Paul McCartney’s opinion on The Who

The Beatles changed the course of music in the early 60s, and Paul McCartney was a fundamental part of the group that started the “British Invasion.” Their influence as songwriters and their success opened the doors for many other amazing bands that emerged at the time, such as The Who.

Over the decades, McCartney has talked about many bands, including the one originally formed by Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon, and John Entwistle.

What is Paul McCartney’s opinion on The Who

Paul McCartney loves The Who and even admitted over the years that he was influenced by the group led by Pete Townshend, who is the guitarist and main songwriter. It was him who inspired McCartney and The Beatles to record “Helter Skelter” (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) “You keep up with what’s going on, I do these days, still. Just because it’s interesting. Sometimes inspire you to do things, sometimes you get a little jealous.”

“I remember, with The Who, I read once that Townshend, he was talking to a newspaper. He said: ‘We just done the dirtiest, loudest, filthiest record ever! I went ‘Wow, we gotta do that. We can get louder, filthier and dirtier. So I go into the studio and say this to the guys and that was ‘Helter Skelter’,” he told Marc Moron in 2018. The interviewer asks if it was a big ‘f*ck you Pete Townshend‘ and he said “Yeah, man. And I still don’t know about which track he was talking about.”

The Beatle was the one who did the introduction speech when Townshend won the Les Paul award in 2012 and praised him a lot. (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage: “Congratulations on getting the Les Paul award, we all know you deserve it. Because man, we go back and I have so many great memories of you and the band. Your music, seeing you on TV doing ‘My Generation’, seeing you live playing. To this day, you’re just great.”

He continued:

“So isn’t it funny? I never had a chance to really just stand opposite you and tell you. I would probably be too embarrassed but here it is the ideal occasion for me to just say what I think everybody in the room (wants) to say. You are just a great monster, man!”

“The way you played that guitar, the way you write, it’s fantastic. Always has been, hopefully always will be. So congratulations on getting the Les Paul award. How cool is that? We love Les, another great musical monster. We love Les, we love you and congratulations,” Paul McCartney said.

They had the chance to work together in the songs “Rockestra Theme” and “So Glad to See You Here”. Both were featured on The Wings’ 1979 album “Back to the Egg”. He played the guitar in the tracks which also had David Gilmour, Gary Brooker, Ronnie Lane, John Paul Jones, John Bonham and Kenney Jones. They worked together again in 1986, when Pete played the guitar in the song “Angry”, featured on Paul’s album “Press to Play”.

Paul McCartney said Keith Moon was the third best drummer of all time

Paul McCartney was also a good friend of the late The Who drummer Keith Moon, musician that tragically passed away in 1978 at the age of 32. In an interview with Howard Stern in 2020, the Beatle revealed who were his three favorite drummers and Moon was the third one. “I go Ringo Top, he is something else, second I’d go Bonzo and third Keith Moon. I mean, that’s mine, I’m going from that generation, those are pretty good drummers,” McCartney said.

He was originally invited by Paul to be part of the “Rockestra Theme”. But the musician died one month before the session and curiously, it was the Beatle one of the last people to see him alive. On September 6, 1978, McCartney threw a party dinner to celebrate what would have been Buddy Holly‘s 42 birthday. He had acquired at that time, Holly’s song publishing rights and had produced the biopic “The Buddy Holly Story”.

Moon went to the celebration with his girlfriend and was found dead the next day at their home after suffering an overdose.

Keith Moon praised Paul McCartney drumming

Paul McCartney is a multi-instrumentalist and several of his records were recorded only by him. He did the writing, singing and played all the instruments, including the drums. He recalled in an interview Record Collector Magazine back 1997, that Moon once praised his drumming skills.

“People often say we want to hear YOU on a record. We don’t want to hear you and lots of other people. I thought, well, great, I’ll do that, I’ll drum then. As you say, I did it on those other albums (“McCartney” and “Ram”). One of my great compliments was from Keith Moon. (It was) when he and John and others were going through that manic lost weekend episode.”

“I went out to see them. Keith Moon asked me who drummed on Band on the Run. I said it was me. Keith said “f*ing great!”. Coming from Keith, that was high praise for me,” Paul McCartney said.

The Beatle revealed that once in the 60s, Moon was not happy with The Who. He asked him if they would like him to join The Beatles, but McCartney told him they already had Ringo Starr.