10 Rock Music Guitarists Who Outshone Frontmen

One of the common misconceptions behind many rock bands is that people tend to think the singer is responsible for writing the material.

Since they're the ones singing their hearts out night after night, they wouldn't be able to add their stamp onto things if they didn't write it themselves, right? While that isn't remotely true, even back in the day everyone knew that Pete Townshend steered the ship in the Who.

From the minute that they burst out of the Mod scene, it was Townshend who acted as the de facto mouthpiece of the group, often times explaining the grand visions that he had for the band and telling everyone about how the music means much more than just the three minute single. Even though he allowed others to write in the group, there was never any Who album that didn't feel like Townshend's vision, especially when they got to epics like Tommy and Quadrophenia.

Hell, there are some songs that do away with Roger Daltrey altogether, like Going Mobile off of Who's Next showing how much power the group has when operating as just a trio. As much as Daltrey brings the soul to these songs, the frail beauty behind Townshend's voice and guitar playing could have easily made these songs hits anyway.