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When aggression became an albatross, Pete Townshend found his feminine side.
Today we're celebrating rock & roll legend Pete Townshend of the Who. Townshend, who was the guitarist and primary songwriter for the band practically invented the macho guitar rock god persona. The power chords, the power stance, the guitar smashing — Pete Townshend started all of that.
Considering how much his life has been dissected in rock history, Townshend is rarely looked at as a bisexual icon. That's because he didn’t come out until later in his career and waffled about his sexuality for years before that. But, we don’t have to dig too deep into his catalog (and interviews) to reveal that his destructive behavior and need to rebel was, in part, because of a yearning to buck the toxic masculinity he came to symbolize. Songs like "Tattoo," and "I'm a Boy," both confront the pressures to conform to hyper-masculine standards of manhood and the song "Rough Boys" refers to his bisexuality. Today, we're going to dissect all of those songs and Townshend's coming out story.
Music in today's episode includes songs from Elton John, Jimi Hendrix, Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley, The Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam, The White Stripes, and more.
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