Released 1986 (1986) Length 5:44 Writer(s) Pete Townshend | Genre Rock Label Atco | |
Recorded 1985 at Eel Pie Studio, Twickenham; Eel Pie Studio, Soho, London; A.I.R. Studios, London | ||
"Give Blood" is a song by Pete Townshend, the guitarist for The Who. The song is the opening track for Townshend's fourth solo album, a concept album titled White City: A Novel, and was released as a single.
When Townshend was asked about the song he said:
Give Blood was one of the tracks I didn't even play on. I brought in Simon Phillips, Pino Palladino and David Gilmour simply because I wanted to see my three favourite musicians of the time playing on something and, in fact, I didn't have a song for them to work on, and sat down very, very quickly and rifled threw [sic] a box of stuff, said to Dave, "Do one of those kind of ricky-ticky-ricky-ticky things, and I'll shout 'Give Blood!' in the microphone every five minutes and let's see what happens." And that's what happened. Then I constructed the song around what they did.
The single failed to chart in the US or UK but reached number 5 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Charts.
"Give Blood" features Pink Floyd guitarist, David Gilmour on guitar. He also appears on another song from the album, "White City Fighting" the music for which was written by Gilmour.