Pete Townshend on David Letterman - 1985 

Truth

Just banging on my own piano

He is one of the most articulate people and has such a way with words I could listen to him just bring interviewed all day

Indeed

Yep good show at LCA. He can still bring it.

Can’t say the same for late night tv which has gone total left wing Democrat puke. 🤮And I’m being nice because You tube has done the same and monitors comments.

@@thelastrebelshow1627 boo hoo

@@acerjuglans383 Your mothers here . 🌬🍌

@@acerjuglans383 It is very boo hoo. Soon our entire nation will boo hoo. We all see the writing on the wall.

Agreed in full. "Won't..." is the anthem of my youth which to this day remains my all time favorite rock piece. But as for albums, Quodrophenia towers above all others.

Yeah, but, it wasn't true. We always do.

Same here Jangle. As an overall piece, that is tops for me as well. Keith at his absolute best

yes to all that , not massive on Won't Get Fooled Again, I would rather, 5.15 , he is so right about that bitch Thatcher.

@@Jangle2007 same here... and I was born 1 year after this interview No doubt that many people from my generation (pun intended) and from the next to come will feel the same way

Lol you serious?😅

Very well said and I agree completely. The world could use his life house project right now. The simple meaning of a note in a song. Expresses that joy you feel when experiencing music. It's otherworldly. He totally gets it and is able to articulate it

Amen

👍🏻

Yes Dave is a phenomenal interviewer. My dream was to be a music journalist but I would be very intimidated to interview a man as brilliant as Pete

Well put.

Haha, spell check changed fave to face....I'm the face , baby, is that clear?

It's as though Spell Check had some knowledge that "Face The Face" was a single off the album, and your use of the word "fave" simply sent it hurtling toward the inevitable 🤔

Yes and that's just a smothering of what he has done in his life. He just released a new single the name of it is on the tip of my tongue but it's really good. His music touches me in so many ways like nobody elses

In my top 3. Townshend is absolutely brilliant. Genius songwriter and guitarist.

I’m curious Who (ah see what I did there) your top 5 are. In no particular order: Ray Davies, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Pete Townshend, Bob Dylan. If you put John and Paul together, then maybe you could throw in one more. Jagger maybe. I know I’m leaving everybody post 60’s out but I have yet to hear anything that was on par with the 60’s.

@@allbottledup9513 Well for.me its The Who, George Harrison and Ringo (tied) as well as together with The Beatles, The Tubes (early is better), Tina Turner, GnR, Ann Wilson, the Coop and Donovan. Those are my Top 10 musicos.

Great lists to those who commented. Hmm don't know about my top five but Pete is way up there George Harrison definitely. Lennon Mc Cartney Ray Davies Leon Russell Bowie too many to mention and yes to Dylan and Dino an. Tom Petty no slouch either Bob Seger Neil Diamond Willie Nelson Chrissy Hynde I could go on and on

Vastly under-rated. I think I can probably recite all the lyrics.

Don't forget about Psychoderelict.

I played that album out my freshman year of college. Played it walking between classes a lot.

@@wr70beh Cool! I played it throughout my senior year of college. Really helped me internally.

White City: A Novel was my saving grace in 1985 after my parents died 4 months apart. I remember that time well....and also the whole 80's scene helped me in dealing.

Who doesn't if they are honest have a crush on Pete (and R)?

Bee Kay nice chap?

Wow!! Both are beyond phenomenal musicians!!

Rip Entwhistle.... I don't know if it's true but I heard he died partying with hookers or groupies or whatever .

@@gardensofthegods Sad but somewhat true, the autopsy report has been on the internet. Entwistle died in his sleep in his hotel room with a groupie the night before a concert tour. A small amount of cocaine was found in his system. This aggravated an existing heart condition, aortic aneurysm I believe. He didn't die of an overdose per se. But indulging in drinking, smoking, cocaine when you have a heart condition, if you are aware of it, speaks for itself. He passed long ago, but as with Moon, I wish he'd been able to overcome the addictions.

@@D13fs yeah thank you for that info... yeah , too many people in the industry getting caught up in all kinds of addictions... I never really met an addict who was actually having fun... they always end up getting sick of having to constantly look for that next High . I'm glad I'm Eminem was one of the smart ones who was able to deal with his drug and booze addiction. I just saw him in an interview ( Sway and Eminem / kamikaze interview ) and he looks good , really healthy for 48 . I don't think he got any filler injections or any of that nonsense like Keanu Reeves and other high-profile men .

