Pete Townshend "Who I Am" Signed First Edition, THIRD Printing w/COA [Fine/Fine]

Personally signed by Pete Townshend, highly regarded as a legendary figure in rock for pioneering the "rock opera", creating iconic, high-energy, and intellectual songwriting with The Who, and developing a unique, driving rhythmic guitar style that defined the band's sound.

Harper Collins Publishers 2012. Pete Townshend "Who I Am: A Memoir" Signed First Edition, First Printing. Personally signed by Pete Townshend directly onto the title page of the book. Hardcover book with dust-jacket. Bookseller issued COA. 256 pages. First Edition, Third Printing as stated. Fine/Fine.

Pete Townshend is the legendary lead guitarist and principal songwriter for The Who, one of the most influential rock-and-roll bands of all time. He's also the author of The Age of Anxiety as well as one of Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and resides in West London, where he was raised.

From the voice of a generation:

...smashed his first guitar onstage, in 1964, by accident.
...heard the voice of God on a vibrating bed in rural Illinois.
...invented the Marshall stack, feedback, and the concept album.
...stole his windmill guitar-playing from Keith Richards.
...detached from his body in an airplane, on LSD, and nearly died.
...has some explaining to do.
...is the most literary and literate musician of the last fifty years.
...planned to write his memoir when he was 21.
...published this book at 67.

Who I Am 

“Raw and unsparing...as intimate and as painful as a therapy session, while chronicling the history of the band as it took shape in the Mod scene in 1960s London and became the very embodiment of adolescent rebellion and loud, anarchic rock ‘n’ roll.” — Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

One of rock music's most intelligent and literary performers, Pete Townshend—guitarist, songwriter, editor—tells his closest-held stories about the origins of the preeminent twentieth-century band The Who, his own career as an artist and performer, and his restless life in and out of the public eye in this candid autobiography, Who I Am.

With eloquence, fierce intelligence, and brutal honesty, Townshend has written a deeply personal book that also stands as a primary source for popular music's greatest epoch. Readers will be confronted by a man laying bare who he is, an artist who has asked for nearly sixty years: Who are you?

Who I Am is the 2012 autobiography by Pete Townshend, the guitarist and songwriter for The Who, detailing his life, the band's history, his artistic journey, and personal struggles with addiction, fame, and abuse, with the title being a play on the band's hit "Who Are You". The book offers a candid, personal account of his life in and out of the public eye, covering his London upbringing, the band's formation, and his internal conflicts, and was released in print and as an audiobook read by Townshend himself.

Key aspects of the book:

Content: Covers his childhood, the formation and evolution of The Who, his songwriting, and his struggles with drugs, alcohol, and personal demons, including childhood abuse.

Style: Written with "eloquence, fierce intelligence, and brutal honesty," it's described as a deeply personal and raw account, sometimes compared to a therapy session.

Title: A clever reference to The Who's song and album Who Are You?.
Publication: Published by HarperCollins in October 2012, it was a New York Times bestseller and was also released as a 15-CD audiobook read by Townshend.

Promotion: Townshend toured to promote the book, doing Q&A sessions and performances.

Reviews

“Intensely intimate…candid to the point of self-laceration…[Townshend’s] tone is less lofty than anyone would have expected, just as this book is more honest than any fan would have hoped.” - Rolling Stone (Four 1/2 Stars!)

“Mr. Townshend’s self-portrait is raw and unsparing...as intimate and as painful as a therapy session, while chronicling the history of the band as it took shape in the Mod scene in 1960s London and became the very embodiment of adolescent rebellion and loud, anarchic rock ‘n’ roll.” - Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

“Unusually frank and moving…[Who I Am] isn’t one of those rock memoirs that puts the what before the why. His past is a puzzle Mr. Townshend is sweating to decipher.” - The Guardian (UK)

Pete Townshend

Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is the co-founder, guitarist, keyboardist, second lead vocalist, principal songwriter and de facto leader of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. His aggressive playing style, poetic songwriting techniques and authorship of two rock operas with the Who, as well as other projects, have earned him critical acclaim.

Townshend has written more than 100 songs for 12 of the Who's studio albums. These include concept albums, the rock operas Tommy (1969) and Quadrophenia (1973), plus popular rock radio staples such as Who's Next (1971); as well as dozens more that appeared as non-album singles, bonus tracks on reissues, and tracks on rarities compilation albums such as Odds & Sods (1974). He has also written more than 100 songs that have appeared on his solo albums, as well as radio jingles and television theme songs.

While known primarily as a guitarist, Townshend also plays keyboards, banjo, accordion, harmonica, ukulele, mandolin, violin, synthesiser, bass guitar, and drums; he is self-taught on all of these instruments and plays on his own solo albums, several Who albums, and as a guest contributor to an array of other artists' recordings. Townshend has also contributed to and authored many newspaper and magazine articles, book reviews, essays, books, and scripts, and he has collaborated as a lyricist and composer for many other musical acts.

In 1983, Townshend received the Brit Award for Lifetime Achievement and in 1990 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Who. Townshend was ranked No. 3 in Dave Marsh's 1994 list of Best Guitarists in The New Book of Rock Lists.[4] In 2001, he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as a member of the Who; and in 2008 he received Kennedy Center Honors. He was ranked No. 10 in Gibson.com's 2011 list of the top 50 guitarists,[5] and No. 37 on Rolling Stone's 2023 list of 250 greatest guitarists of all time. He and Roger Daltrey received The George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement at UCLA on 21 May 2016.