Has anyone ever actually seen an original quote by Pete on whether he said that about I Can See for Miles? I’ve only ever heard Paul quoting him . . .
I can't believe I missed this <face palm>. The quote I was referring to was, of course Paul quoting Pete. I assumed that it was a direct quote from Pete himself. I also was under the impression, from what I read, that this was part of a direct exchange between Pete and Paul. I should have followed up and checked the documentation.
The following excerpt is from
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-who-creepy-song-meaning-i-can-see-for-miles/:
Rumour has it that Macca was unimpressed after reading an interview with Townshend who described The Who’s ‘I Can See For Miles’ as “the most raucous rock ‘n’ roll”, lit a fire in him and he decided to do one better by getting even more raucous.
“Just reading those lines (of the Townshend interview) fired my imagination,” McCartney told Mojo in 2008. “I thought, Right, they’ve done what they think was the loudest and dirtiest; we’ll do what we think. I went into the studio and told the guys, ‘Look, I’ve got this song but Pete said this and I want to do it even dirtier.’ It was a great brief for the engineers, for everyone- just as fuzzy and as dirty and as loud and as filthy as you can get it is where I want to go. I was happy to have Pete’s quote to get me there.”Later in the article, the author also adds this statement:
Whether the song’s meaning is rather creepy to read now in 2020, it is hard to deny that it is still a barnstorming anthem and the fact that it inspired Paul McCartney to better it with ‘Helter Skelter’ proves that it deserves a place in rock ‘n’ roll history. This annoys me. ICSFM is an excellent song in its own right and thus deserves recognition for that and not only for the fact that it inspired "Helter Skelter." But then, I'm wildly defensive about the Who.