Pete Townshend
Like so many addicts, I'd thought that if I could only sort out my life, I could then sort out my drinking. It was a revelation to see that it would be simpler the other way aroundCollection: Drinking
In the midnight of a soul's unsleeping, hear the waterfall of women weeping. Hear the distant noise of traffic stalling, hear the prostituted children calling.Collection: Children
I see a boy with his mother's ambition, performing for love, trained in submission.Collection: Family
The music we play has to be tomorrow's, the things we say have to be today, and the reason for bothering is yesterday.Collection: Play
Hearing loss is a terrible thing because it cannot be repaired.Collection: Loss
Many were starting to use computerized synthesizers & drum machines to produce an entirely new style of music. It was being punted by the critics that the guitar was old hat; I was reminded of the way my father & his clarinets were written off in the late Fifties.Collection: Father
Tough boys running the streets, come a little closer. Rough toys under the sheets, nobody knows her.Collection: Running
Rough boys I wanna bite and kiss you.Collection: Kissing
Good old Pete. That's me. But I find it hard to think of myself in the first person when I'm writing about The Who. So many times he has willingly sat down to write about the good old Who. Isn't he too old to masturbate?Collection: Writing
Man makes machines to man the machines that make the machines.Collection: Men
I'm an air-conditioned gypsy.Collection: Air
Let my love open the door To yourheart.Collection: Life
Link is a quiet man to meet- easy and courteous. His music, though, betrays that deep inside he gets very very mean very often. I remember being made very uneasy the first time I heard Rumble , and yet very excited by the guitar sound. And his voice! He sounds like a cross between Jagger and Van Morrison, even sometimes like Robbie Robertson. We met him in New York in 1970 while recording Who's Next.... this later inspired the b-side Wasp Man, a tune we dedicated to Link Wray.Collection: New York
If I were to have my own brand of guitars, they would have to be industructable.Collection: Guitar
It's terrible feeling like an eligible bachelor but no women seeming to agree with you.Collection: Feelings
I want to get inside your bitter mind and see what I can find.Collection: Revenge
Looking back, I don't know why we needed it to be quite so loud all the time.Collection: Loud
Give blood, but you may find that blood is not enough.Collection: Blood
We are musicians, entertainers. We can do it. We have the right tools. No worries.Collection: Worry
We won't get fooled again!Collection: Activism
It's the most psychedelic experience I ever had, going to see Hendrix play. When he started to play, something changed: colors changed, everything changed.Collection: Color
What I took back, because of my exposure to the Jewish music of the 30s and the 40s in my upbringing with my father, was that kind of theatrical songwriting. It was always a part of my character. This desire to make people laugh...Songwriting is best. It's the hardest-finest-tightest. It also requires the most discipline.Collection: Father
Here comes the new boss Same as the old boss.Collection: Work
I think we are incumbent, I am incumbent, the Who is incumbent, anybody that produces anything by me is incumbent by my Englishness.Collection: Thinking
All good art cannot help but confront denial on its way to truth.Collection: Art
Turning something into low resolution data does seem to make it worth less in the modern world.Collection: Data
I am writing better Stephen Sondheim songs than even Stephen Sondheim is writing.Collection: Song
There's a man upon that ledge, he's only cleaning windows. What a shame for the pain we're missing. Gonna lean back on my wall and pray for him to fall.Collection: Wall
Prayer TV looks like pay TV to me.Collection: Religious
I am an animal, my teeth are sharp and my mouth is full, and the passion is strong.Collection: Strong
Punk rock was the tsunami that threatened to drown us all in 1977.Collection: Rocks
Is your perception of 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine' so shallow that it's violated by dancing raisins?Collection: Dancing
Beach is a place where a man can feel he's the only soul in the world that's real.Collection: Beach
Don't cry Don't raise your eye Its only teenage wasteland.Collection: Teenage
Water is more precious than oil. Both are more precious than music. Music won't heat a house or help a plant to grow.Collection: Oil
Songwriting is best. It's the hardest ... finest ... tightest. It also requires the most discipline.Collection: Writing
We have to focus on his early work, and just one or two of his movies, and elements of his TV shows, to keep his memory pure. People now know that Elvis could play a mean rhythm guitar himself, and needed no other musicians to perform a great song. But Elvis was not just a rock star, he was an all-round entertainer.Collection: Song