Pete Townshend saved me. That’s what I like to think when I look at my personal life timeline of finding The Who, and thus finding one of the best songwriters in rock and roll history.

At the end of 2023 I watched the 1975 movie musical Tommy. Directed by Ken Russell, based off of The Who’s 1969 rock opera, the movie floored me. It was peak 70s weirdo cinema and I was determined to seek out more Who music.

January 2024 started and we had to make the decision to put our dog Buffy down. She had cancer and it had spread. I was beyond devastated. It’s not an exaggeration to say it was the hardest grief I have ever experienced in my life. 5 days later I watched the 1979 Who rockumentary The Kids Are Alright and that is the day Pete Townshend entered my life.

I was hypnotized by his aura. This started my digestion of The Who’s discography and Pete’s solo music. I had a distraction and a soundtrack to my grief process. I was amazed by a man who wrote the most open, cringy, self-deprecating lyrics and backed them up with the sickest guitar licks.

Listening to Pete read his own biography was a delight. He is a classic depressed narcissistic artist and whoops that’s exactly the kind I like.

Him talking about seeing Mick Jagger’s “cock” through his tight pants and Mick being the only man that he would ever want to fawk is now burned into my brain.

Of course I had to give this 5 stars because he is so special to me and my life. He also kept a diary forever so he had very detailed notes of everything. Don’t come here if you’re looking for gossip or chat really about the rest of The Who. Pete focuses this all on himself and his workoholic (and alcoholic) life.

Manifesting a Pete solo tour where he does his own songs and I get to travel and go see him 🙏

The is oddly the second sports romance with a fake relationship I read this month. This one has Tessa Bailey’s characteristic hero archetype in it: He’s huge, down BAD for the heroine, and insanely protective. If you like it, you like it (and I did).

✔️ Dual POVs (Madden x Eve) ✔️ Set in Rhode Island ✔️ Open-door contemporary romance (4.5/5 🌶️) 💔 Why they can’t be together: Little light on the reasoning here ✔️ Tropes: Fake relationship; baseball romance; sports romance