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The Who, Won’t Get Fooled Again - Amy’s First Listen and Analysis (Patreon)

Published:
2024-12-22 16:17:37
Imported:
2026-06
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 This is one of the longer Rock pieces, but it holds together and holds our attention very well, in part because it has a well developed form, as well as abundant relevant and engaging detail throughout.

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Comments

Andy G

I suggest a “Great Covers” comparison using the live version of this song by Van Halen. Eddie plays the keyboard portions on guitar. It’s a brilliant performance!

Rea Lavi

Interesting to compare the lyrics to this song to those of a Beatles song that deals with a similar topic. Townshend's point of view vs. Lennon's.

Pedro Macedo

I like The Who. They were a great rock band. IMHO they are especially good at Tommy, Who's Next and Quadrophenia.

Marduk777

Zeppelin and The Who on the same day? It must be Christmas.

steveRock

John Entwistle bass was the lead instrument for many Who songs and Pete Townshend guitar filled in the rhythm. Townshend often recorded complete demos of songs at home and brought the music to the band. Townshend's windmill style playing was famous along with Daltrey's twirling the mic cord and mic.

Dan J.

For a contrast, look up Pete’s demo recording of the song. Pete did all the instruments and while simplistic, it gives the idea of what he wanted the song to be. Then, his band mates took their parts and made them their own, culminating in this arrangement. The Who were at their peak and regarded Who’s Next as best album they ever made.

TONY SURRATT

Enjoyed that. When I hear The Who, I’m always drawn to comparisons. Compare them to other bands, rock bands, Led Zeppelin, Beatles, the ones that everyone know each musician, their instruments, vocals, their choice of drugs, performances, and just overall rockiness. So…. a B- for Roger, Pete gets a B, John is an A, and that leaves Keith … I going to be generous, D (as in drugs) Overall, the band, B- IMHO

DJ Marquis Marc Rambeau du Tacoma
>>159040800

You are speaking of The Beatles REVOLUTION, of course. Here's the thing I wonder... which version of REVOLUTION will Vlad have Amy listen to first? Vlad... my recommendation: Do Revolution 1, from the White Album first. This is the first version of the song (which actually devolved, eventually, into Revolution 9) that John did, and it's the one John preferred. It was GEORGE who convinced John to re-record the song into a more rock version that appeared on the single. BUT... John preferred the first version, from the White Album (and... I whole heatedly agree) and said something to the effect that the album version would hit like a "wooden nickel," or something to that effect, but that he MUCH prefered the album version to the single. So... Vlad... I recommend (on John's suggestion) that you present REVOLUTION 1 to Amy first, before the single version.

David Taylor

Amy, Vlad. Great analysis and as always, most enjoyable. There is a funny antichdote about Pete Townsend. Someone asked him why he didn't do the big guitar solos like most of his contemporaries. Pete said, "have you heard us? someone's gotta keep time." These guys were some of the best musicians assembled in one band. I think Pete and Roger are still active in music. Touring? Dunno.

DJ Marquis Marc Rambeau du Tacoma
>>159045029

Pete always denigrated his own band, calling the members "geezers." If you haven't yet. please watch their THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT TONIGHT... it's both poignant and funny.

DJ Marquis Marc Rambeau du Tacoma
>>159044425

Amy will have to hear the bass solo (!!!!) from their very early biggest hit, MY GENERATION. I mean, it's a hugely important song, culturally speaking, and I can't think of another song in the decades that followed that features a bass solo riff! How cool is that?

DJ Marquis Marc Rambeau du Tacoma
>>159044302

CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE AGAIN - a cool Beatles song from their 1967 Christmas flexi-disc featured in the fan magazine, BEATLES MONTHLY. BTW - there's a bootleg album of all of the Christmas messages The Beatles recorded for that magazine from 1963 to 1969. It's GREAT FUN to listen to...

shinypixx

This entire album "Who's Next" is incredible. This album is full of testosterone driven energetic songs that are just fun to listen to. Above all, this album and especially this song features great drumming by Keith Moon, one of the best and most famous rock drummers. Many of the songs on this album come from a failed rock opera project called "Lifehouse". The Who released two very successful rock operas: Tommy and Quadrophenia. But my favorite album by the Who is still "Who's Next". If you want to hear more songs from the Who and especially this album, I could recommend "Baba O’Riley" and "Behind Blue Eyes".

