Pete Townsend used to be the snarling face of youthful rebellion. Now he’s an old man complaining about young people using iPod headphones to listen to music. Figures.
But he should know – Pete Townsend blames his own loss of hearing on wearing headphones too much. Funny, because we’d have put it down to him slamming electric guitars around in front of giant walls of amplifiers and exploding drumkits every day for 40 years. But hey, Pete knows best.
Pete Townsend of The Who (CDs) has knackered his hearing. And not just
because he was the principle noisemaker in one of the loudest bands of
all time – his hearing went because he used studio headphones sometimes. And now Pete
Townsend is concerned that younger generations might be making the same
mistake when they listen to their iPod. How concerned? Concerned enough
to write a big long special New Year message about it on his website, that’s how concerned:
"I have unwittingly helped to invent and refine a type of music that
makes its principal components deaf. Hearing
loss is a terrible thing because it cannot be repaired. If you use an
iPod or anything like it, or your child uses one, you MAY be OK… But
my intuition tells me there is terrible trouble ahead… The downside may be that on our computers — for privacy, for respect to
family and co-workers, and for convenience — we use earphones at almost
every stage of interaction with sound."
Pete
Townsend – who now needs to take 36-hour breaks between recording
sessions – then went on to complain about all the bloody immigrants and
how those new 5p coins are so fiddly to pick up.
OK – no he didn’t.
Read more:
No New Resolutions – Pete Townsend online
[story by Stuart Heritage]
