“The Seeker” is a song written by Pete Townshend and performed by English rock band The Who, and featured on their 1971 compilation album Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy.
“I suppose I like this least of all the stuff”, wrote Townshend. “It suffered from being the first thing we did after Tommy, and also from being recorded a few too many times. We did it once at my home studio, then at IBC where we normally worked then with Kit Lambert producing. Then Kit had a tooth pulled, breaking his jaw, and we did it ourselves. The results are impressive. It sounded great in the mosquito-ridden swamp I made it up in, Florida at three in the morning drunk out of my brain with Tom Wright and John Wolf. But that’s always where the trouble starts, in the swamp. The alligator turned into an elephant and finally stampeded itself to death on stages around England. I don’t think we even got to play it in the States.” (Actually, this is not true, as the band did perform it for about two weeks on their 1970 American tour.) Released in the UK as Track 604036 on March 21, 1970, it reached #19 in the charts. Released in the U.S. as Decca 732729, it hit the Billboard charts on April 11, 1970, eventually peaking at #44. The Who revived the song on the 2006-2007 tour for Endless Wire.
“Behind Blue Eyes” is a song written by Pete Townshend of The Who for his Lifehouse project. It first appeared on The Who’s 1971 Who’s Next album, along with a number of other remnants from the project. The song is one of The Who’s most well known recordings and has been covered by many artists, notably Limp Bizkit in their 2003 album Results May Vary.
The song is one of the most well-known of The Who’s recordings. It starts off with a solo voice singing over an arpeggiated guitar, later adds in bass guitar and ethereal harmonies, eventually breaks out into full-scale rock anthem when a second theme is introduced near the end, and wraps up by a brief reprise of the quieter first theme. Songs written in alternating sections were something of a trademark of Townshend’s writing of the period, going back at least to Tommy, where it was used in “Christmas” and “Go to the Mirror!” The guitar riff at the end of the rock anthem section is also used after the bridge during the song “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” perhaps serving as a link between the two songs when Who’s Next was intended to be a rock opera. (Some musical themes from Tommy and Quadrophenia appear in multiple places.)
The lyrics are a first-person lament from a man in the Lifehouse story, variously identified as ‘Brick’ or ‘Jumbo’, who is always angry and full of angst because of all the pressure and temptation that surrounds him, and the song was intended to be his “theme song” had the project been successful. (The lyrics of the rocking section near the end were actually written by Townshend as a prayer when he was a disciple of Meher Baba after being tempted by a groupie, and incorporated into the song when it was written.) In the incarnation of Lifehouse that was officially released as a part of Pete Townshend’s solo box set, The Lifehouse Chronicles the song’s meaning changes to the theme song of the story’s protagonist, Ray.
The version of “Behind Blue Eyes” on the original Who’s Next album was actually the second version the band recorded; the earlier version appears as a bonus track on the remastered CD release, which features Al Kooper on Hammond Organ. Pete Townshend has also recorded two solo versions, one (the original demo of the song) was featured on the Scoop album. The demo along with a newer recording of the song featuring an orchestral backing was featured in The Lifehouse Chronicles.
Townshend originally wrote “Baba O’Riley” for his Lifehouse project, a rock opera that was to be the follow-up to The Who’s 1969 opera, Tommy. Townshend derived the song from an experimental recording of his Lowrey Berkshire home organ, which the band reconstructed. “Baba O’Riley” was going to be used in the Lifehouse project as a song sung by Ray, the Scottish farmer at the beginning of the album as he gathers his wife Sally and his two children to begin their exodus to London. When Lifehouse was scrapped, many of the songs were released on The Who’s 1971 album Who’s Next. “Baba O’Riley” became the first track on Who’s Next. The song was released as a single in several European countries, but in the United States and the United Kingdom was only released as part of the album.