Misty Bastian

Thank you, Amy, for once again offering some analysis of my personal favorite rock band of the era. Townsend was the band leader in many ways, so he used his guitar work to hold all that talent together. Entwhistle, though, the bassist, was often the lead instrument—when Moon didn’t overwhelm with his drumming. (Not going to say anything about the D comment above, other than to acknowledge that Moon—like many talents of his day—did way too many drugs, including alcohol, and paid the price for it.) But please don’t sleep on Daltry’s vocals. To “get” this song, you need to see the live version from the 70s, and then Daltry’s contributions become so much more visible as well as audible. I also agree that watching “The Kids Are Alright” is a must, and I’m sorry that you will never be able to go to one of the Who’s concerts. That was a truly great experience.

Rea Lavi
>>159049872

I have seen some Who concerts on my monitor and felt more in awe than some actual live rock performances I've been to.

Misty Bastian
>>159049872

Yeah, I agree with this, too, but I was fortunate to see the Who twice in the 70s and three times in the 80s, and every concert was a revelation in its own way. Even the one where the jerk sitting behind me threw up all over my favorite top. I just washed up in the ladies room, put on a tour shirt, and didn’t miss a second more. People have asked if the Who were the loudest concert I ever attended, and it’s true that my ears rang for days afterwards. But the loudest was Phillip Glass, the minimalist, in the 80s. I’m not sure my hearing ever recovered from that one.

Pedro Macedo
>>159040853

I love Quadrophenia. Really this song is very good. It has a complexity and a production that makes it better. Although I think that Roger is almost at this voice dynamic range limit here. Peter style of composition seems don’t make things lighter for the singer. My favorite is Love reign over me, no surprise. I think “I’ve had enough” is the kind of sound and arrangement that is all about “Tommy”. Same singing, guitar and drums style, for example.

DJ Marquis Marc Rambeau du Tacoma

I was in the fourth grade in the early 70s when I walked to the garbage dump of my apartment complex... and I see... to my surprise... TWO albums sitting next to the trash bin. I assume some mother tossed her son's albums into the trash. What were they? Only two of the most important albums to come into my life, as a young drummer... This song is from WHO'S NEXT, which was kind of a failed Rock-Opera (located between Tommy and Quadrophenia) called LIGHTHOUSE. In fact, I don't know the story, but WHO'S NEXT is sort of a collection of songs from that project. The other album that I found that day at the trash bin was MACHINE HEAD by Deep Purple... I mean, what gods were watching over me that day? So... I'm a young amateur drummer who learned to play mainly from the following albums (which does not include John Bonham, whom I discovered just a little while later): The Doors debut album; The Beatles Abbey Road; Who's Next by the Who; Machine Head by Deep Purple; and The Yes Album by Yes. WOW! Looking back, I couldn't have asked for a greater group of drum teachers (by example). Also... you know how when you're a child who plays a musical instrument, your parents are going to want to show your talent off to their friends? (No? Consider yourself lucky.) Anyway, whenever I was supposed to impress someone with my amateur drumming, THIS is the song that I always played for them... and I MUST admit... I usually got a positive reaction! Good for my ego.

David Taylor
>>159044722

We all have our opinions, I see the Who as one of the standard bearers of rock...IMHO Lol

DJ Marquis Marc Rambeau du Tacoma
>>159047776

Like you said, the entire album is classic. I usually put "the teenage wasteland song" in parenthesis after the song title, as the title itself never appears in the lyrics, and not that many people are "in the know" regarding this.

DJ Marquis Marc Rambeau du Tacoma
>>159040227

I can't wait for Amy to discover Eddie. I'm hoping Vlad chooses his 12-minute ERUPTION solo from 1986... many others have reacted to it... because it's so freaking COOL!

shinypixx
>>159044722

Well Keith was unique. Like John Bonham, Ginger Baker, Stewart Copeland you know immediately it's him. I love his energetic, unique, wild drums For me he's definitively an A+ since the band was never the same without him anymore.

RAD1

The High Def video of this song in concert goes a long way in understanding their total effect on Rock.

Steve

So Amy you might be interested to know that those keyboard parts were heavily influenced by the minimalist composer Terry Reily Also, you know the really great bands when the drummer and the bass player are as important as the singer and guitarist. The Who is one of those.

