Pete Townshend Quotes

The value of music is to be able to play one note at the right time in the right way.

I've looked at photographs of myself during concerts and it sometimes looks as if I'm in a fencing move, with a guitar in my hands instead of a sword.

Is it not the business of the conductor to convey to the public in its dramatic form the central idea of a composition; and how can he convey that idea successfully if he does not enter heart and soul into the life of the music and the tale it unfolds?

Music is a performance and needs the audience.

I'm very proud of my records, but my most natural creative tendencies have been in live performing. There's a beautiful element to recording and making records, but I've always felt a little shy with it.

I just wanted to say one more thing: I also think that when you go to play music, you're there to play music.

When I was in high school, there were these British blues-rock-type bands with really good guitar players that would jam on one song for half an hour. And as much as I was amazed by some of those guitar players, seeing them prompted me to make a note that that's not something I could do.

The negative is comparable to the composer's score and the print to its performance. Each performance differs in subtle ways.

I had so much fun playing songs from 'Based On A True Story...' and getting to see the crowd's reaction to those songs was unforgettable.

Sometimes I do 'So Desperate' solo in the middle of the set. I really love to sing that song.

I've always thought that the act of playing the guitar was the act of trying to make a point of playing the guitar.

Because Larry, by then, was a drummer, who would sort of get bored and tired, and rather stand up and blow kisses to people. So we needed the bass to sort of drive along.

Songs suffer at the mercy of the performer.

I admire Tom Ades: he's a brilliant conductor, and he gets just the right hard, brilliant sound from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for Russian music.

I think of a piece of music as something that comes alive when it is being performed, and I feel that my role in the transmission of music is to be its best advocate at that moment.

I have my ideas, I have my music and I also just enjoy showing off, so that's a big part of it. Also, I like to get up onstage and behave insanely or express myself physically, and the band can get pretty silly.

If you do performance and music, it's not performance as music.

When you're playing, you're playing something for the world to hear.

As long as I can sing and hit the notes, I want to do that.

I want to express my ideas through my music and on stage because I'm a musician.

I don't really care what the visual is looking like. I've gotten away from - not shenanigans, but spectacle.

I feel that music is such an inspirational form of energy, as baseball is. And especially with Metallica, believe it or not, our shows are very physical. Sports is a very physical thing, too.

When you sit down and see someone play at a piano, you don't think, 'Wow - what a fantastic machine.'

To stand out, I just use my talents. I rap, and I sing as well. With that being said, people kind of know me for bringing that emotion in music.

I also think something that makes the whole live performance fun for me is that I love my music.