#guitar smashing

[blackswaneuroparedux]

All good art cannot help but confront denial on its way to truth.

- Pete Townshend, The Who

The crowned king of smashing guitars is none other than The Who’s Pete Townshend. In a sense he was the godfather of guitar smashing on stage. The year was 1964. The Who were playing a small pub in London known as the Railway Tavern in Harrow and Wealdstone. At some point, Townshend’s Rickenbacker headstock hit the venue’s low ceiling, cracking it with a thud. When Townshend saw that none of the other band members seemed to notice or care, he decided to make it noticeable and smashed the guitar to the floor and against his amp, shattering it to pieces. And thus began a decades-long destructive affair between Pete and his many guitars.

Townshend would go on to smash more guitars on more stages in more countries the world over than any guitarist in rock ‘n’ roll history. He set the bar high on the act, performing it with an intensity and poetic presentation that bordered on dance. He would often raise his Gibson or Fender high over his head, holding it to the sky - a kind of sacrifice to the muse, to the crowd, to the moment. From there, the smashing took many directions. From bouncing the bottom of the body at the strap-button end off the stage over and over, to wielding it like an axe and chopping down a mic stand, to ramming it over and over into the drum stand or into a tower of speakers, Townshend made each guitar smashing an unforgettable moment for the audience.

In 2020, Roger Daltrey, the lead singer of The Who, perhaps with mischief in mind, said that Pete Townshend would creep around the stage collecting up all the bits of smashed guitars so he could glue them back together again. Which on the face of it wasn’t very rock’n’roll. It gets worse. According to Daltrey, to make it easier to repair his broken guitars, Townshend went to great lengths to smash them up as carefully as possible.

On the How to Wow podcast, Daltrey revealed the careful process behind Townshend’s destruction. “They were real guitars, but we worked out very cleverly that very rarely did the neck break. As long as the neck didn’t break, you could glue the body back,” he said. But Daltrey did charitably add that also pointed out: “It was costly in glue.” Fans of Townshend believed that Daltrey was deliberately trying to sabotage Townshend’s reputation. The pair interacted as little as possible during their time together and especially since the band broke up, doing separate interviews, having separate backstage areas at concerts and even recording entire albums without seeing each other.

However the story has a ring of truth to it. Pete Townshend once confessed inhis autobiography that, “The Who got paid 4000 pounds during those days, but we always smashed our equipment that cost more than 5000 pounds.“ Listen, it’s important to remember that even rock stars are people, and they have to deal with the same mundanities as the rest of us. Why Townshend had to glue all his guitars back together was because it was expensive to replace the smashed guitars and The Who were as frugal as they came.

In any case Townshend helped to set in stone one of rock’n’ roll’s defining images, the art of guitar smashing, unlike any other musical genre. In doing so he paved the way for the likes of other legendary guitarists like Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix to smash their guitars during their live performances on stage.

[rwbyofmyheart]

“Unknown (Till the End)” Alien Stage English Lyrics

This is definitely my favorite Alien Stage song ever with “Ruler of My Heart” and “All-in” being close seconds. So I wrote English lyrics cuz why not.

—♪—

Come on!

Yeah yeah

Come on now!

Nothing was my everything

My savior, my sweet melody

It’s you, alright

My heart keeps going

ERROR: No better options

Shaking up the whole paradigm

Doesn’t matter if you turn

My world upside down

I wanna know all about you

No more taking it slow

Now my heart keeps blooming

For you like an edelweiss

(You’ll never know)

I don’t wanna stop

Don’t even think this time’s enough

Cause you baby still it’s not enough

(For me, alright?)

Don’t leave me

La di dadada

Cause you baby still it’s not enough

How dare you think this time’s enough?

Ain’t nobody but you’re the one

That I’m feeling is love

(Don’t be afraid)

Come on!

Woah~

Cause I like it better

Woah~

(Feel like I’m crazy)

Woah~

(Oh I’m crazy)

Come on!

Woah~

You’re love’s way too much:

an overdose

Ruler of My Heart | Masterlist

[harrison-abbott]

Pete Townshend actually smashed his first guitar on stage by complete accident. He broke it partially, by mistake. Then ravaged the rest of the instrument out of frustration. The incident sparked intrigue from the crowd. And he enjoyed doing it. So he just kept doing it after that.

[riotgrrrl-6]

“idk what you see in him” i see his long hair and guitar!!

[addlepine]

toki practices guitar (rare)

[mice-rats-daily]

Today's rats are the rat stickers on D'arcy Wretzky's bass guitar!

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Kurt Cobain During Love Buzz he dove into the crowd and had a fight with a bouncer

[supersapphical]

can't get over clarence using his sax to play air guitar

[daeluin]

dark alley (a song about looking at yourself in the mirror and hating what you see) - > bob dylan (a song about the intricacies of fame and just wanting to be loved for who you are) - > i am my own muse (a song about being your own inspiration and trying to hold it all together while destroying your old dreams)

[smashorpass50plus]

Beverly "Guitar" Watkins

[makerofmadness]

time to settle this once and for all

Video with all versions, for reference:

[arachnicas]

Now if Hobie hadn't quit and bounced before the great chase, things would have taken a much darker turn. Imagine if he'd been on that train and seen Miguel hurting Miles. Lemme just say that nothing would have stopped Hobie from leaping high in the air, guitar raised above his head, and smashing it down hard on Miguel's back over and over again until someone either pulls him off or Miguel is too injured to hurt Miles anymore. Too much? Perhaps, but this is the same Hobie Brown who killed Norman Osborne with zero regrets.

Grown adult hurting a kid? Okay, get fucking wrecked.

[sunnyxjarrus]

disarm by the smashing pumpkins

I got better the longer I played but this is the first song on guitar that I’ve learned

[pareidolla]

pin that says "ask me for my thoughts abt stp tower" and when you do i maul you to shreds instantly

[riotgrrrl-6]

screaming

[starrysharks]

the urge to make public character playlists for my little guys...