Townshend Responds

Pete has posted a response on his web site to the "50 Greatest Conservative Rock Songs" article that recently appeared in the UK Indpendent and listed "Won't Get Fooled Again" at #1.

I had to chuckle when Pete ripped into Spike Lee (whose work I have never really found all that interesting) for missing the point of WGFA when he used it in the dreadful "Summer of Sam." As Pete says, Spike Lee missed the prayer that he had written into the lyrics.

The tension of Townshend and The Who is that he really is praying in the midst of all the mayhem; mayhem he creates himself! One of my favorite moments in all of Who-dom is the bridge in "The Punk and The Godfather" from Quadrophenia. Townshend's voice, shaky and self-doubting, appears after the carnage of the verse and lays out his prayer:

I have to be careful not to preach
I can't pretend that I can teach

Moments of naked revealing like that can be found all over The Who's catalogue and they represent one of my favorite things about Townshend's songwriting. It's the way I feel all the time in life - trying to be meditative and contemplative in the midst of my own yelling.

Pete also had this to say a few years ago when he refused to license WGFA to Michael Moore for Fahrenheit 9/11.

WGFA is not an unconditionally anti-war song, or a song for or against revolution. It actually questions the heart of democracy: we vote heartily for leaders who we subsequently always seem to find wanting. (WGFA is a song sung by a fictional character from my 1971 script called LIFEHOUSE. The character is someone who is frightened by the slick way in which truth can be twisted by clever politicians and revolutionaries alike).

This is the problem with our heroes (and Townshend is most definitely my hero). We like to think we know them, but we don't. The hero is somebody we create.