Who Sings Dont Get Fooled Again

Won't Get Fooled Again is one of the biggest classic rock anthems of all time. Written by Pete Townshend and released by The Who as a unmarried in June 1971, reaching the Uk top ten. Information technology was the terminal rail on the incredible Who'south Next anthology, released Baronial 1971.

The track was originally conceived for an entirely unlike projection. Following the success of Tommy, the band'southward 1969 double concept album that sent The Who into stone's elite partitioning, Townshend started work on a new conceptual project chosen Lifehouse.

The story was an intriguing ane, if a bit abstract. Information technology was designed to bear witness how spiritual enlightenment could be obtained via a combination of ring and audience. The concept was imagined as a multi-media exercise, involving a movie and theatrical live performances in addition to the music. Even the music was to be adult in a new manner: through interaction with a alive audience. The trouble was that nobody just Townshend fully understood what it was all about thematically, what it would entail, or how the execution actually work work.

Lifehouse is gear up in the near future in a lodge in which music is banned and nearly of the population live indoors in government-controlled experience suits connected through a grid. A rebel, Bobby, broadcasts rock music into the suits, allowing people to remove them and become more enlightened.

Interestingly, the story describes technology that would be developed years later. For instance, the grid resembles the internet, and people's experiences within the experience suits basically describe a form of virtual reality.

Bobby finds that there is a universal chord that is so pure that it has the ability to restore harmony and enlighten anyone who hears it. Won't Go Fooled Again was written for the end of the opera, when the people are free and looking to overthrow the leadership. Bobby is killed and the universal chord is finally sounded. The main characters disappear, leaving behind the government and army to have at each other.

We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit down in judgment of all wrong
They make up one's mind and the shotgun sings the vocal

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Grin and grin at the modify all around
Pick upwardly my guitar and play
Merely like yesterday
So I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

Townshend realised that the newly emerging synthesizers would let him to communicate the ideas he had to a mass audience. He had met the BBC Radiophonic Workshop which gave him ideas for capturing homo personality within music. Townshend interviewed several people with general practitioner-style questions, and captured their heartbeat, brainwaves and astrological charts, converting the result into a serial of audio pulses.

For the demo of Won't Get Fooled Over again, he linked a Lowrey organ into an EMS VCS 3 filter that played back the pulse-coded modulations from his experiments. He subsequently upgraded to an ARP 2500. The synthesizer did not play any sounds directly as it was monophonic; instead it modified the block chords on the organ as an input signal.

These type of arpeggiated synthesizer sounds would be used on two songs on the album: opener Baba O'Riley and closer Won't Get Fooled Again, bookending the anthology with songs featuring this sound – and quite prominently at that. The nerve of in particular opening the anthology with a huge, extended synthesizer intro, was a epic movement. It was also very unique – non just the sonic quality of the sound itself, but the percussive rhythms that the patterns infused into their songs.

It almost certainly was the commencement fourth dimension a major rock band had used a synthesizer similar this. Others may take wanted to or would have leapt at the risk, but the musical instrument was merely uncommon before Townshend got his easily on one. Likewise, very few knew how to work them and they were really difficult to program. Townshend spent endless weeks holed upward in the studio getting to the lesser of this musical instrument and the new opportunity it offered, putting in fourth dimension, effort, and pure stamina that others but may not have had.

The demo, recorded at a slower tempo than the version by the Who, was completed by Townshend overdubbing drums, bass, electrical guitar, vocals and handclaps. In the Classic Albums documentary for the Who'south Adjacent album, Townshend said: "When I did this sound for Won't Become Fooled Once again I didn't have the full equipment. It arrived during the making of the demos. By the time I had finished the demos I knew how to work it, but what I did have was a much simpler organ synthesizer. I took the output of the organ and put it through a filter, which is what they telephone call 'sample and hold' – you go these random voltages coming out. I suppose I was just sitting there and playing it for 60 minutes after hour, getting into it. The chords I used were very simple – almost kind of naïvely simple, but then again, the finish result is extraordinarily harmonically complex."

What many assume to be a loop, is actually a live operation with many subtle variations, making a loop incommunicable.

Townshend's demo of the song contains a much more straightforward drum and bass pattern than the ones Keith Moon and John Entwistle would add to the vocal. "When I first started playing the drums I tried to emulate Keith, but in the terminate I thought, f*ck it. I don't actually want to play like that." He knew that the songs would still get the inevitable and inimitable stamp by the other band members, making it into a song by The Who rather than Pete Townshend solo.

