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- "Won't Get Fooled Again" ('Who's Next', 1971) The climactic finish to The Who's best album is rock's – and Pete Townshend's – greatest declaration of independence: an epic storm of doubt, refusal, hypno-minimalist synthesizer and rolling-thunder power chords capped by a truly superhuman scream.
- "I Can See for Miles" ('The Who Sell Out', 1967) Townshend recorded "I Can See for Miles" as a demo in 1966, and the Who's managers were so positive it was a guaranteed smash that they decided to shelve it until a time when the Who desperately needed a hit.
- "My Generation" ('My Generation', 1965) Townshend supposedly wrote "My Generation" on his 20th birthday, May 19th, 1965, while riding a train from London to Southampton for a television appearance.
- "A Quick One, While He's Away" ('A Quick One,' 1966) By late 1966, Townshend had been churning out thrilling singles for nearly two years. But he was anxious to try something that broke away from the structure of pop altogether.
- “I Can’T Explain”
- “The Real Me”
- “Slip Kid”
- “The Seeker”
- “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere”
- “Squeeze Box”
- “Behind Blue Eyes”
- “Substitute”
- “Won’T Get Fooled Again”
- “I’m Free”
This would be the last time The Who would record something quite so straightforward and frills free. It’s as if producer Shel Talmy insisted that the quartet restrain themselves from their feats of instrumental wonderment and Townshend from his lyrical filigrees. But to hear Townshend himself tell it, the real roots of the song come from a moment o...
Nothing is more underrated than a bass-centric song, and “The Real Me” is just that. Flowing right in from the stormy opening track “I Am The Sea,” the second track from The Who’s rock opera Quadrophenia is about the protagonist Jimmy’s struggle between his four personalities. The song follows his journey to get insight from different people like a...
Initially written for Lifehouse but shelved for a few years, “Slip Kid” was given a second chance on The Who by Numbers in 1975—and thank goodness for that. It’s a song drenched in a hundred contexts, perhaps most definitively as a warning of the dangers of the music industry. Townshend himself even classified the song as “parental in its assured w...
In many ways, “The Seeker” exists as a response to Tommy. The band’s first single following that album’s release, the track offers a snapshot of a group reckoning with both their past and their future, tossing the present aside and searching for where they can go. When Daltrey sings, we hear the urgency with which he searches for answers, answers t...
Rumor has it that when the master tapes for this single made its way across the pond, the American arm of the Who’s label rejected them due to the abundance of guitar feedback and other sonic clamor within this recording. Hilarious, if true. I like to imagine that after they heard the song, their hopes of having another “Can’t Explain” were dashed ...
There’s that scene in Freaks & Geeks where Mr. and Mrs. Weir are listening to “Squeeze Box” and trying to decipher whether it’s a sexual innuendo or a song about an accordion. Mr. Weir is convinced that it’s vile and suggestive, while Mrs. Weir can’t help but make motions with her arms like she’s playing an accordion. It’s such a hilarious scene in...
From the scraps of a follow-up rock opera to Tommy, the anthemic “Behind Blue Eyes” triumphed. The soft plucks of an acoustic guitar accompany the darkly introspective lyrics, “But my dreams they aren’t as empty / As my conscience seems to be.” The concept of the song follows a villain named Jumbo, who is lamenting about the power of temptation and...
Though not released on any of the band’s major studio albums, this 1966 single became a mainstay of their live sets, and somewhat of a hit nonetheless, reaching number five on UK charts, and later being included on Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy, their 1971 compilation album. The premise of “Substitute” is simple: Daltrey sings his lamentations of not ...
The Who were a band that couldn’t be constrained by radio. Sure, they’ll offer up the 3:36 single edit of “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” but they need eight-and-a-half minutes to let this cynical anthem stretch—for Keith Moon to cut loose and Townsend to bring Who’s Next‘s loose story to close. It’s the bookend to “Baba O’Riley,” with the same Lowery or...
Townshend opens the track with a punchy riff to signal this newfound confidence and power Tommy has acquired. The song follows some gospel music conventions with vibrant keys and the swelling glory of the chorus repeating the joyful cry of freedom. Daltrey’s vocal is as light and airy as Tommy’s revelation once he regained his sight, voice, and hea...
From Mod anthems to ballads for paranoid dictators, via the rummest cast-list in rock – transvestites, seaside idiots, invading armies – for almost 60 years Who songs have challenged the norms of every era and, by the by, rocked like thunder. Here then, MOJO presents The Who’s 50 finest moments.
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- Graeme Ross
- “Won’t Get Fooled Again” (Who’s Next, 1971) Over eight minutes long and featuring the most iconic scream in Seventies rock, the ultimate Who stadium anthem works on two levels – as a withering assessment of the political status quo and those who seek to change it, and as a mighty power chord epic.
- “My Generation” (My Generation, 1965) The Who’s early career-defining song spoke for and to a generation of disaffected youths. Entwistle’s incredible bass runs, Daltrey’s iconic stuttering vocal with implied expletive, Moon’s frenetic drumming, Townshend’s opening riff and closing feedback, and one of the most famous lines in rock, “Hope I die before I get old”, make this as influential as any one record can possibly be.
- “I Can See for Miles” (The Who Sell Out, 1967) The huge production with thundering Keith Moon drums and Townshend’s jagged riffs is the key to what Pete Townshend has described as the “ultimate Who record”.
- “Baba O’Riley” (Who’s Next, 1971) The anthemic opening track from The Who’s greatest album demonstrated how far Townshend’s song craft had progressed, even from the triumphant Tommy.
271K views • 11 tracks • 46 minutes The Who's greatest hits and best songs from the albums Tommy, Who's Next, Quadrophenia, Who Are You, My Generation and more. Includes Baba O'riley,...
May 19, 2024 · Listen to a playlist of the best The Who songs on Apple Music and Spotify. The 60s (I Can’t Explain, My Generation, I Can See For Miles, Pinball Wizard, A Quick One While He’s Away, Disguises...
