Who I Am

By: Pete Townshend

Narrated by: Pete Townshend

Length: 17 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

From the voice of a generation: the most highly anticipated autobiography of the year, and the story of a man who...

• ...wanted The Who to be called The Hair.
• ...wanted to be a sculptor, a journalist, a dancer, and a graphic designer.
• ...became a musician, composer, librettist, fiction writer, literary editor, sailor.
• ...smashed his first guitar onstage, in 1964, by accident.
• ...invented the Marshall stack, feedback, and the concept album.
• ...inspired Jimi Hendrix's pyrotechnical stagecraft.
• ...is partially deaf in his left ear.
• ...stole his windmill guitar playing from Keith Richards.
• ...followed Keith Moon off a hotel balcony into a pool and nearly died.
• ...did too much cocaine and nearly died.
• ...drank too much and nearly died.
• ...detached from his body in an airplane, on LSD, and nearly died.
• ...was embroiled in a tabloid scandal that has dogged him ever since.
• ...planned to write his memoir when he was 21.
• ...published this book at 67.

©2012 Pete Townshend (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers

Listen!!!

Would you listen to Who I Am again? Why?

Pete reads his own story - he's a great guy whom I met and played with once years ago
Very provocative!

I still love you, Pete, in spite of... you.

Excruciatingly diary-date-driven biography of a rock icon. That pedantic device and Townsend's molasses delivery is one reason the book runs a laborious 18 hours.
Townsend makes it quite difficult to keep himself on a pedestal and some things are better left unsaid. To his constant discredit, the subject insists on chronicling his serial infidelity and virtual abandonment of his two daughters (Karen and girls, you are saints), his vast insecurities, manic depression, sexual confusion, alcoholism, fiscal irresponsibility, and falls in and out of love in his serial philandering like a fickle schoolgirl, desperately looking for something or someone to hold onto and make him whole - but he is Humpty Dumpty.
All of these personal deficits and bad behaviors are often valuable when illustrated in books, IF they give insights of healing to an audience who benefit from the bravery of such public disclosures," Who I Am" fails in this regard and paints a pathetic portrait of a pathetic, but very talented man.
Where is the love? The exuberance? The cocky irreverence that we all feel as Who fans? Maybe writing "Who I Am" over decades stripped the energy from the book and made a disappointing listen for the "reader".

I absolutely loved it!!

What made this audio book so delightful is I am in my car hearing Pete personally tell his unique story. To hear him snicker, or laugh made me feel like he and i were sitting together and he was sharing his stories. I truly looked forward to my long periods in the car to and when i finished, I felt slightly saddened that my 1 on 1 relationship with Pete had come to an end. What interesting life and Pete expresses himself so well. A complete artist in every sense. Thanks for sharing your story! This has been my favorite audio book to date. And of course thank you for such wonderful music!!!

Mixed feelings

I’m a big fan of The Who less of Pete’s solo work. What a musical genius, but after listening to the book it was inconsistent at times with my take away of him being a narcissistic A-hole who dumped on his family for selfish reasons. I get just being him takes on a lot of baggage mixed with what looks like mental illness. There also seems to be not much closure to his problems or change in behavior. Shocking his family still talks to him. I liked Roger Daltrey’s book much better, I also felt it was more honest and straight forward. I sensed Pete tried to be honest, but his own ego seems to get in the way. Him being a socialist but pissing 40k plus on dope makes it hard to take him seriously other than he is Great musician and songwriter.

*****

I am a fan of Pete Townshend and The Who and enjoyed this book immensely. This book is longer than most, but you don't mind with the detail that's included. I wish Pete would have gone into more detail about his solo career, the music writing process and a little less about his sexual desires, conquests and failures. A great read for those that like the Who, Pete Townshend or rock and roll in general.

Candid and intriguing.

Well done. A master mind of creativity and life. Poetically cast light on it all.

Great Read For So Many Reasons

I’m an avid Audible listener and found this book to be excellent. Though I’m not much younger than Pete Townshend I was never into loud rock and was far far away from the time of The Who’s heyday. This book is about a legendary rock star, historically significant, entertaining, talented writing and superb narration. I thought that in a book this long there would surely be parts that would drag on, there wasn’t. This is a story about a real person with genius creativity and the many foibles that life throws at us all. And it is rather amazing that he lived to tell the tale. In this book I was able to look at the world through the eyes of Pete Townshend.

Disappointing

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

As a Who fan, I definitely found this worth listening to. I would have liked more about some of the music-the 60's and 70's speed by quickly. I didn't really get a great idea about his relationships with the other members of the band and his wife. Yes, he talks about them, but he has more detailed anecdotes about presumably peripheral people, like Theresa Russell. In that vein, he goes into detail about things that were ultimately not relevant, and completely skips over and glosses over other things.

Would you be willing to try another book from Pete Townshend? Why or why not?

I would definitely read a books about him, but not by him.

Any additional comments?

This was in parts a painful listen, because Townshend had a painful upbringing that he carried with him through his life. I tried to keep this in mind when he describes his self-admittedly jerky behavior.

Pete Townsend - rebel or just restless?

If you could sum up Who I Am in three words, what would they be?

Surprised, enjoyable, rousing

What was one of the most memorable moments of Who I Am?

I loved that Pete Townsend read the book, therefore putting emotion in the reading. The acute laugh before reading an experience allows the reader to enjoy the moment a little more. Overall, where I thought Pete Townsend was a real rebel, I believe he has just led a life of restlessness with lots of fun times.

Which scene was your favorite?

Too many to recount

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

His memories of his grandmother looking after him. So truthful.

Any additional comments?

Loved listening to this book. It showed more of the man than his music does, which is a lot.

He’s the guy who wrote all the stuff

Insightful and well performed. Irony, cynicism, self doubt, some remorse. Behind the scenes of one of musics golden eras