Drummer Keith Moon had the idea of inserting a violin solo at the coda of the song, during which the style of the song shifts from crashing rock to an Irish folk-style beat. Dave Arbus, of East of Eden, plays the violin in the studio recording. In concert, lead singer Roger Daltrey replaces the violin solo with a harmonica solo. The Who have produced a live version of the song with a violin, provided by Nigel Kennedy, during their 27 November 2000 concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
The song’s iconic backing track was derived from deep within the Lifehouse concept. Townshend wanted to input the life information of Meher Baba into a synthesizer, which would then generate music based on that information. That music would have been the backing track for “Baba O’Riley,” but in the end, the frenetic sequence was played by Townshend on a Lowrey Berkshire Deluxe TBO-1 organ using its marimba repeat feature. This modal approach used for the synthesizer track was inspired by the work of minimalist composer Terry Riley. The names of Riley and Meher Baba were incorporated into the song title as a tribute by Townshend. Although they never actually did it in concert, The Who considered pulling a person from the audience and programming their vital statistics into a synthesizer that would, in effect, translate that person into a musical theme around which a song could be built (an idea later resurrected as the Lifehouse Method).
Who Are You is the eighth album by English rock band The Who. It was released in August 1978 on Polydor Records in the United Kingdom and on MCA Records in the United States. It peaked at Number 2 on the U.S. charts and Number 6 on the U.K. charts. It is The Who’s last album with Keith Moon as the drummer. Moon died about three weeks after the release of this album.
Who Are You was put out at a time when the two major camps of rock, progressive rock and punk rock, were conflicting due to their antipodal styles. Pete Townshend’s compositions were written as an attempt to bring the two styles together. The album showcases some of the most complicated song structures guitarist Townshend had ever composed, with multiple layers of synthesizer and strings. Moon’s deteriorating health is reflected in some of the tracks; the alcohol and drug abuse had taken away from the frenzied drumming he was renowned for, but he delivered a powerhouse performance on the title track.
There was a three-year hiatus between Who Are You and The Who’s previous album, The Who By Numbers. The band was drifting apart during this period, due to the band members working on various solo projects, Moon sinking deeper into alcohol and drug abuse, and general exhaustion from the gruelling tour schedule the band had kept over the decade. Moon’s health was especially an object of concern, as he only managed to come in during the last few weeks of recording and was unable to play in 6/8 time on the track “Music Must Change”, so drums were removed completely from the track - only a few cymbal crashes were added. Moon died just under a month after its release, and on the cover is shown sitting in a chair labeled “Not to be taken away”. Moon is sitting backwards on the chair to hide his excessive weight gain over the prior three years.
The album was a commercial success, going 2x platinum in the U.S. and peaking at Number 2 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. The soundtrack to Grease prevented Who Are You from achieving Number 1 status in the U.S. The success of Who Are You generated excitement at the prospect of a new Who tour for the album. However, the album is surrounded by tragedy for Who fans due to Moon’s death shortly after the album’s release. The songs on the album were later performed on tour in 1979 when The Who were joined by new drummer Kenney Jones and keyboardist John Bundrick. Bundrick had been invited to play on the album, but broke his arm falling out of a taxi at the studio door and was unable to participate.
The performance by The Who was another defining moment in the series. As they often did during that period, The Who destroyed their instruments at the conclusion of their performance. However, a stage hand, at the request of the band, had overloaded Keith Moon’s kick drum with explosives. When they were detonated, the explosion was so intense that Moon was injured by cymbal shrapnel and, allegedly, Pete Townshend’s hearing was permanently damaged.
Moon led a very destructive lifestyle. He laid waste to hotel rooms, the homes of friends, and even his own home, throwing furniture out of high windows. Along with his drum sets, Moon’s signature prank was to flush powerful fireworks (usually Cherry bombs, Roman candles, M-80s and in some extreme cases, even dynamite) down the toilet, detonating and ultimately destroying scores of toilets in this manner for his personal amusement. It has been estimated that his destruction of toilets and plumbing ran as high as US$500,000, and his repeated practice of blowing up toilets with explosives led him to be banned from lodging at several hotel chains around the world for life, including all Holiday Inn, Sheraton, and Hilton hotels.
