Pete Townshend guitar hero?

[Toby Elwin <taelwin@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Pete Townshend in the last 5 years or so has turned into a rather boring and
predictable musician.  He was once one of the more innovative guitarists
around: 60s, 70s, and 80s - "Live at Leeds" proves this in front of an
audience.  He was/is an incredible rhythm player, beautiful and innovative.
He has emotive leads on record that are beautiful, "How Many Friends", "New
Song", "The Seeker" too many to list, well, all of Quadrophenia is
incredible (full stop).

I always enjoyed that what Pete used to play on guitar you could hum, "Slip
Kid" for example, unlike Satriani or the 80s Guitar Gods, Pete's playing was
distinct and emotive, a beautiful musician, for certain.  His playing the
past 4 or 5 years has become standard and boring full of triplet-hammer on
runs and banging the guitar, My ears and eyes began to suspect that he was
falling into a pattern, then the DVD of the "Royal Albert" confirmed it for
me; I think the "Royal Albert" is the single worst example of his playing I
have heard and seen and I have seen "Blues to the Bush" bootleg video as
another example that is very poor too.  Also his playing on Jagger's recent
solo effort is pedestrian and there is not a lick of his guitar presence
that is above a nameless studio musician's and worse not Pete.

What I have liked about Pete's guitar playing is how he attacks, preens,
pulls, and rips music out of the guitar.  I feel he has lost passion as a
musician the past 5 to 10 years though, he does not write anything of merit
or simply refuses to write and his guitar playing has turned real poor
during this time.   And despite this I do I think the most incredible guitar
playing I witnessed from Pete was at the Harbor Lights show in '98 for his
warm up to Woodstock and some of his live albums available on Eel Pie have
some moments of brilliance, his playing often melodic, snarling, and even
atonal (Scofield and Mike Stern-like) at times and I heard and saw him
singing the same notes he was playing - the sign of a good ear and as a
musician, a crucial skill.  But as painful as this feels to me - and as a
musician who has played around the world to admit - I think he is playing
out the string lately.

Any other musicians or Who lovers care to weigh in on their thoughts of Pete
and the others as musicians the last 5 or 10 years or prior.  I would love
to hear other views on this.  Caveat...rational, non-flame views are
certainly encouraged to keep a debate and discussion flowing.

Toby