Ron Ueberschaer

I think Pete described his band mates as Lead Bass, Lead Drums, Lead Vocals. Pete himself was great at Lead Guitar, but often chose to play more as rhythm guitarist & time-keeper/accompanist since everyone else was always soloing. It’s fun to relisten to songs or entire albums & just concentrate on Moon’s drumming or Entwistle’s bass throughout.

Terence colin Shortman
>>159044722

From my perspective you can't really rate bands or musicians they are all different and all have unique styles and sounds there were a lot of great artists and groups then but there were before and after and as Francis Rossi of Status Quo once said "when you have made it big, and you go wow 20 million people like our music then you think 2 billion people don't like our music puts your feet back on the ground don't it"

Julian Ortiz

Besides “All Right Now” by Free, this is one of the songs I immediately think of when I hear the term “Classic Rock.” To me it’s easily one of the best songs ever recorded. My dad had the Who’s Next album when I was a kid and it was one of my favorites. I still remember being absolutely blown away, not only with the song, but just losing it upon hearing that final “Yeah” screamed by Roger Daltrey. I still get goosebumps every time I hear it. I really enjoyed Amy’s analysis of this one. I also loved how she called out the drum performance by Keith Moon. He was even more of a mad man than John Bonham, but no less a heavy weight in the Rock world whose influence is still felt today. Well done as always!

Ye_Humble_Scrivener

It's a political song, to be sure, but I don't think it's about electoral politics so much -- more about curdled idealism, and the '60s counterculture ending not with a bang, but a whimper. And the performance -- great galloping God. Everyone was firing on all cylinders here. If we're talking Classic Rock, this is as good as it gets.

TONY SURRATT
>>159055745

I’ve never seen the movie Tommy. When it came out, the local theaters didn’t schedule it,here anyway, and there was no VCRs then. So I bought the LP, the soundtrack. Mainly because of Elton John. He was getting all the air play on the radio. That was a two album set. It was such a unique listening experience. It was complicated, but it was easy to follow the script in the music. The deaf, dumb, and blind kid. A 70s cult, with acid and pinball A few years later, in the Navy, Who Next with a cassette player and headphones. An AWESOME listening experience btw, I remembered you telling me about finding those records. I made the Keith comments, just to see what you say. Drummers

Lee Kennison

The Who, along with this song, have always been high on my list of classic rock bands and songs for you to dig deeper in, since prior to this you had only heard "Love Reign O'er Me," which is also a great song. They still have a lot of great songs for you to hear yet, with "My Generation" probably being the next top one on my list to represent their early (1965) work, a favorite among bass players, with its legendary bass performance. A very influential band coming out of the British Invasion era of 60s rock. I consider the Beatles, the Stones, and the Who, to be the big 3 of this British Invasion era, although there were several other great ones too, such as the Animals (who you have also heard one song). Later, after conquering the new world they made room for others to follow, notably Led Zeppelin, a few years later. Great reaction! I loved it!

DJ Marquis Marc Rambeau du Tacoma
>>159055745

Hey Tony, I actually DID go see that movie (with Elton John as the Pinball Wizard and Tina Turner as the Acid Queen) when it came out in 1975, so... I was in junior high school. I had already owned Who's Next for a couple of years by then... but I was NOT ready for the movie at that age. It was too far beyond me... even though I grew up in the Bay Area around that time and had seen a lot, relatively speaking. Nope... not ready.

Misty Bastian
>>159049872

I am willing to bet that Phillip Glass had his amps turned to 12, though. And I was sitting far too close to them in a relatively small venue. Goodbye, part of my hearing.

Gary Sjoberg

I read where somebody said that Keith Moon doesn’t just play a song; He plays counterpoint to it. He’s a joy to listen to.

John Barnett

The 'dee dee dee dee dah sound'' is a prerecorded synthesizer composition by Townshend. If you watch it live, all that Townshend does is turn it on and then just walk away. Somehow I always felt cheated knowing I was just listening to a machine. No one knew at the time, but this was then a preview of the future. To quote Mojo Nixon (satirist musician par excellence!), "Machines ain't music!"

Rea Lavi
>>159165363

Townshend's a rock songwriter of the highest caliber, easily comparable to Lennon, McCartney, or Wilson.

Rea Lavi
>>159155844

Yes he played against the vocals, the bass, or the guitar. It was like a conversation between him and the other players.