Unknown to many people at the time, Moon was often able to cajole John Entwistle into helping him blow up toilets. In a 1981 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Entwistle confessed, “A lot of times when Keith was blowing up toilets I was standing behind him with the matches.” During one incident between Moon and hotel management, Moon was asked to turn down his cassette player because The Who were making “too much noise.” In response, Moon lit a stick of dynamite in his toilet to teach the unsuspecting manager “the difference between The Who and noise.” On a different occasion in Alabama, Moon and Entwistle loaded a toilet with cherry bombs because they could not receive room service. According to Entwistle, ‘That toilet was just dust all over the walls by the time we checked out. The management brought our suitcases down to the gig and said: “Don’t come back…” ‘
The acts, though often fueled by drugs and alcohol, were his way of expressing his eccentricity, as well as the joy he got from shocking the public. In Moon’s biography, Full Moon, Dougal Butler observed: “He would do anything if he knew that there were enough people around who didn’t want him to do it.”
Moon was Paul McCartney’s guest at a film preview of The Buddy Holly Story on the evening of 6 September 1978. After dining with Paul and Linda McCartney, Moon and his girlfriend, Annette Walter-Lax, returned to a flat on loan from Harry Nilsson in Curzon Place, London (near Shepherd Market), where Moon died of an overdose of Clomethiazole (Heminevrin). The medication was a sedative he had been prescribed to alleviate his alcohol withdrawal symptoms as he tried to go dry on his own at home; he was desperate to get clean, but was terrified of another stay in the psychiatric hospital for in-patient detoxification. However, Clomethiazole is specifically contraindicated for unsupervised home detox due to its addictiveness, tendency to rapidly induce drug tolerance, and dangerously high risk of death when mixed with alcohol. The pills were also prescribed by a new doctor, Dr. Geoffrey Dymond, who was unaware of Moon’s recklessly impulsive nature and long history of prescription sedative abuse. He had given Moon a full bottle of 100 pills, and instructed him to take one whenever he felt a craving for alcohol (but not more than 3 per day). The police determined there were 32 pills in his system, with the digestion of 6 being sufficient to cause his death, and the other 26 of which were still undissolved when he died. Moon died in the room in which Cass Elliot of The Mamas & the Papas had died four years earlier.
Moon died a couple of weeks after the release of Who Are You. On the album cover, Moon is seated on a chair back-to-front to hide the weight gained over three years (as discussed in Tony Fletcher’s book “Dear Boy”). The chair is labeled “NOT TO BE TAKEN AWAY.”
Moon was cremated. His ashes were scattered in the Gardens of Remembrance at Golders Green Crematorium in London.
“Pictures of Lily” is a single by the British rock band The Who. It was released in 1967 as a single, made the top five in the UK, but failed to break into the top 50 in the US.
This song was written by Pete Townshend. In the beginning of the song, the singer laments his insomnia. When his father gives him the pictures of the song’s title, he feels better, and is able to sleep. Soon, he feels desire for Lily as a person instead of a photo, and asks his father for an introduction. His father informs him however that “Lily” has, in fact, been dead since 1929. Initially, the singer laments, but before long turns back to his fantasy.
According to Pete Townshend in the 2006 book “Lyrics” by Rikky Rooksby, “the idea was inspired by a picture my girlfriend had on her wall of an old Vaudeville star - Lily Bayliss. It was an old 1920s postcard and someone had written on it ‘Here’s another picture of Lily - hope you haven’t got this one.’ It made me think that everyone has a pin-up period.” This version may be true, but actually Lillie Langtry, the world famous music hall star died in 1929, the same year that the father in the song says Lily died.
“I Can’t Explain” is a song released by English rock band The Who in 1965, written by Pete Townshend and produced by Shel Talmy. It was released as the A-side of the first single the band released as “The Who” (the first single, I’m the Face/Zoot Suit, was released as the High Numbers).
