The Who album that Pete Townshend said was the best

In the early 60s the music business changed completely with the British Invasion, when the Rock and Roll bands from the United Kingdom sold millions of records and influenced countless musicians worldwide. The Who is one of the most important groups that appeared in that era and since then has released many incredible albums.

Those albums made them one of the best-selling bands of all time, with an estimated amount of more than 100 million records sold. It’s not easy to say which is their best album but in the 90s the band’s co-founder, guitarist, sometimes singer and main songwriter Pete Townshend said which one was the best. Rock and Roll Garage also selected what the musician said about that record over the decades.

The Who album that Pete Townshend picked as the best one

The Who’s debut album “My Generation” was released in 1965 and after that the band released seven successful records with Keith Moon on drums. The last one was “Who Are You”, released in 1978. The musician tragically died in that same year at the age of 32.

After that, the band released two more albums: “Face Dances” (1981) and “It’s Hard” with Kenney Jones as their drummer. Their recording hiatus lasted 24 years until they finally recorded again “Endless Wire” (2006) and then “Who” in 2019.

In 1996 when The Who was coming back on the road after five years, Pete Townshend talked about the band’s discography. He said that “Quadrophenia”, released in 1973, was the best album they had made until then.

“I think it’s the best album that The Who made. But I also think it’s one of the most cohesive stories that I wrote. And in doing this kind of thing, I learn a tremendous amount,” Pete Townshend told Steve Harris.

In a conversation with Iconic in 2011, Pete said that is the album he is most proud of and explained why. (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) “I think it was the best coming together of a kind of chaotic work that used to go on in and around The Who. I always felt as a young man that I had two roles.”

Pete Townshend continued:

“One was to write for this band called The Who, which I was a very difficult member. Four members of the band were very difficult. So one of the reasons that I’m proud of it was that I succeeded at a time. I think the band was very potent and very powerful, very successful. But that was also a little bit of the wall.”

“Our management was falling apart. There was a kind of anarchy going on in the band. An anarchy of ego. So it’s kind of the fact that I pulled it off a tool, it’s why I’m pleased about it. It’s also the fact that for various reasons it landed as the most successful simple Rock Opera that I ever kind of come up against.”

“Young mod guy has a bad day, ends up on a rock in the rain. But produced all this lovely music. I’m really proud of the songs I wrote,” Pete Townshend said.

All the tracks of the album were written by Pete Townshend. Some of the most famous songs are: “The Real Me”, “The Punk and The Godfather” and “I’m the One”. In 1979 a movie based on the album directed by Franc Roddam was released. Curiously The Police’s Sting played one of the characters.