[Jonathan Adler, May 28, 2006 at 6:19pm] Trackbacks
Townshend on the Politics of WGFA:

Pete Townshend offers his thoughts on National Review's John Miller naming "Won't Get Fooled Again" as the greatest conservative rock song (after coverage in The Independent).

Of course the song has no party-allied political message at all. It is not precisely a song that decries revolution - it suggests that we will indeed fight in the streets - but that revolution, like all action can have results we cannot predict. Don't expect to see what you expect to see. Expect nothing and you might gain everything.

The song was meant to let politicians and revolutionaries alike know that what lay in the centre of my life was not for sale, and could not be co-opted into any obvious cause. . . .

I am just a song-writer. The actions I carry out are my own, and are usually private until some digger-after-dirt questions my methods. What I write is interpreted, first of all by Roger Daltrey. Won't Get Fooled Again - then - was a song that pleaded '….leave me alone with my family to live my life, so I can work for change in my own way….'. But when Roger Daltrey screamed as though his heart was being torn out in the closing moments of the song, it became something more to so many people. And I must live with that.

Related Posts (on one page):

  1. Townshend on the Politics of WGFA:
  2. Sunday Song Lyric:
Can't find a good name:
I don't know that "Won't Get Fooled Again" is necessarily conservative, but I certainly understand its conservative appeal; its themes are reminiscent of George Orwell's "Animal Farm."

(By the way, the comment period for the Sunday song lyric seems unnecessarily short; it was up for less than one day before the comment period closed.)
5.28.2006 9:24pm
countertop (mail):
I've always thought the Vic Chestnut song PC was about the best conservative song I ever heard (and ironically so, since he's hardly what I would call a conservative).

In fact, when you started the Sunday Song Lyric I chose it as my first Monday Song Lyric response :)

BTW, thanks for bringing the Sunday Song Lyric back
5.28.2006 10:49pm
Ship Erect (mail) (www):
The song was meant to let politicians and revolutionaries alike know that what lay in the centre of my life was not for sale, and could not be co-opted into any obvious cause. . . .

But he's got no problem selling his songs to car companies or TV shows? No politicians or revolutionaries, but large sacks of money, please.
5.28.2006 11:06pm
moob (mail):
. . . You need to learn to spell his name. . .
5.28.2006 11:14pm
DiversityHire:
Pete Townshend still rocks, even (maybe especially) when he's rethinking his previous overthinking of the masterpiece that is Won't Get Fooled Again. I wish the false conservative/liberal dichotomy and the attendant labeling would dry up. Long live rock, I need it every day.
5.29.2006 12:14am
Redman:
Rock N Roll is Here to Stay.
5.29.2006 12:19am
Jonathan Adler (mail) (www):
Oops. Embarrassing typos fixed.
5.29.2006 12:53pm
JosephSlater (mail):
Where's the interview with a member of U2 (say, Bono) about whether their song "Gloria" properly ranks in the top 10 of the N.R.'s mostly silly "conservative" song list? The reason the N.R. gave was that the song had some religious Latin in it. I finally got to read the full list, and some of it HAS to be tongue-in-cheek. The N.R. can't be THAT clueless, can they?
5.30.2006 12:57am
LittleJ (mail):
Well! I feel vindicated in my interpretation of the lyrics (sans the Daltrey scream). I, too, thought it Animal Farm-esque. Thanks, Pete!
5.30.2006 2:15am