| Give Blood | |
| Cover: | Give Blood.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Pete Townshend |
| Recorded: | 1985 |
| Studio: |
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| Genre: | Rock |
| Length: | 5:44 |
| Label: | Atco |
| Producer: | Chris Thomas |
| Prev Title: | Face the Face |
| Prev Year: | 1985 |
| Next Title: | Barefootin' |
| Next Year: | 1986 |
"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 , and was released as a single. "Give Blood" features Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. He also appears on another song from the album, "White City Fighting", the music for which was written by Gilmour.
The song was used to encourage blood donation on June 14, 2021 on World Blood Donor Day.[1]
When Townshend was asked about the song he said:
In an interview with Modern Drummer, Phillips recalled that the instrumental track originally lacked a bass guitar and instead consisted of an electric guitar with echo. For the purpose of augmenting the electric guitar track, Phillips created a drum part built around sixteenth note rhythms and a prominent backbeat. His drum work on "Give Blood" was later highlighted in the 1986 edition of Modern Drummer's Best Recorded Performance Chart.[2]
The single failed to chart in UK or to make the Billboard Hot 100 US Pop Chart, but reached number 5 on Billboards Mainstream Rock Charts.[3]
Cash Box said that the song was "strong paean to world peace."[4] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic ranked "Give Blood" as one of Townshend's best compositions, calling it "anthemic".[5]