David Gilmour’s opinion on The Who

By the time David Gilmour joined Pink Floyd in the late 60s, many bands from the United Kingdom had already changed the course of music. One of them was The Who, led by guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend, who, alongside Keith Moon, John Entwistle, and Roger Daltrey, made some of the most influential albums of all time. Over the decades, David Gilmour has given his opinion on many bands from that era, including The Who.

What is David Gilmour’s opinion on The Who

David Gilmour has always been a big fan of The Who and already said Pete Townshend is one of his heroes. “Pete has always been one of my heroes. When I was very young, I hitchhiked from Cambridge to London to see him play at the Marquee Club. It was the very beginnings of the Who. He is incredible. He rarely plays lead, well, he could very well do.”

“We played back when he had very serious problems with his eardrums. The doctors had recommended him not to play with an amp. So he took an acoustic guitar and hired me to play his usual role. He couldn’t play the loud parts and he gave them to me. He is doing much better today and he went back to electric without problem. So much the better! I can’t imagine Pete without being able to do the mill on his guitar,” he told French Guitarist magazine in 2002.

As the musician said, he had the chance to see The Who live in the early days of their career. A few decades later, became one of the few artists to write with Pete Townshend, who wrote most of his songs alone throughout his career. “I think Pete feels some restrictions on what he likes to do with the Who. I guess we all feel restrictions within everything we attempt. Just because of the types of personalities and role you’ve created for yourself.”

He continued:

“I know he’s felt uncomfortable about certain things— things he could express in solo stuff. For me, the restriction was the scale of what Pink Floyd had become more than anything. It’s nice to get out and do something on a slightly different scale. Go out and do theaters, which is not really a possibility with Pink Floyd, until we get a lot less popular,” Gilmour told Musician magazine in 1992.

David Gilmour had the chance to play with The Who in 1996, when he joined them on stage at their show at Hyde Park in London. He performed the songs “The Dirty Jobs” and “Love, Reign O’er Me” with the band.

The songs David Gilmour co-wrote with Pete Townshend

Unlike many of his peers, Pete Townshend rarely collaborated with other songwriters during his career. However, he did work with David Gilmour in the 1980s, resulting in songs that appeared on both of their solo releases. “We’d done some recording for ‘The Final Cut’ (Pink Floyd album) at the Eel Pie Studios (Owned by Townshend). Pete had told me he had really liked my first (solo) album.”

“I was dumbstruck, but he said he was having difficulty writing music, but had loads of words. I sent over two or three tracks and he came back with lyrics for ‘Love On The Air’ (Released on the 1984 Gilmour solo album “About Face”), ‘All Lovers Are Deranged’ (Also released on Gilmour’s “About Face” and re-recorded by Townshend on his 2001 compilation album ‘Scoop 3’) and a third one, ‘White City Fighting’, which ended up on his next album,” David Gilmour told Mojo back in 2008.

Pete Townshend said David Gilmour is highly rated and influenced him

Pete Townshend has been interested in Pink Floyd’s music since their early days under Syd Barrett. He continued to enjoy their work after David Gilmour joined and is one of the few artists who has a good relationship with both Roger Waters and Gilmour. As a guitarist, he has said that David is highly regarded and influenced him.

“He’s a natural. Among players particularly British players, he’s incredibly highly rated. Adored. I’d say. He has a way of putting incredible feeling into everything he does. Technically, yes, he’s very good, but that’s not the important thing. It’s the way that he plays. He’s had real influence, and I think he’s influenced me. There’s a gracefulness, a naturalness, to the way he writes and plays,” Pete Townshend said in an interview with Mojo Magazine in 2008.

Curiously, in 2016, The Who was the opening act for Roger Waters at the Desert Trip Festival, which on the other days had artists like The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and Neil Young. Over the decades, Pete has seen Pink Floyd perform multiple times and has also attended solo shows by Gilmour and Waters, which he has always praised.