Drains. His first true solo album, Who's First, was released in 1972. Pete returned to solo and collaboration work through the rest of the 80s.

In 1989, The Who toured to celebrate its 25th anniversary. They resumed touring fairly regularly in 1999, going on even after John Entwistle’s sudden death in 2002, just before a tour was set to begin. In 2006, they released Endless Wire, the first album by The Who since 1982.

The Who also did one-off appearances including Live Aid in 1985, Concert for NYC in 2001, Isle of Wight in 2004, Live 8 in 2005, Glastonbury Festival in 2007, at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2010, and the Concert for Sandy Relief in 2012.

In 2015, The Who began what was to be its final farewell tour. In September, the remaining US dates were canceled due to Roger Daltrey’s viral meningitis. He has recovered and the re-scheduled final tour kicked off this past Tuesday night in Portland, OR.

Assuming this turns out to be Pete’s swan song, he will have ended his 50+ year career as a top rated guitarist on everyone’s list, HOFer (1990), prolific writer of music and in print, and a philanthropist supporting children’s issues, drug abuse rehabilitation, Amnesty International and the work of his spiritual leader, Meher Baba.

So, if you’re in the crowd at The Who concert in Oakland, CA tonight, sing Happy Birthday to Pete! And, Long Live Rock!