The Who performed at Woodstock in 1969, just after releasing their hit album ‘Tommy.’ Pete Townshend reflected on their performance in a recent interview with Uncut. He also recalled how Roger Daltrey felt inferior compared to the rest of the band before their set at the festival. He explained:
“At Woodstock we were on at five o’clock in the morning when everybody was asleep, stoned, exhausted. We began playing ‘Listening To You I Get The Music [See Me, Feel Me]’ and the sun started to come up.”
Pete said that the song got everybody on their feet by adding:
“Eventually the whole audience stood up. I think it’s because it’s a prayer, a dedication to the human spirit. That’s kind of magical. It’s not about power. We’re just playing this f*cking song; the song is doing it.”
The guitarist shared that the festival turned Roger into a different rocker. He expressed:
“Roger [Daltrey] may have thought he was doing it, I don’t know. I’m often a bit disparaging about Roger in that era, but he came out of that Woodstock movie a rock god.”
Townshend added that prior to Woodstock, Roger was inferior to the rest of the band. The guitarist continued:
“[Daltrey had just been] a short-haired singer in a band where Keith Moon and John Entwistle and Pete Townshend were probably a bit more important than him.”
However the rocker revealed the festival, flipped the band dynamics upside down and Roger was the star. Pete said:
“Maybe we got less birds, but we were more important than him. Suddenly he was not only equal to us, he was a central figurehead. It was a change in the system.”
You can read Pete Townshend’s interview with Uncut here and listen to ‘See Me, Feel Me’ as well as ‘Tommy’ below.
