Pete Townshend - (who he?) - 13 through 17

So we get to the part where it becomes clear how much of the early chapters of The Boy Who Heard Music were based on Pete's personal life. Rather a lot, as it turns out. No wonder he is obsessed with combating child abuse. And I think of the monster moralists out there with whom I and others have to do battle over his 2003 hardships and it makes me sick.

The Sea Scouts business does obscure a very important part of Pete's musical development, the discovery of the "drone." Pete's love for repeated musical notes comes up in so much of his work from "Circles" to the instrumental at the core of "Rael" and "Sparks" and the swirling synthesized notes of "Baba O'Riley" and so many others of the Lifehouse song cycle. You can actually hear the specific drone at the beginning of "The Rock."

And whatever became of all those childhood drawings? I hope once Pete gets back home, he can scan and post a few of them.