At a bespeak well into the song, there is an organ solo with the same arpeggiated rhythm. "That office is something I couldn't accept written on newspaper," said Townshend. "What's interesting there is what happens to the organ. The part has been playing in the background all forth, when information technology all of a sudden becomes a solo. The part is me playing, and it turns into something beautiful and spontaneous. Something very disciplined. I'm just following it – I did not write information technology, I follow the music."

That solo spot became a pivotal bespeak in the alive shows too, with incredible laser effects casting a spectacular display over the stage, Roger Daltrey's shadow reappearing in the heart, backed by Keith Moon'southward incredible percussive work, before the band explode back into it – with THAT scream.

The solo section of "Won't Get Fooled Again" – live at Shepperton Studios, 25 May 1978

Roger Daltrey'south scream towards the end of the solo, right earlier the "meet the new dominate, aforementioned as the old boss" section, is simply incredible. It is largely considered one of the best recorded screams on any rock song. According to legend, it was such a disarming wail the rest of the ring, who were lunching nearby, thought Daltrey was having a brawl with the engineer. Who biographer Dave Marsh described information technology as "the greatest scream of a career filled with screams".

The lyrics of Won't Be Fooled Again has every bit interesting a backstory as the music. To fully sympathize everything that went into the song, nosotros need to look at the commune on Eel Pie Island, right virtually a place on the River Themes in Richmond, London, where Pete Townshend lived at the fourth dimension. There was an agile district on the island at the fourth dimension, situated in what used to exist a hotel. "In that location was like a love matter going on betwixt me an them," Townshend said. "They dug me considering I was like a figurehead in a grouping, and I dug them because I could see what was going on over in that location. At one betoken there was an amazing scene where the commune was really working, but and then the acid started flowing and I got on the end of some psychotic conversations."

In the documentary The History of The Who, Townshend offered more detail on what happened: "When I wrote Won't Get Fooled Once again I was a young human with a family. I have a pick about what I tin can and cannot practise, and what I can and cannot recall. The sensibility of the day was that the artist – the rock musician – was the property of the people. Information technology was the musician who should be liberated. This was exacerbated a bit by the fact that I lived right almost a identify on the River Themes called Eel Pie Isle, which had been taken over by a agglomeration of hippies and Grateful Dead fans, and the Grunter Pen… all that bunch came one day and distributed heroin and LSD. They used to come and knock at the door and say, "give u.s. food"! I'd say okay, and I'll give 'em some food. The next mean solar day they were back, and said "requite us more food"! I said okay again, and of course the next they were back nevertheless again saying "give usa more than nutrient!" I finally said, "we've run out of food." They went, what? I repeated "nosotros've run out of food." They could not cover this. "Just… nosotros want more nutrient!" Later they would come by and say "give us a auto – we want to liberate your car!" I told a story about them to a friend once, and my married woman got so angry cause I'd never told her about it. She hates it when she hears things second hand, and this i was nearly ane of these guys knocking at the door saying "we've come up to liberate your baby!" I mean… Jesus F*cking Christ. They were wackos. And that was the climate in which I wrote Won't Become Fooled Again. Information technology acquired quite a lot of difficulty for me, just I had to think about information technology and I had to stand up by it."

The Woodstock festival was too an influence on this song. Most songs inspired past Woodstock follow the peace and dear narrative, but Townshend had a very different take.

The Who played on 24-hour interval two, going on at the ludicrous hour of 5 in the morn. During their ready, the activist Abbie Hoffman came on stage unannounced and commandeered the microphone. Accounts differ on whether Townshend belted him with his guitar, simply he certainly did not want to provide a platform for whatever cause. "I wrote Won't Get Fooled Once more every bit a reaction to all that," he explained to Creem in 1982. "As in, 'Leave me out of information technology; I don't think you lot would be any better than the other lot!'"

