Pioneering hard rock outfit The Who aren’t often brought up when it comes to discussing the progenitors of heavy metal. However, the band’s guitarist Pete Townsend appears to think otherwise, recently telling the Toronto Sun of the band’s newly released album, “Who“:
“It doesn’t sound like The Who from those early heavy metal years. We sort of invented heavy metal with [our first live album] ‘Live At Leeds‘ [1970]. We were copied by so many bands, principally by Led Zeppelin — you know, heavy drums, heavy bass, heavy lead guitar and some of those bands, like Jimi Hendrix for example, did it far better than we did.
Cream, with Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, they came along in ’67, same year as Jimi Hendrix, and they kind of stole our mantle in a sense. So people who want to hear that old heavy metal sound, there are plenty of bands that can provide it. So it’s not really what we can actually do today. Even if we wanted to, it was never high on my list of wishes.”
[via Blabbermouth]