Peter Buwen

Amy, when I look at your reactions today and compare them with the first ones on your channel, I notice that you have very quickly become an expert on the depth of rock music. It's still lacking a bit in terms of breadth, but you're constantly working on that. I think that's great.

Jeremy Finch

I’m sure I’ve already commented on The Who live, but it really must be seen to be believed. It’s less a band performance and more witnessing a force of nature. For me, “Young Man Blues” from the Isle of Wight, 1970 is a great example.

Fordy7169

Glad you enjoyed it Amy, one of the all-time classic rock tracks, it'll stand as a pillar/touchstone of 20th Century popular music for centuries to come. I recommend watching the official Who Channel video of them playing this in Shepperton Studios live on stage 1978 so you get a flavour of the 4 different personalities gelling on stage. They were so about live performance. https://youtu.be/UDfAdHBtK_Q?si=oUef6bD69T3L9mh7

brovold72 .

Lyrically yes it is certainly an anthem of political cynicism--which didn't serve humanity in the 70's and certainly hasn't lately, but boy I sure understand the sentiment.

brovold72 .

Gosh the grand finale here is as satisfying as anything ever -- the rock equivalent of "In the Mood" or Beethoven's popular symphonies.

DJ Marquis Marc Rambeau du Tacoma
>>159273699

From my perspective, politics often doesn't serve humanity (today NOT being an exception)... so such cynicism, while not useful in a positive sense, maybe - but we humans NEED some way emote over what we see daily. Personally, I'm thinking "gallows humor," these days.

Evelyn
>>159098778

"curdled idealism". PERFECT. God, we really need even just a smidgeon of that idealism back. Without any, we'll just succomb to total apathy, which most people have anyway, I guess.

Evelyn
>>159044722

you're obviously NOT a drummer, or even onto drums. his peers respected Keith, and I respect their opinion. Off the kit, the man was crazed much of the time, but on the kit? Respect.

Evelyn
>>159129236

I always think of the British Invasion as coming in waves.......There were at least three, if not more of these "waves". Definitely the big three of the first were the ones you mentioned, but before the arrival of Zeppelin in 1969 , there was Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, and several others. So many outstanding British bands and artists in the 70's....the list is LONG. And then the 80's brought another "invasion".

Allan Middleton

This and "Who are you" were used as theme songs for the TV show "C.S.I"

TONY SURRATT
>>159044722

Your correct I’m not a drummer, or a musician. But I wouldn’t say that I’m not into drums, Keith was very talented, And how I come up my conclusions on musical greatness. I use my own senses, hearing, seeing, feel, and even been influenced by others. Something that I found funny, Playboy ranked Karen Carpenter a better drummer than John Bonham, needless to say John didn’t take it well. I’m curious, what’s you thoughts on Carter Beauford drumming? I consider him one of best. Merry Christmas Evelyn

Lee Kennison
>>159129236

Yeah, that's a good way of looking at it: the 3 waves. In my analogy, they conquered us in the first invasion, so the subsequent ones were not an invasion, but just the continuing to send more bands over with a dominance of the top British bands (at least relative to country sizes) with the bands that followed (LZ, etc.) But you analogy is better, since there were a lot of strong American bands too wrestling for dominance, so the Brits had to keep invading to try and grab back dominance.😉

steveRock
>>159044425

MY GENERATION was the first Who song that I heard on the radio and what an impact it had! Roger's stuttering and the generational lyrics "hope I die before I get old". Another great bass song and my personal Who favorite is MAGIC BUS.

Rea Lavi

This deserved more than 19mins

DJ Marquis Marc Rambeau du Tacoma
>>159129236

Three waves, huh? Well, just for fun, let me figure out how I would define it: 1964-1966: All the bands that came from Britain to America 1967-1979: Starts with Jimi Hendrix (American lead, but 2/3 British band where Jimi re-created his image as The Experience) and The Who coming to the 1967 INTERNATIONAL MONTEREY POP FESTIVAL. Also are the basic years of Pink Floyd, Pipers At The Gates of Dawn to The Wall. 1980: Anything else from Britian.

DJ Marquis Marc Rambeau du Tacoma
>>159049872

The loudest concert that I ever attended was seeing the first Beatles tribute band, BEATLEMANIA, in Santa Barbara, CA in 1982. I couldn't hear correctly after the concert for 4 or 5 hours. Ear (and brain) damage!