2012
Les Paul Award:
Pete Townshend
Named for one of the industry's most revered personalities, the Les Paul Award was created in 1991 to honor individuals or institutions that have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of recording technology.
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photo: Ross Halfin |
This year’s
Les Paul Award recipient, Pete Townshend,
has enjoyed one of the most intriguing,
respected and multifaceted careers of
any artist in the rock and roll era.
The outline of his life in music is well-known.
As the leader/guitarist/main songwriter
for The Who for close to five decades now
(with a few breaks), he has produced songs
and albums that will endure long beyond
our own lifetimes. The Who were the original
mod band, coming onto the scene in the
wake of The Beatles, and a true force of
nature unlike any other group playing the
clubs in England at the time. No other
band boasted a drummer as explosive as
Keith Moon, a bassist as inventive as John
Entwistle, a singer with the pipes of Roger
Daltrey or a guitarist and songwriter as
vital and energetic as Pete.
Their early hits
were brimming with youthful vitality
and power: “I Can’t
Explain,” “My Generation,” “Substitute,” “Pictures
of Lily,” “I Can See for Miles,” “Happy
Jack.” Each was completely different
from the others, yet all were branded with
that unmistakable Who chemistry. And that
was just their formative years.
By the time the
group gets to Pete’s
immortal rock opera, Tommy, in 1969, their
classic Who’s Next LP two years later,
and what many consider to be Pete’s
true masterpiece, Quadrophenia, in 1973,
the band was widely recognized as one of
the best in the world. Their dynamic live
shows became legendary—and not just
because Pete sometimes closed performances
by theatrically smashing his guitar (a
spectacle immortalized in the films Monterey
Pop and Woodstock). These cats could really rock; Pete’s “windmill” strums,
Roger’s microphone slinging and Keith’s
sometimes goofy antics were just icing
on top of non-stop soul-stirring group
interplay.
The original
quartet continued to make exciting music
together through their smash 1978 album,
Who Are You. Unfortunately, Keith Moon
died in September of that year. Still,
the group carried on with drummer Kenny
Jones for a couple more years and albums
before disbanding for the first time
in 1983. In the years since, the group
has reformed several times, usually augmented
by additional players, and embarked on
several very successful tours. John Entwistle
passed away in 2002, but Pete and Roger
have soldiered on, even rockin’ the
Super Bowl half-time show a couple of years
ago.
Pete has also
made a number of excellent solo albums
since the early ’70s,
affirming that in addition to being an
incredible guitarist, he is also a nuanced
and emotive singer (and a multiinstrumentalist
adept at keyboards and other instruments).
His 1980 opus, Empty Glass, which included
the radio favorite “Let My Love Open
the Door,” easily stands among his
finest works. But all of his solo albums,
including ambitious story-based works such
as White City: A Novel, The Iron
Man: A Musical and Psychoderelict, contain amazing
songs that are overflowing with humanity
and give us fascinating glimpses of his
unique and complex worldview.
A fine writer,
as well as one of the most thoughtful
and articulate interview subjects a journalist
could ever hope to find, Pete has championed
many worthwhile causes through the years,
playing countless benefits and lending
his voice to those in need. He could
have rested on his laurels and packed
it in long ago, but this restless, gifted
and endlessly creative talent has kept
moving forward—finding that next
song, expressing that next thought that
will tell us more about the joy and mystery
and, yes, the pain, that is part of being
alive in this time.
—Blair
Jackson |
2012
Pete Townshend
Past
RECIPIENTS:
2011 Steve Vai
2010 Lindsay Buckingham
2008 Ray Benson
2007 Al Kooper
2006
Steve Miller
2005 David Byrne
2004 Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis
2003 Bruce
Springsteen
2002 Robbie
Robertson
2001 Steely Dan
2000 Paul McCartney
1999 Sting
1998 Neil Young
1997 Stevie Wonder
1996 Brian Wilson
1995 Alan Parsons
1994 Herbie Hancock
1993 Peter Gabriel
1992 Bob Clearmountain
1991 Bob Ludwig
Watch
Pete's acceptance
speech—January 25,
2013
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