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Overview
“Raw and unsparing...as intimate and as painful as a therapy session, while chronicling the history of the band as it took shape in the Mod scene in 1960s London and became the very embodiment of adolescent rebellion and loud, anarchic rock ‘n’ roll.” — Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
One of rock music's most intelligent and literary performers, Pete Townshend—guitarist, songwriter, editor—tells his closest-held stories about the origins of the preeminent twentieth-century band The Who, his own career as an artist and performer, and his restless life in and out of the public eye in this candid autobiography, Who I Am.
With eloquence, fierce intelligence, and brutal honesty, Townshend has written a deeply personal book that also stands as a primary source for popular music's greatest epoch. Readers will be confronted by a man laying bare who he is, an artist who has asked for nearly sixty years: Who are you?
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780062127259 |
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Publisher: | HarperCollins Publishers |
Publication date: | 08/06/2013 |
Pages: | 544 |
Sales rank: | 290,758 |
Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d) |
About the Author

Pete Townshend is the legendary lead guitarist and principal songwriter for The Who, one of the most influential rock-and-roll bands of all time. He's also the author of The Age of Anxiety as well as one of Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and resides in West London, where he was raised.
Table of Contents
Act One: War Music
1 I Was There 3
2 It's a Boy! 6
3 You Didn't See It 26
4 A Teenage Kind of Vengeance 49
5 The Detours 62
6 The Who 86
7 I Can't Explain 113
8 Substitoot 130
9 Acid in the Air 151
10 God Checks In to a Holiday Inn 175
11 Amazing Journey 199
12 Tommy: The Myths, The Music, The Mud 226
Act Two: A Really Desperate Man
13 Lifehouse and Loneliness 277
14 The Land Between 304
15 Carriers 334
16 A Beggar, a Hypocrite 351
17 Be Careful What You Pray For 374
18 The Undertaker 398
19 Growing Into My Skin 416
20 Rock Star Fuckup 451
Act Three: Playing to the Gods
21 The Last Drink 489
22 Still Loony 526
23 Iron Man 559
24 Psychoderelict 589
25 Relapse 607
26 Noodling 627
27 A New Home 644
28 Letter to My Eight-year-old Self 665
29 Black Days, White Knights 694
30 Trilby's Piano 703
31 Intermezzo 714
32 Who I Am 721
Appendix A Fan Letter from 1967 725
Coda 728
Acknowledgements 730
Picture Credits 740