Get in line..lol.😉

Ernest Kinas crazy to think how much they got me through when I was a kid

Dude, yer old and in the way...

I think Pete was a true socialist. Not a Champagne one. He never flaunted his wealth unlike other successful rock stars.

True, one of his solo lps has a song on it called "English Boy". He has written that he could never even consider living anywhere else, even though some of his peers in rock have done so. Keith Moon actually lived in California for a spell.

@@markfernandes9715 He also is kind enough to have hosted fans, including apparently the horrid Geoff Guiliano. Pete along with a few other big English rockers of the time.

Pete must have dug that!

So did his lol

Dave was like that no matter the year. he'd always have real conversations

All you have to do is go on here and look up the who live at Fillmore East 1968 they play all those songs pre-tommy. There is a show on RU-vid from the day MLK was killed in april 1968. MLK means Martin Luther King.

The expanded cd version of live at leeds features a nice take of tattoo. Even better than the studio version, imo.

+Andre R. Newcomb Springsteen...I just don't get it!!!!!

👍🏻lean move is played out

Its my personal fave of Pete's solo LPs. "Psychoderelict" and "Chinese Eyes" winning the silver and bronze medals.

He still lives in England, not too far from the likes of Paul McCartney and Jimmy Page, so he must be okay with it.

It woud be interesting to hear his take on Brexit, and the split within the royal family.

I think he had certain childhood traumas, and also had battled addiction later on. Probably anything he went through in this time of his life was pretty tame compared to what he had experienced beforehand.

"The Last Time" was the other song they recorded, in order to keep their peers' music in the public eye. Pretty generous of them, I think.

@@wylier Moonie even protested in front of the courthouse!

macaroni8cheese probably.

After reading Pete's and Roger's bio, I think a lot of us who are creatively inclined can relate to Rog's and Pete's accidentproneness, competitiveness and good natured stubbornness, as well as Pete's strange combination of striving for perfection and occasional selfdoubt. There is a weird adorableness to honestly admitting those things along with the insecurity creative people have.

~ He was booked on Stern's broadcast and Howard got into the arrest (before the book came out) and Townshend walked off.

No "D" in ROGER.

Raul Soriano Recoreded with “The Last Time” by The Who as a gesture of support for Mick Jagger and Keith Richards who were arrested on drug charges.

Ka Boom No. I love, love, love The Who but they were never as big as The Beatles.

Zep was bigger

Yeah bro🤪🤪🤪you are high if you think The Who ever came close to the cultural significance of the Beatles from 63-70

You are right, 1979 was their year, even tho they were still hurting from the loss of Keith. You might like the book "Are the kids all right?" which came out in the early 80s. It's out of print, but I found a copy in a second-hand bookshop. It's an in-depth chronicle of the ill-fated Cincinnatti concert, and rock culture at that point in time.

@@richieboy6825 - I'm not saying the Who were better, I'm saying they were more popular. They really were. People weren't killed trying to see the Beatles, but people were killed trying to see the Who. Beatles back in the 1960s weren't as popular as you think. By 1966 they were no longer selling out shows, people were burning their records, and by late 1960s people thought they were too weird and by the 1970s they were considered passe. It wasn't until the double albums, the red and blue greatest hits albums came out in the mid 1970s that people started picking up how great they were. I remember all this, I lived through it. Beatles were popular for a year and by the next year people tired of them

Dismissive? I doubt there's another rock star that ever cared more about regular people and fans more than him. Now, he does have that air about him a bit, but I wouldn't call him dismissive. Specially not of the fans. Now Dave? He should be treated dismissively , he was a dick.

juan altredo he isn’t like that anymore I’ve noticed which is a good thing he comes off like a bit of an ass here

@@BubbaZen10 He engages with the Late Night band then dismisses them as stupid at the start of the interview. Failed joke I guess. He then compliments them. Twisted.

He was dismissing all musicians as stupid, sarcastically, after jokingly demonstrating that when the drummer hit he would compulsively leap in time- so it was humor aimed at himself more than them.

@@BubbaZen10 Pete actually responds to his fan's letters from time to time.

for me looks like Phil Collins here

Holdenon3 this wasn’t the full interview and The Who had recently released a rarities album with them performing “Under My Thumb”.

Left channel only...