I have questions about Pete Townshend(The Who). Could anyone please help me out?
1. What is the meaning of " Pete Townshend wrote versions of pop hits that he’d apparently misheard" in the following paragraph?

Because the stereo was so thin-sounding I guess I learned to not listen to the bottom end in music, and I didn’t really get the point of the bass guitar until I was well into my twenties. For me it was all about the top-line and the song, and in the same sort of way that Pete Townshend wrote versions of pop hits that he’d apparently misheard, so I began to hear music through the distorting prism of my broken hi-fi and sieve out the bits that didn’t seem important.

2.
"One day we were playing some dreadful plastic-punk offering, and his mum tore the record off the turntable and smashed it in a kind of Daily Mail rage."

Does "plastic-punk offering" mean "fake punk genre record offered by someone else"? So his mum burst into rage like Daily Mail headline style?

Thank you!

Question

I have questions about Pete Townshend(The Who). Could anyone please help me out?
1. What is the meaning of " Pete Townshend wrote versions of pop hits that he’d apparently misheard" in the following paragraph?

Because the stereo was so thin-sounding I guess I learned to not listen to the bottom end in music, and I didn’t really get the point of the bass guitar until I was well into my twenties. For me it was all about the top-line and the song, and in the same sort of way that Pete Townshend wrote versions of pop hits that he’d apparently misheard, so I began to hear music through the distorting prism of my broken hi-fi and sieve out the bits that didn’t seem important.

2. 
"One day we were playing some dreadful plastic-punk offering, and his mum tore the record off the turntable and smashed it in a kind of Daily Mail rage."

Does  "plastic-punk offering" mean "fake punk genre record offered by someone else"? So his mum burst into rage like Daily Mail headline style?

Thank you!

Answer

Hi Essit,

1. It means that Pete heard a pop song and didn't remember it exactly or didn't pay enough attention. Then he wrote his own song based on what he thought the pop hit was, and as a result he wrote a fairly original song.

As a songwriter, I do this a lot. :)

2. Yes, plastic punk means fake or "inauthentic" punk music - something polished for a mainstream audience. You don't need to take "offering" literally - it just means song (ie. a product) here.

I understand a "Daily Mail rage" means "irrational anger". I don't know if this refers to the journalists of the publication, or the readers who comment.