The song has been taken as a call to arms for a number of causes over the years, which is the verbal reverse of what its writer had in listen. In The History of The Who documentary, Townshend said, "Strangely enough, it's the kind of song which is adopted for many causes, yous know. We accept to keep reminding people that this is about our correct to stand away from causes. You know, we cull not to be fooled by your rhetoric, by your politicisation, by your spin. Nosotros think for ourselves, and we too take the right to opt out. I call back what I felt at the fourth dimension was that I if I had been confronted with people coming to say 'we want the money back,' I would just say that you lot can't have it and I'm available for hire. If you don't want to hire me, don't rent me. You can't liberate me – I'thousand not your property."

The change, it had to come
We knew information technology all forth
We were liberated from the fold, that's all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
Crusade the banners, they are flown in the next state of war

Townshend described the vocal as one "that screams defiance at those who feel whatsoever cause is better than no cause." He afterwards said that the song was not strictly anti-revolution despite the lyric "We'll be fighting in the streets", just stressed that revolution could be unpredictable, adding, "Don't wait to run into what you expect to see. Expect nothing and you might gain everything."

Bassist John Entwistle later said that the vocal showed Townshend "proverb things that actually mattered to him, and maxim them for the showtime time."

One of the pivotal lyrics to ever come from a The Who song are found at the end of this song.

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

The song has often been taken up in an anthemic sense, but these words more than than any other should brand it articulate that information technology's really a cautionary piece. Townshend said: "Won't Get Fooled Again was not a defined argument. Information technology was a plea! Information technology was a plea, because you know – in the Lifehouse story, it said; delight don't experience because you've come up to the concert, to this place, that you've got an reply. Please don't make me on the stage the new boss. Because I'one thousand just the same as the guy who was upwards here before. You're in accuse."

In looking closer at the Lifehouse story and Won't Get Fooled Once more, you realise that it is not describing utopia. It is much closer to dystopia. The current earth order does not work and people are paying the price for it. The rock opera depicts leadership as a dangerous idea, which may be some of the reason why it was so hard to pull off. It put forth the thought that deportment accept consequences. The society of the day back then was that deportment and revolutions were supposed to take glorious results – not consequences. Was the world gear up for such a message back and then? It may have been more than convenient to lump it in with the political protestation songs of the era. Some no dubiety thought that'south what the song was near in whatever case.

Nearly of the songs that brand up the Lifehouse rock opera reflects a striving to try and brand more than of ourselves – to become more conscious, more aware, more complete equally homo beings. Won't Become Fooled Over again stands out on its own because it carries a potent message of encouraging cocky-empowerment and thinking for yourself. But, as office of Lifehouse, it was part of an even bigger bulletin.

The Who's outset attempt to tape the song was at the Tape Plant on W 44 Street, New York City, on 16 March 1971. Manager Kit Lambert had recommended the studio to the grouping, which led to his producer credit, though the de facto work was done by Felix Pappalardi from the ring Mountain. This have featured Pappalardi'southward bandmate, Leslie West, on lead guitar.

Lambert proved to exist unable to mix the rail, and a fresh attempt at recording was made at the showtime of April at Mick Jagger'due south house, Stargroves, using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. Glyn Johns was invited to help with product, and he decided to re-employ the synthesized organ track from Townshend's original demo, as the re-recording of the part in New York was felt to exist inferior to the original.

Keith Moon had to carefully synchronise his drum playing with the synthesizer, while Townshend and Entwistle played electric guitar and bass. Townshend played a 1959 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins hollow body guitar fed through an Edwards volume pedal to a Fender Bandmaster amp, all of which he had been given by Joe Walsh while in New York. This combination became his chief electric guitar recording setup for subsequent albums.

The Stargroves recording of the vocal was intended as a demo recording, but the end outcome sounded and then good that they decided to use it as the terminal take. Some overdubs, including an acoustic guitar part played by Townshend, were recorded at Olympic Studios at the end of April. The rails was mixed at Island Studios by Johns on 28 May.

During this procedure, Lifehouse as a project was abased. You could say it collapsed under its own weight, with Townshend never fully existence able to explain the full concept or become others to share his own enthusiasm for the project. He did not have the strength to behave all the ideas through on his own. Producer Glyn Johns felt that most of the songs they had been working on, including Won't Get Fooled Over again, were so expert that it did not matter. The best of them could but be released as a single album of standalone songs. This became Who's Adjacent.

Without the concept of Lifehouse to provide an overarching context, the songs now had to stand on their own legs, providing their own inner significant. Won't Be Fooled Again was meant to provide a climax in the Lifehouse story, just the song would is then powerful in whatever instance that information technology ends up providing a similar climax to the Who's Side by side anthology.

