Item Details

To f-f-f-ade way?’: The blues influence in Pete Townshend’s search for an authentic voice in ‘My Generation’

Issue: Vol 9 No. 2 (2014)

Journal: Popular Music History

Subject Areas: Popular Music

DOI: 10.1558/pomh.v9i2.17789

Abstract:

When writing singles for the Who in the mid-1960s how did songwriter Pete Townshend take from the history of popular music, specifically American blues and R&B, to create a uniquely English synthesis of urban pop blues? This subject is discussed in relation to Pete Townshend’s stuttering song ‘My Generation’ (1965) looking specifically at what factors influenced the song’s ‘authentic’ Mod ‘voice’: firstly, in what ways is this song a response to the search for an ‘authentic’ blues voice in the English rhythm and blues scene of the mid-1960s? And secondly what influence did the blues and folk revival led by the writers Samuel Charters and Paul Oliver, specifically their interpretation of the voice in the country blues, play in shaping Townshend’s interpretation of authenticity?

Author: Kathryn Hill

View Original Web Page

References :

Adelt, Ulrich. 2010. Blues Music in the Sixties: A Story in Black and White. New Brunswick, NJ and London: Rutgers University Press.

Altham, Keith. 1967. ‘Who All Ready to Hit You with New Ideas’. New Musical Express, 28 October: 5.

Bane, Michael. 1982. White Boy Singin’ the Blues: The Black Roots of White Rock. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Beat Instrumental. 1997 [1967]. ‘Townshend’s Opera Not for Public!’ March. Reprinted in Record Collector 215, July 1997: 23.

Beckett, Alan. 1969. ‘Stones’. In The Age of Rock: Sounds of the American Cultural Revolution: A Reader, ed. Jonathan Eisen, 109–15. New York: Vintage Books.

Blake, Mark. 2012. ‘Pete Townshend: The Mojo Interview’. Mojo, December: 40–44.

Booth, Stanley. 2012 [1984]. The True Adventures of The Rolling Stones. Edinburgh: Canongate.

Borneman, Ernest. 1977 [1959]. ‘The Roots of Jazz’. In Jazz: New Perspectives on the History of Jazz by Twelve of the World’s Foremost Jazz Critics and Scholars, ed. Nat Hentoff and Albert J. McCarthy, 1–20. London: Quartet.

Brunning, Bob. 1986. Blues: The British Connection. Sydney: Blandford Press.

Case, Brian. 1981. ‘Marching for the Future: Townshend Rocks for Jobs’. Melody Maker, 6 June: 8–9.

Charters, Samuel B. 1975 [1959]. The Country Blues. New York: Da Capo Press.

Clapton, Eric, with Christopher Simon Sykes. 2007. Eric Clapton: The Autobiography. London: Century.

Coleman, Ray. 1993 [1985]. Survivor: The Authorized Biography of Eric Clapton. London: Warner Books.

Davies, Ray. 1965. ‘Pop Think In’. Melody Maker, 11 December: 7.

Davis, Angela. 1971. If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance. New York: Third Press.

Dawbarn, Bob. 1964. ‘Stones Stoned!’. Melody Maker, 23 May: 8.

Dylan, Bob. 2006. ‘Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour’. XM Satellite Radio, Season one, Episode 15 (9 August).

Emery, John. 1995 [1965]. ‘The Who. First Album Completed’. Beat Instrumental (July): 33. Reprinted in Record Collector (July 1995): 19.

Fleck, Bob. 1969. ‘An Interview with Pete Townshend’. Creem 2/3: 4–5, 19–20.

Frame, Pete. 2007. The Restless Generation: How Rock Music Changed the Face of 1950s Britain. London: Rogan House.

Fry, Paul. 1964. ‘John Lee Hooker Spells Blues’. Fabulous, 10 October: 14.

Gardner, Elysa. 2003. ‘Arrest has Townshend Fans Searching for Clues, Too’. USA Today, 16 January: D.03.

Giuliano, Geoffrey. 1996. Behind Blues Eyes: The Life of Pete Townshend. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Gleason, Ralph J. 1968. ‘Can the White Man Sing the Blues?’ Jazz and Pop 7/8 (August): 28–29.

—1972. ‘Perspectives: The Who are Good—and Loud’. Rolling Stone, 3 February: 22.

Govenar, Alan. 2000. ‘Blind Lemon Jefferson: The Myth and the Man’. Black Music Research Journal (Spring): 7–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/779314

Gracyk, Theodore. 1996. Rhythm and Noise: An Aesthetics of Rock. London and New York: I. B. Tauris.

