Song of the hour

Give Blood - Pete Townshend: For the last week I've been getting up each morning and playing Pete Townshend's White City on vinyl to stir me out of my lethargy and get me in the mood for pretending to work. Most people know this album for the song Face the Face but that is far from the best song on the record. I have been a long term fan of White City even if it is a concept album - the lowest form of album there is.

What I find really interesting about this song is that it has these relatively static guitar parts and the driving force of the song is actually the bass. I'm sure it's a bit of a common phenomenon but considering Townshend and Dave Gilmour play guitar on the song, it seems a slightly perplexing creative choice (two shit hot guitarists give the bass the spotlight). What's really unique is that there is a repeated four note guitar 'solo' and then the main guitar figure is supplanted by the bass beneath it which is actually performing the closest thing to a traditional solo on the song. God knows what he's singing about but it sounds pretty awesome and angry. Kudos also for the crazy old man spoken word bit too - adds a bit of drama. BTW, I have no idea what that video is about, just listen.

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