[www.amazon.com]

One of the very last times he ever did this. He'll never do it again, btw. He broke one right after John died. And then he broke one in Japan, in 2004, which he auctioned off for charity, and which came with a sworn affidavit saying it was the last guitar Pete Townshend would ever break. But what if he really felt like breaking one? He would have to restrain himself, right? I think that sucks. You should never repress your emotions like that.






Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2012-04-23 06:38 by tatters.

I am really looking forward to reading Pete's autobiography. This is all Pete, not interviews, and not "co" written. It will indeed be an Amazing Journey. Thanks tatters for posting that clip! Awesome!

Townshend's one of the most articulate rock stars (not that that's any great accomplishment!) so I look forward to his book. Incidentally, I've surprised myself by listening—as much as any on the album—to the two "new" songs among the old greatest hits on the Who's THEN AND NOW, especially Real Good Looking Boy. I like this live acoustic version, too:

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whitem8
I am really looking forward to reading Pete's autobiography. This is all Pete, not interviews, and not "co" written. It will indeed be an Amazing Journey. Thanks tatters for posting that clip! Awesome!

!!

!!!

Shouldn't he be in prison?

LOVE THE MAN !!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-04-24 04:37 by custom55.

and we care, why.....?

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21stcenturystones
and we care, why.....?

The Who never really fascinated me that much for some reason. Baba O'Riley and Won't Get Fooled Again are good songs....It's interesting what big bands of the era people like or don't like

For me...

Love: Stones, Credence, Doors, Beatles

Don't much like: The Who, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd (except for The Wall, which is great)

Should be good. But Pete can be pretty long-winded at times. Are we sure it's not 3,000 pages long?

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theanchorman
Shouldn't he be in prison?

You are being a troll. Be informed before you make knee jerk attention seeking statements like this.

Fantastic post tatters.

Pete and his solo acoustic versions of Who songs.

Just absolutely the best!!

Check out The Secret Policeman's Ball stuff and various others he's done over the years.

The Who used to wonder why he needed them when he brought the demos into the studio.

Quadrophenia is a 100% work of art by an artist who is above the music - it's one of the greatest pieces of music/art/poetry of all time - it's dirty gritty and smells of the truth.

"Who are you" another one from his soul - God I know what that songs about.

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tatters
One of the very last times he ever did this. He'll never do it again, btw. He broke one right after John died. And then he broke one in Japan, in 2004, which he auctioned off for charity, and which came with a sworn affidavit saying it was the last guitar Pete Townshend would ever break. But what if he really felt like breaking one? He would have to restrain himself, right? I think that sucks. You should never repress your emotions like that.

No guitar deserves to be killed that way.

I love Pete but I hate to see a guitar wasted.

I love Pete Townsend - always have. I have all of his solo stuff. I think he's a brilliant song writer. I hope is autobiography is as good as his music!!

Pete is a freakin' genius and an ambitious writer. The Stones are great but they have never attempted anything other than a great 3-4 minute rock song. Tommy, Quadrophenia and Who's Next are all pretty amazing albums and really took alot of effort and time to put together. He can be a bit of a wacko sometimes and I'm sure the book will be a little long-winded at times but I think it will be interesting.

Sorry, I wrongly assumed he was arrested for purchasing child porn on his computer...Were the charges reversed on this?

Anything regarding abuse of minors revolts me.
If Peter was cleared of this I apologize for my post. I thought the whole episode was very shady...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-04-25 06:30 by theanchorman.

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theanchorman
If Peter was cleared of this

yes he was cleared -
and i think it would be real appropriate for you to go back to both of your posts
and eliminate the wrong assumptions/allusions.

Agreed, the apology rings hollow the way it was written. Townshend himself notified the police that he inadvertently access a child porn site while researching child exploitation for his autobiography. He was investigated, and given a caution. The media circus tried and convicted him in a shameless manner.

The whole thing was really BS - they insyantly impounded something like 7 or 8 computers from his home and found nothing on any of 'em, if someone really had an issue there certainly would be some traces.

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whitem8
Agreed, the apology rings hollow the way it was written. Townshend himself notified the police that he inadvertently access a child porn site while researching child exploitation for his autobiography. He was investigated, and given a caution. The media circus tried and convicted him in a shameless manner.

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Lynd8
Pete is a freakin' genius and an ambitious writer. The Stones are great but they have never attempted anything other than a great 3-4 minute rock song. Tommy, Quadrophenia and Who's Next are all pretty amazing albums and really took alot of effort and time to put together. He can be a bit of a wacko sometimes and I'm sure the book will be a little long-winded at times but I think it will be interesting.

Sympathy for the Devil is six minutes eighteen seconds
Midnight Rambler is six minutes fifty three seconds
You Can't Always Get What You Want is seven minutes thrity seconds

Well Townshend did like writing and playing long tracks. A Quick One, live versions of My Generation from 1970 were epic. Magic Bus as well. Well over 10 minutes. And they were/are stunning rock masterpieces of free form jamming.

