My Generation (The Who song)

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"My Generation"
Single by The Who
from the album My Generation
Released	November 5, 1965
Format	vinyl record (7")
Recorded	October 13, 1965
Genre	proto-punk, hard rock
Length	3:19
Label	Brunswick
Producer(s)	Shel Talmy
Chart positions
#74 (USA)   #2 (UK)
The Who singles chronology
Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere (1965)	My Generation (1965)	Substitute (1966)

"My Generation" was one of the biggest early hits of the British rock group The Who, and quickly became their anthem. Written by Pete Townshend in 1965 for rebellious British youths called Mods, it expressed their feeling that older people "just don't get it". He reportedly wrote the song on a train and is said to have been inspired by the Queen Mother who is alleged to have had Townshend's 1935 Packard hearse towed off a street in Belgravia because she was offended by the sight of it during her daily drive through the neighbourhood [1]. Townshend has also credited Mose Allison's Young Man Blues as the inspiration for the song, saying "Without Mose I wouldn't have written My Generation." [2]

It has entered the rock and roll pantheon as one of the most celebrated, cited, and referenced songs in the idiom; it was named the eleventh greatest song by Rolling Stone on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Perhaps the most striking element of the song is the lyrics, considered one of the most distilled statements of youthful rebellion in rock history. The "attitude" of the track alone helped make it an acknowledged forebear of the punk rock movement,also considered to be the first punk rock song. One of the most quoted--and patently rewritten--lines in rock history is I hope I die before I get old, famously sneered out by lead singer Roger Daltrey.

Like many of The Who's earlier "mod" output, the song boasts clear influences of American R&B, most explicitly in the call and response form of the verses; Daltrey would sing a line, and the backing vocalists Townshend and John Entwistle would respond with the refrain "Talkin' 'bout my generation":

People try to put us down

(Talkin' 'bout my generation)

Just because we get around

(Talkin' 'bout my generation)

The vocal melody of "My Generation":

is an example of the shout-and-fall modal frame. (Middleton 1990, p.207)

Another salient aspect of "My Generation" is Daltrey's delivery: an angry and frustrated stutter. Various stories exist as to the reason for this distinct delivery. One is that the song began as a slow "talking" blues number without the stutter, but after being inspired by John Lee Hooker's "Stuttering Blues", Townshend reworked the song into its present form. Another reason is that it was suggested to Daltrey that he stutter to sound like a British mod on speed. It is also proposed, albeit less frequently, that the stutter was introduced to give the group a framework for implying the expletive "fuck" in the lyrics: "Why don't you all fu.. fu.. fade away!" However, Producer Shel Talmy insisted it was simply one of those "happy accidents" that he thought they should keep. The BBC initially refused to play "My Generation" because they did not want to offend people who stutter, but they reversed their decision after it became a huge hit.

The instrumentation of the song duly reflects the lyrics: fast, aggressive, and laced with attitude. Significantly, "My Generation" also featured one of the first bass solos (by John Entwistle) in rock history. The song's coda features an explosive burst of drumming from Keith Moon, whereupon the song breaks down in spurts of guitar feedback from Pete Townshend, rather than fading out or ending cleanly on the tonic.

The song was released as a Single in November 1965, reaching number two in the UK and number 74 in America. [3] "My Generation" also appeared on The Who's 1965 debut album, My Generation (known as The Who Sings My Generation in the USA), and in greatly extended form on their live album Live at Leeds (1970).

[edit] "My Generation" in popular culture

• "My Generation" was covered by The Sweet on their 1974 album Desolation Boulevard. This version is said to be Pete Townshend's favorite cover of the song.^{[citation needed]}
• "My Generation" was Patti Smith's standard set-closer from 1974-1978, and a live version appeared on record as the B-side of her 1975 single "Gloria" (with John Cale guesting on bass). This recording has since appeared as a bonus track on some CD re-issues of her album Horses. A live version with Michael Balzary (aka Flea) from Red Hot Chili Peppers playing bass appears on the 2005 30th Anniversary CD release Horses Horses.
• Punk band Generation X, fronted by a young Billy Idol, released a riposte in 1978 entitled "Your Generation" as their debut single.
• "My Generation" was sung live by three of the main stars of the 1980s BBC sitcom The Young Ones (Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer). Edmondson, as Vyvyan, actually did end up saying "Why don't you all fuck off", and the other two also swear during the performance.
• Danny Tanner performed the song on the TV show Full House (1987-1995).
• "My Generation" was covered by Gorky Park on their 1989 album Gorky Park.
• "My Generation" was covered by Green Day on their 1990 EP Sweet Children and on their second album Kerplunk!.
• "My Generation" was covered by Phish as part of their 1995 Halloween concert and is available on the live album Live Phish Volume 14 (released in 2002).
• "My Generation" was covered by Iron Maiden as a b-side to their 1996 single "Virus".
• The Who's original version is featured in the 1999 film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.
• Oasis released the track as a b-side on their 2002 UK single "Little by Little" / "She is Love" and have closed their live shows with this track for several years.
• A clip of The Who's original version was played in a 2004 episode of The Simpsons, "Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays".
• "My Generation" was also covered by the German hard rock band Böhse Onkelz as a b-side on their 2004 single "Onkelz vs. Jesus".
• Teen pop singer Hilary Duff recorded a cover of "My Generation" in which the lyric "I hope I die before I get old" was changed to "I hope I don't die before I get old". Duff began performing it in concert after a suggestion from her manager, who was a fan of the song.^[1] Her version was released as a bonus track on pressings of her third album Hilary Duff (2004) in Japan, and as a B-side on the "Someone's Watching over Me" (2005) CD single in Australia.
• "My Generation" was covered in French by Chapeaumelon, and appears on the soundtrack to the 2004 film EuroTrip.
• Roger Daltrey has recorded the track with British band McFly in 2005, to celebrate the launch of HMV's download site.

• The line "I hope I die before I get old" was the inspiration for They Might Be Giants' 1985 song "I Hope I Get Old Before I Die", a reaction against the stereotypical values of rock and roll in the 1960's.
• Similarly, British pop singer Robbie Williams also released a song called "Old Before I Die". The song reached number 2 in the UK charts.
• The artist MC Lars parodied the line "I hope I die before I get old" in his 2005 single "iGeneration" (parodying the title "My Generation"), with the line "I hope I die before I get sold".

[edit] Notes

1. ^ "Hilary Duff comes clean". News Times. January 21, 2005. Retrieved October 27, 2006.