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It is a truism that angst yields greater art than does benign contentment. Back in 1965, a youthful Pete Townshend turned his seething rage at the world around him into one of the greatest youth-rebellion anthems in musical history. It was punk rock more than a decade before punk actually happened.
Townshend had much to be angry about. Living in a flat in Belgravia owned by The Who’s well-heeled co-manager, Kit Lambert, the awkward teenager resented being looked down on in the street by his moneyed neighbours. “I was very, very lost,” he said years later. “I was trying to find a place in society.”
A strange incident brought his anger to a head. Having bought a 1935 Packard hearse for £30, aiming to turn it into a hot rod, Townshend was shocked when it was towed away by the police at the order of the Queen Mother, who drove past it daily on the way from her home at Clarence House to a friend’s house, and felt it to be an eyesore.
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“I used to be a fan of the royal family, but not after that!” Townshend later complained. On a train journey from London to Southampton on his 20th birthday, May 19, 1965, he began to write “My Generation”.
The Queen Mother’s authoritarian tendencies were not his sole inspiration. After The Who had played a previous single, “I Can’t Explain”, at a gig, Townshend was asked by fans to write more songs in the same vein, “about the fact that none of us can explain how we feel about anything”. He accepted the mission.
His fierce, class-conscious anger spilled into the opening line: “People try to put us down/Just because we get around.” Bob Dylan was an influence on the song, as was jazz/blues singer Mose Allison’s pensive “Young Man Blues” (which later became a fixture in The Who’s live shows.
The Who were not in good shape at the time. Beset by intra-band tensions, they were about to fire singer Roger Daltrey after he threw drummer Keith Moon’s drugs down the toilet and then beat him up. Daltrey took his dismissal hard: “I thought if I lost the band, I’d be dead. I’d be a sheet metal worker for the rest of my life.”
The vocalist was reinstated by the time the band recorded “My Generation” on October 13, 1965. Initially, they played it as a slow-talking blues number in the style of Allison or Jimmy Reed. Dissatisfied with the results, they cranked up the volume, sped it up and gave it their trademark “Maximum R&B” treatment.
Daltrey’s delivery of the lyric was the brainwave of Lambert, who told him to stutter the words “as if I was pilled” (on amphetamines). The BBC banned “My Generation” on release, lest it offend people with speech impediments, only to relax the ban as it sped up the top 40, hitting number two 60 years ago this week.
A big talking point was the song’s standout line: “I hope I die before I get old.” Daltrey told interviewers he’d take his own life before he got to 30, a stance he abandoned as he neared that ripe old age. The more politic Townshend claimed it referred to a fear of adopting “old attitudes” if he became rich and successful.
Patti Smith on stage in London, 1976; she sang ‘My Generation’ with energy and swearing © Redferns
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“My Generation” has been treated to a slew of cover versions by artists hoping that its countercultural credentials would rub off on them. Patti Smith blew through it like a hurricane, adding impressive swearing: “I don’t need that fuckin’ shit!” Seventies glam rockers The Sweet were less profane and more doggedly faithful to the original.
Heavy metal icons Iron Maiden roistered through the song, as did Green Day. Gregory Isaacs turned it into lovers-rock reggae. The cast of kids’ TV show Grange Hill trilled it on an album, Oasis recorded it as a B-side, and Daltrey has sung it live with artists as various as Liam Gallagher, Billy Joel, and boy-band McFly.
It has even triggered two “answer” records. On “Your Generation” by punk-rockers Generation X, singer Billy Idol sneered, “Trying to forget your generation . . . don’t mean a thing to me.” And Robbie Williams, forever tongue-in-cheek, wrote “Old Before I Die” and shot a video on which he was backed by a band of middle-aged musicians.
A blast of inchoate ire from the era of peace and love, “My Generation” remains The Who’s defining rallying call. Pete Townshend has never doubted its significance. “It is,” he has said, “the only really successful social comment I’ve ever made.”
Let us know your memories of ‘My Generation’ in the comments section below
The paperback edition of ‘The Life of a Song: The stories behind 100 of the world’s best-loved songs’, edited by David Cheal and Jan Dalley, is published by Chambers
Music credits: Polydor; Fantasy; Sony; BMG; Iron Maiden; Green Daze Music; Big Brother; Chrysalis