This is from Smoking Gun and pretty much seems accurate to what I remember in the news:

MAY 7--After a four-month investigation, London police today cleared Pete Townshend of kiddie porn charges. But the rock star will still spend five years on a U.K. register of sex offenders because the co-founder of The Who visited a web site containing child porn images. Townshend was nabbed in January on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children, though no such photos were found following a search of his home and computer. At the time of his arrest, Townshend admitted using his credit card to visit a web site offering child porn, but told cops he was just conducting research. Along with being placed on the sex offender registry, the performer had to submit a DNA sample to police and have his fingerprints and mug shot taken. As part of his "research project," Townshend drafted the below six-page treatise on the easy availability of child pornography on the Internet. So easy, in fact, that Townshend, 57, wrote that he accidentally discovered a photo of a two-year-old boy being raped when he typed the words "Russia," "orphanages," and "boys" into a search engine. Townshend claimed that he reached for his telephone and "intended to call the police and take them through the process I had stumbled upon--and bring the pornographers involved to [jail]," but that he decided not to contact authorities after discussing the issue with an attorney. Townshend's paper, which he once posted on his official web site, also notes that the "pathway to 'free' paedophilic imagery is--as it were--laid out like a free line of cocaine at a decadent cocktail party: only the strong willed or terminally uncurious can resist." In the January 2002 porn treatise, Townshend notes that since 1997 he has been working on "some kind of document" relating to Internet porn, but that he feared being arrested by police who were on a "witch hunt" to catch anyone who visited illicit web pages: "Those vigilantes who research these pathways open themselves up to internet 'snoops.'" (6 pages)"

So he admitted to using a credit card for a site that had child pornography? Am I reading it wrong? Obviously he would delete anything he downloaded from his computer. His excuse was a research paper...
It seems totally creepy to me, sorry...
I'm not trying to slander the guy. And from what Ive read it never seemed like they were framing him for somthing.

What your above article says wrongly is that he was "nabbed". He was not. He informed the police through his attorney. If he wanted to hide something he would have just never said a word, disputed the credit card charge, and said it was a false charge on his card... but he didn't. But again, I don't know Pete Townshend, you don't either, but I do know that he stepped forward and was found to not have any thing pointing to being an offender. And if you know anything about computers, just because you deleted something does not mean it is not still on your computer. Forensic investigators can find pathways to deleted material, picture, and downloads, and none was found. And he was not charged. But according to English law because of the charge on his credit card he was given a caution and was forced to register. Which is somewhat like the antiquated drug laws in the US that incarcerates more people in the US than any other country in the world...he was pushed into a flawed system and paid a very high price. Townshend is no Gary Glitter, that we can see by the life he has lived before and since the incident. The fact is, he was savvy enough to know he should use his attorney, and from what happened it is a good thing he did. He still was publicly lambasted and treated as if he was guilty when he wasn't even charged or put on trial for a crime. And you better believe that he was monitored after that, and no further charges were brought. End of case, end of story.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-04-26 06:33 by whitem8.

just because you deleted something does not mean it is not still on your computer

Uh oh.

I'M SO TIRD OF ANY DISCUSSION OF TOWNSHEND AND THE WHO INCLUDING THE CHILD PORN CHARGES!!!!!!!!! GET OFF IT! I will bring this up in any discussion of this topic: Bill Wyman was seeing a 13 yeard old girl. This was far worse than anything Townshend did on his computer.
Back to the subject: I think his autobiography will be quite interesting. Pete has always been one of the most colloquial people in rock and it will be fascinating to see his insight into the Who's development.

Me thinks you missed the point. Obviously a few songs are longer than 3-4 mins, but they never tackled something as ambitious as Quarophenia - a complex song cycle telling a bit of story and has a real theme throughout. Don't get me wrong, I love the Stones - it's just something that I think is a big difference.

Live at Leeds is pretty amazing too.

>>>>>>
Sympathy for the Devil is six minutes eighteen seconds
Midnight Rambler is six minutes fifty three seconds
You Can't Always Get What You Want is seven minutes thrity

Hmm...I don't know if length alone is any measure of anything. There's a lot of awful self-indulgent dreck in rock that is very long indeed.

I agree, though, that Quadrophenia is as perfect a work of art that has ever been achieved in the pop music realm. I have long been amazed that more people prefer Tommy, which I think is a deeply-flawed (though very ambitious) work. Quad is phenomenal. The songs serve the story, but they stand alone too. I can't think of a songwriter who has better captured the angst and torment of adolescence. Add that to Who's Next, and you have two of the greatest albums in rock & roll history. And to think that most of the Who's Next songs came out of a failed project (Lifehouse).

Did Pete get a bit long-winded in his later years? Yes, he did. It was downright painful to hear Roger have to sing some of the stuff on It's Hard and the other later records. As Mr. Richards put it once "the problem with Pete is that he thinks too much". I think that describes it best. But the guy has given us some phenomenal music. There's a DVD on the making of Who's Next where Pete goes back to the original demos. It's worth looking at for anyone remotely interested in the process of how great records get made.