Pete Townshend
Quibbling with a Legend
Of course, I knew who he was. When I lived in Stockholm, I bought The Who’s first album as soon as it came out and I’d known about the band since the great “My Generation”.
Also, to the best of my knowledge (I was too stoned to be absolutely sure today), I had seen them live at Grona Lund, Stockholm’s great amusement park that hosted some of the coolest bands going at the time — I definitely remember, although equally stoned, that I did see Jimi Hendrix Experience there, no doubt about that tone; and as I said, I think I saw The Who as well, though don’t hold me to that.
All this said, I also knew that if there was one thing Pete Townshend was famous for, or perhaps the word is notorious, it was for smashing his guitars to pieces, one per show apparently (Who paid for all these guitars? I could not help but wonder then and I still wonder).
Susie allayed my apprehension by telling me that this was not who Pete Townshend really was, his guitar-smashing was a gimmick. The guitars he owned and loved fared very well in his company.
Not sure how she knew this, but fair enough, I took her word for it (and she was right, as it turned out).
She gave me the name and address of The Who’s studio and she told me to show up at ten or so the next morning, which I…
