NO GUITARIST OF the 1960s brought as much volume, aggression or savagery to rock and roll as the Who’s Pete Townshend. Much of that is down to his use of distortion, feedback and power chords, but it was also due to the sheer volume he would achieve onstage. Indeed, Townshend was one of a handful of guitarists — including Ritchie Blackmore and Big Jim Sullivan — who pushed Jim Marshall to make his amps louder. And it was Townshend, along with Who bassist John Entwistle, who blazed the trail for the 4x12 double stack, now and forever a mainstay in hard rock.
But Townshend needed a stage presence to go with that big sound, and he got it by making his every move as big as possible: windmilling his arm to strum chords, springing skyward at key moments in a song and, of course, destroying his equipment at the end of the show. Townshend pushed the limits of rock and roll to make it louder and more visceral than ever.