English rock band the Who were once awarded the Guinness World Record for “world’s loudest band,” which most rock and roll lovers would deem an appropriate pursuit in the name of melting faces and splitting ears. But the romantic endeavor to rock the hardest wasn’t the only thing pushing the band toward their iconic sound. Ego was another, perhaps larger, driving factor.
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They might have been rock gods, but they were still only humans, after all.
How Ego Played Into The Who Becoming The World’s Loudest Band
In 1976, Guinness World Records listed the Who as the “world’s loudest band” after recorders measured 126 dB coming out of the band’s speakers from 105 feet away. (For some context, 126 dB is louder than a jet plane taking off and quieter than a jackhammer. The American Academy of Audiology would rate 126 dB in the “uncomfortable” range.) So, why so loud? As Pete Townshend explains in a 1990 interview with Guitar Player, there was a lot more ego rooted in this decision than rock.
“I’m afraid I was an arty little sod, and I was actually experimenting,” Townshend recalled of his early days using high volume and feedback. “I was at art school, surrounded by real intellectuals, people that were experimenting all the time. I was greatly impressed by all this and wanted to please these people. It shows that radical experimentation really is worth pursuing. Because even though it might feel stupid and pretentious if you do discover something new, it’s your property, and you’re identified with it forever.”
Another contributor to the Who’s pursuit of loudness was a decibel war going on amongst its members. “As I got louder, John Entwistle got louder by inventing the 4×12 speaker cabinet, which he did with somebody up at Marshall. Then, I got a 4×12 cabinet and put it on a chair, so then he invented the 8×12 cabinet to get louder than me, and I invented the stack by getting two 4x12s and stacking them up,” Townshend explained.
Hecklers Helped Play A Part In The Band’s Pursuit, Too
What might have started in the rehearsal room as a way to impress friends and compete with bandmates continued in the venue for yet another reason: hecklers. “Our experimentations were all to do with our irritation with the audience, who heckled if you played a rhythm-and-blues song that they didn’t know,” Pete Townshend told Guitar Player. “You’d get blokes in the back with their pints of beer shouting, ‘What’s all this rubbish? Play some Shane Fenton!’ And we just got louder as a result.”
Whatever the reason behind the Who seeking out more and more volume, it proved to be an incredibly influential movement in rock history. Not only did the Who help usher in a new wave of even louder, heavier bands in the 1980s and beyond. But the British rock band also inspired their contemporaries, including the Fab Four. In fact, Paul McCartney’s attempt to out-dirty, out-volume, and out-rock the Who created one of the Beatles (and the decade’s) most iconic songs: “Helter Skelter.”
“The Who had made some track that was the loudest, the most raucous rock ‘n’ roll, the dirtiest thing they’d ever done,” McCartney said in a 1985 interview. “It made me think, ‘Right. Got to do it.’ I like that kind of geeking up. And we decided to do the loudest, nastiest, sweatiest rock number we could.”
See? Egos and rock go hand in hand (or amp in amp).
Photo by The Visualeyes Archive/Redferns
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