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Those poor Rickenbackers never saw it coming.
The first time a guitar died was an accident, Daltrey writes.
Pete was in the middle of his repertoire of moves when he stuck the guitar through the ceiling.
The place went quiet.
Townshend covered up his mistake by smashing the guitar to pieces, and the rest was history.
This pissed me off.
Pete will tell you it was art, Daltrey continued.
That he was taking the work of Gustav Metzger to a new level.
The hole in the ceiling had nothing to do with Metzger and everything to do with the sniggering girls.
An expensive animal that wed have to replace with another expensive animal before the next gig.
It was our thing.
Daltrey enjoyed the smashing about as much ashe enjoyed Woodstock.
(And it only accelerated from there.)
But they were missing the real point.
It was about the noise.
What had started as a mistake fitted into the ritual of what we were doing.
Very quickly, Pete wasnt just smashing his guitar.
The people missed that.
The critics were writing about what they were seeing, they werent listening.
And now, At least we could afford it.
Back in 1965, his artistic expression was very expensive.
Think aboutthatthe next time you listen to 5:15.