“I Can’t Explain” was also released as the opening song of The Who’s 1971 compilation album Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy. In the liner notes, Townshend notes the song’s similarity to its contemporary hit single “All Day and All of the Night” by The Kinks: “It can’t be beat for straightforward Kink copying. There is little to say about how I wrote this. It came out of the top of my head when I was 18 and a half.” The Who used “I Can’t Explain” throughout their live performance history. It was used in many (if not all) of their live performances, often as the opener, and continues to be a staple today.
Although it is rumoured that Jimmy Page played the guitar solo in the song, it is not true. The solo was instead played by Townshend on his Rickenbacker 360/12. Page was called in as a session player, but only played rhythm guitar. Page did play lead guitar on the single’s B-side, “Bald Headed Woman”.
A snippet of the song was also performed by Elton John in his cover version of “Pinball Wizard” for the soundtrack to the 1975 film Tommy.
David Bowie recorded a version of this song for his Pin Ups album in 1973. It was also covered by heavy metal band Scorpions in their 1989 Best of Rockers ‘n’ Ballads, and reached #5 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
The Clash used the main riff as the basis of two songs, “Guns On The Roof,” and “Clash City Rockers.”
You Am I recorded a cover as a B-side to their single Berlin Chair in 1994.
Fatboy Slim also sampled the main riff from Yvonne Elliman’s cover in his 1997 song Going Out of My Head.
The Hives used a similar riff for their 2004 single “Walk Idiot Walk”.
Chapter24 used the riff from the original version throughout their 2006 track Song That Dies Too Much.
Brazilian band Ultraje a Rigor covered the song on their album Acústico MTV Ultraje a Rigor. It was translated as “Eu Não Sei” (I don’t know).
The original version by The Who is ranked #371 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
In 2008, Incubus covered the song at the “VH1 Honors THE WHO”-Show.
“Substitute” is a song by The Who written by Pete Townshend. It was released as a single in March 1966, when it reached #5 in the UK, and was later included on the compilation album Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy in 1971. It became a UK top ten hit again when re-issued in 1976, reaching #7.
The concept for the song was supposedly originally inspired by Townshend’s idea The Who were a “substitute” for the Rolling Stones (Townshend had been particularly impressed by The Stones’ hit “Satisfaction” and was determined to come up with a memorable riff in response), though it was later described as a comment about the blurring between image and reality. The title was also inspired by Townshend’s admiration of The Miracles’ 1965 song, “The Tracks of My Tears”, in particular, writer Smokey Robinson’s use of the word “substitute” in one of the verses. The song is notable not just for the clever lyrics, but also the intense bass of John Entwistle (reportedly Entwistle turned his bass as high as possible for the recording, without the band’s knowledge). The song was a fan favorite and was played at almost every concert that The Who performed - this, “I Can’t Explain,” and “Heaven and Hell,” in varying orders, have served as The Who’s opening numbers for over forty years. It appears on the Live at Leeds album as well as Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970. Also in a BBC radio appearance Pete Townshend stated that Substitute simply “was about nothing” and it “had no hidden meaning”.
On the album Live at Leeds, Pete Townshend comments about the song by saying:
“ We’d like to play three selected hit singles–three easiest–uh there’s Substitute which we like (crowd cheers). Thank You. That was our first number four (crowd laughs)… ”
Keith Moon’s memory of recording the song was forever clouded, as he recalled in an interview shown on an episode of VH1’s Behind the Music: “I don’t remember playing ‘Substitute’ at all, I was too stoned, and when it came out, I accused the other members of the group of getting another drummer in!”
For the American release of the single, the “controversial” lyric “I look all white but my dad was black” was changed to “I try going forward but my feet walk back”.
Punk rock group The Ramones covered the song on their “Acid Eaters” album, and it was also released as a single by the Sex Pistols. English rock band Blur also covered this song in a 1994 tribute album to The Who called Who Covers Who?
A snippet of this song can be heard in the movie School of Rock.
It was also covered by metal band Great White.
The song is currently being played as a collaboration between Silverchair and Powderfinger at the end of their concerts on the Across the Great Divide Tour.
A memorial plaque for Keith Moon at Golders Green Crematorium reads “There is no substitute”, a possible reference to the song.