Green, Richard. 1970a. ‘Incredibly Intimidated by Other Guitarists’. New Musical Express, 7 November: 6.

—1970b. ‘Pete Townshend Interview, Part 2’. New Musical Express, 14 November: 18.

Groom, Bob. 1971. The Blues Revival. London: Studio Vista.

Guralnick, Peter. 1990. ‘Eric Clapton at the Passion Threshold’. Musician 136: 44–56.

Harison, Casey. 2011. ‘Redemptive Violence and Stuttering across the Atlantic: The Who’s “My Generation” and Herman Melvilles’ Billy Budd in Historical Perspective’. Atlantic Studies 8/1: 49–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14788810.2011.539787

Hatch, David, and Stephen Millward. 1990 [1987]. From Blues to Rock: An Analytical History of Pop Music. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press.

Hennessey, Mike. 1966. ‘Dionne Defiant’. Melody Maker, 5 February: 9.

Hotchner, A. E. 1990. Blown Away: The Rolling Stones and the Death of the Sixties. New York and London: Simon & Schuster.

Jones, Max. 1966. ‘Caught in the Act: Mose Allison’. Melody Maker, 22 January: 11.

—1968. ‘Sleepy John Hang-Up’. Melody Maker, 9 November: 10.

Jones, Nick. 2004 [1965]. ‘Well, What is Popart? Who Guitarist Pete Townshend has a Go at a Definition’. Melody Maker, 3 July: 11. Reprinted in Uncut NME Originals Presents the Who: 11.

Keil, Charles. 1985. ‘People’s Music Comparatively: Style and Stereotype, Class and Hegemony’. Dialectical Anthropology 10: 119–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00244253

Kofsky, Frank. 1968. ‘John Mayall’. Jazz & Pop (October): 14–17.

Kunen, James Simon. 1969 [1968]. The Strawberry Statement: Notes of a College Revolutionary. New York: Random House.

Laing, Dave. 2010. Buddy Holly. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Leigh, Spencer. 2008. Things Do Go Wrong: Eddie, Gene and the UK Tour. Folkestone: Finbarr International.

Logan, Nick. 1972. ‘And Now for the Next Who Opera’. New Musical Express, 16 December: 5.

Lydon, Michael. 1968. ‘The Who: Oldie but Goldie’. New York Times, 22 September, sect. II: 34.

Marcus, Greil. 1970. ‘P-P-P-People Try to Put us Down. The Who Live at Leeds’. Rolling Stone 62 (9 July): 40.

Marsh, Dave. 1983. Before I Get Old: The Story of the Who. London: Plexus.

Melody Maker. 1965a. ‘The New Jazz Records’. 3 July: 10.

—1965b. ‘Who Make Drastic Policy Changes. Re-recording Holds up First LP’. 17 July: 5.

—1965c. ‘The Who—a New Sound, or What?’ 27 November: 4.

—1965d. ‘The Strange Case of Chris Farlowe’. 4 December: 8.

Middleton, Richard. 1972. Pop Music and the Blues: A Study of the Relationship and its Significance. London: Victor Gollancz.

Miles, 1970 [1967]. ‘From the Marquee to the Met: Watching The Who’. Crawdaddy! September. Rock’s Backpages, http://www.rocksbackpages.com/article.html?ArticleID=2461 (accessed 12 September 2008).

Moore, Allan. 2002. ‘Authenticity as Authentication’. Popular Music 21/2: 209–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0261143002002131

Murray, Charles Shaar. 1989. Crosstown Traffic: Jimi Hendrix and Post-war Pop. London: Faber & Faber.

Neill, Andy. 2002. ‘About My Generation’ sleeve notes: 15–23. In My Generation. 2CD, Deluxe Reissue MCA 9262.

Oliver, Paul. 1994 [1960]. Blues Fell This Morning: Meaning in the Blues. New York: Canto.

O’Neal, Jim. 1993. ‘I Once was Lost, but Now I’m Found: The Blues Revival of the 1960s’. In Nothing but the Blues: The Music and the Musicians, ed. Lawrence Cohn et al., 347–87. New York: Abbeville Lawrence Press.

Onkey, Lauren. 2002. ‘Voodoo Child: Jimi Hendrix and the Politics of Race in the Sixties’. In Imagine Nation: The American Counterculture of the 1960s & 60s, ed. Peter Braunstein and Michael William Doyle, 189–214. London and New York: Routledge.

Palmer, Robert. 1982. Deep Blues. London: Papermac/Macmillan.

‘Pete Townshend Interview’. 1993a. WMMR FM radio Philadelphia, 16 July.

—1993b. Rolling Stone One on One. Global Satellite Network, 19 April.