Roger Daltrey felt that having gone through the initial phases of the Lifehouse projection had been very benign to the anthology they concluded upwards with. "If we hadn't been given the chance to at least be working for this kind of ethereal project of Pete's – it was going to be a concept, a picture show and this and that – we would have just gone into the studio with demos and recorded it the way all our other albums were recorded. Whereas, this album is a real organic Who album, and it's got much more of what The Who really were about. It has much more of our phase presence, considering we knew the songs so well."

This is a very practiced signal, and every musician delivered brilliantly. A lot of the songs had been explored in rehearsal a live to an extent that they normally didn't for new material. Whether you focus on the vocals, guitar, bass, or drums, the parts are incredibly well adult. They managed to display the usual levels of virtuosity while plumbing equipment it in naturally within the vocal. Nothing sounds overwrought – it only sounds amazing.

John Entwistle'south isolated bass line on "Won't Become Fooled Again"

The album version runs eight:thirty. The unmarried was shortened to 3:35 and so radio stations would play information technology. The ring was not happy that the song had to be edited, and Daltrey has expressed detail unhappiness about it. He recalled toUncut magazine, "I hated it when they chopped information technology down. I used to say 'F*ck it, put information technology out as eight minutes', but there'd ever be some alibi about not fitting information technology on or some technical matter at the pressing plant. Later on that nosotros started to lose involvement in singles considering they'd cutting them to bits. We thought, 'What'due south the point? Our music'southward evolved by the three-infinitesimal barrier and if they can't arrange that nosotros're merely gonna have to alive on albums.'"

The single was released on 25 June 1971, replacing Behind Blueish Eyes which the group felt didn't fit The Who's established musical style. It was released in July in the US. The single reached #ix in the U.k. charts and #xv in the US. Initial publicity textile showed an abased cover of Who'south Next featuring Moon dressed in elevate and brandishing a whip.

RELATED Commodity: The story of the «Who's Next» album encompass

The full-length version of the song appeared as the closing track of Who's Next, released 14 (US)/27 (UK) Baronial. Information technology made it to #4 on the U.s.a. Billboard charts, going all the mode to #ane in the UK – the merely Who album to do so. Won't Get Fooled Again drew potent praise from critics, who were impressed that a synthesizer had managed to be integrated so successfully within a rock song.

The song would immediately become a mainstay in The Who's live shows, having been part of every Who concert since its release – normally as the set closer and sometimes extended slightly to allow Townshend to smash his guitar or Moon to kick over his drumkit. The grouping would perform it live over the synthesizer part being played on a backing tape, which required Moon to vesture headphones to hear a click runway, allowing him to play in sync.

It was the last track Moon played live in front of a paying audience on 21 Oct 1976, and the last song he e'er played with the Who at Shepperton Studios on 25 May 1978, which was captured on the documentary motion picture The Kids Are Alright.

Several live and alternative versions of the song have been released on CD or DVD. In 2003, a deluxe version of Who's Adjacent was reissued to include the Tape Plant recording of the rail from March 1971. It besides included the earliest known live version from the Young Vic on 26 April 1971.

In its May 26, 2006 issue, the conservativeNational Review mag published a listing of "The 50 greatest conservative rock songs." Won't Get Fooled Once again was ranked song number i. Pete Townsend responded on his blog as follows: "It is not precisely a song that decries revolution – it suggests that we volition indeed fight in the streets – simply that revolution, similar all action can have results nosotros cannot predict. Don't expect to see what you expect to come across. Expect zip and you might gain everything." Townsend so goes on to explain that the song was just "Meant to let politicians and revolutionaries alike know that what lay in the centre of my life was not for auction, and could not be co-opted into whatever obvious crusade."

Roger Daltrey has in subsequently years admitted that the frequent airing of the song may accept pushed it over the edge for him. "That'due south the only song I'thou bloody bored shitless with," he toldRolling Rock in 2018. Interestingly, that has non prevented Daltrey from about always including the vocal in his solo concerts – as Entwistle and Townshend ever did.

For improve or worse, this is the song many volition acquaintance The Who with. My Generation was a solid anthem for the 1960s, but they managed to redefine themselves and establish Won't Go Fooled Over again as their new anthem for the 1970s onward – and it continues to be timeless.