The Who, 1965 and 1971

The Who were, alongside The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, the Small Faces and numerous others, part of the British ‘Beat group’ explosion of new ‘Pop’ bands in the early to mid-1960s. They reached number 2 in the UK single charts in 1965 with ‘My Generation’. The clip below skilfully edits together TV and live footage of The Who at various stages in their career between 1964 and 1978. It shows many of the trends in music and fashion which The Who both led and reflected. We see them as a young ‘Mod’ band; as part of the ‘psychedelic’ era of the late 1960s, and, ultimately, as one of the most globally popular (and for many years officially the loudest) of the ‘stadium rock’ bands of the 1970s.

Some questions to think about:
- Can any band represent an entire generation? Do you think that is what The Who were, in fact, trying to do?
- Is the thinking behind the lyrics of ‘My Generation’ drastically different (and does the song sound drastically different) from what Punk rockers The Sex Pistols would be doing 11 years later?

The 1971 performance of ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ below is preceded by a snippet from an interview in which a young Jeremy Paxman questions guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend about the excesses of The Who’s ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ lifestyle. ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ was one of the first rock songs to use that important new piece of music-making technology: the synthesizer.

– Do the lyrics of ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ suggest a change in attitude from ‘My Generation’? Or are we wrong to think that pop music has a ‘message’?