Proby, P. J. 1965. ‘Pop Think In’. Melody Maker, 18 December: 3.

Radcliffe, Charles. 1965. ‘Blues Walking Like a Man’. Anarchy 51: 140–54.

Reynolds, Simon, and Joy Press. 1995. The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion and Rock’n’Roll. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Richards, Keith, with James Fox. 2010. Life. London: Phoenix.

Rudinow, Joel. 1994. ‘Race, Ethnicity, Expressive Authenticity: Can White People Sing the Blues?’ Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 52/1 (Winter): 127–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/431591

Scaduto, Anthony. 1974. Mick Jagger: A Biography. London: W. H. Allen.

Scaruffi, Piero. 2003. A History of Rock Music: 1951–2000. Lincoln: iUniverse.

Schwartz, Roberta Freund. 2007. How Britain Got the Blues: The Transmission and Reception of American Blues Style in the United Kingdom. Adlershot and Burlington: Ashgate.

Southworth, June. 1964. ‘Count Down on the High Numbers’. Fabulous, 10 October: 14.

Stratton, Jon. 2010. ‘Englishing Popular Music in the 1960s’. In Britpop and the English Music Tradition, ed. Andy Bennett and Jon Stratton, 41–54. Farnham: Ashgate.

Tobler, John, and Conner McKnight. 1972. ‘Chatting with Pete Townshend: Part Three’. ZigZag 44 (April): 27–34.

Tolliday, Ray. 1971. ‘Well, What Would You Have Done after Tommy?’ Cream (October): 28–31, 53–54.

Townshend, Pete. 1970a. ‘In Love with Meher Baba’. Rolling Stone, 26 November: 24–27.

—1970b. ‘Is Rock Dead?’ Melody Maker, 12 December: 16.

—1971a. ‘The Pete Townshend Page: Things are Different across the Sea’. Melody Maker, 17 April: 20.

—1971b. ‘Townshend’s Revenge: Reviewing “Meaty, Beaty, Big & Bouncy”’. Rolling Stone 97 (9 December): 36–38.

—1989. ‘Pete Townshend Talks to Johnnie Walker’. Pete Townshend: A Friend is a Friend, The Promo Video. VHS Atlantic.

—2012. Who I Am. London: HarperCollins.

Turner, Mary. 1994. ‘Pete Townshend Interview’. Off the Record, Westwood One Radio Network CD, 4 April.

Unterberger, Richie. 2011. Won’t Get Fooled Again: The Who from Lifehouse to Quadrophenia. London: Jawbone.

Van Ness, Chris. 1971. ‘An Interview with Peter Townshend and the Who: Part 1’. Los Angeles Free Press, 10 December: 3–4.

Walsh, Alan. 1968. ‘Canned Heat, the Group that Refused to be a Juke Box and got Fired’. Melody Maker, 14 September: 11.

Welch, Chris. 1965. ‘Last of the R&B Groups?’ Melody Maker, 12 June: 8.

—1966. ‘The New Wave Beat’. Melody Maker, 8 January: 3.

—1968. ‘Let’s Face it—America is Where the Big Money is’. Melody Maker, 20 April: 15.

—1969. ‘Why the Who aren’t “Pop” Anymore’. Melody Maker, 19 April: 16.

—1988. ‘Who’s Better Who’s Best! The Roger Daltrey Interview’. Insight: WHSmith Magazine: 4–5.

Wenner, Jann. 1968a. ‘Rock and Roll Music’. Rolling Stone, 20 January: 14–15.

—1968b. ‘The Rolling Stones Interview: Pete Townshend’. Rolling Stone, 17 September 14: 1, 10–15.

—1968c. ‘The Rolling Stone Interview: Pete Townshend. The Who Frontman Talks about his Generation’. Rolling Stone, 28 September: 14–18.

Williams, Richard. 1970. ‘Rock Aristocracy’. The Times, 18 May: 11d.

Wilson, Tony. 1968. ‘Can White Me Sing the Blues?’ Melody Maker, 20 April: 15.

Wishart, James. 2005. ‘“Breaking up is hard to do”: Issues of Coherence and Fragmentation in post-1950 Vocal Music’. In Words and Music: Liverpool Music Symposium 3, ed. John Williamson, 190–218. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.5949/liverpool/9780853236191.003.0009

Witek, Joseph. 1988. ‘Blindness as a Rhetorical Trope in Blues Discourse’. Black Music Research Journal 8/2 (Autumn): 177–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/779351

Zimmerman, Paul D. 1968. ‘Rebirth of the Blues’. Newsweek 73/21: 82–85.