The 1967 song Pete Townshend thought would take The Who to “eternal glory”
For a while, it seemed like rock and roll music was only about rebellion. It was the catalyst for teenage romps and rampant debauchery. But for Pete Townshend, rock and roll was never just about having a good time.
It may have been the soundtrack to many high school dances and sockhops during its inception, but there was a certain power to this style of music that went beyond a hit single. This was a genre that could change the way people thought about music, and Townshend was determined to bust down the preconceptions of rock when he made ‘I Can See For Miles’.
For Townshend, the future of rock music depended on ambition. He admired the raw energy that powered the genre’s early years, but he also believed it could become something more sophisticated, capable of delivering artistic statements every bit as meaningful as those found in literature, theatre or classical music.
Granted, there aren’t many artists who could come storming out of the gate like The Who. While Townshend hung around the English music scene in various groups as a songwriter, he knew that he hit on something potent when Roger Daltrey sang his works, and Keith Moon provided the distinct heartbeat of the band.
Suddenly, the traditional R&B tunes that the group was playing sounded a lot more powerful, but Townshend knew he could take it a step further. When penning ‘My Generation’, Townshend created an enduring punk classic that could go toe-to-toe with any punk rock band of the time. It was an impressive start, but that kind of success always gives you the incentive to dream bigger.
When working on the next few albums, Townshend was determined to move into the world of conceptual pieces. The Beatles already tried their hand at making wild sounds on Sgt Pepper, so why couldn’t they? Even though The Who Sell Out is far from Townshend’s most visionary album, he admitted that ‘I Can See For Miles’ was the culmination of everything he worked toward.
Taking the layers of harmonies from The Beach Boys and the electric guitar fury of his own anthems, Townshend created the kind of visceral rock and roll song that no one had ever heard before. All the pieces were aligned for this to be one of the greatest touchstones in rock history, but Townshend was gutted to see his baby slip down the charts.
While he considered it a masterpiece, Townshend was shocked at how little people understood what he was going for, recalling in his book Who I Am, “‘I Can See for Miles’ wasn’t shooting up the charts as a single, which was a shock to me; I really had expected my masterwork to sweep us to eternal glory.”
If Townshend wasn’t going to get his masterpiece the top spot on the radio, he would have to aim even bigger for their next project. The Who Sell Out was a testing ground for conceptual music, but Tommy was where Townshend threw out the rules when it came to traditional rock singles, sculpting a storyline about a deaf, dumb and blind kid that was just abstract enough for anyone to put their own spin on it.
It’s not like ‘I Can See For Miles’ didn’t see appraisal then, either. Paul McCartney was already listening to the group extensively, and by the time he heard Townshend had made something filthy on record, Macca wrote the song ‘Helter Skelter’ to beat the band at their own game. ‘I Can See For Miles’ may be the most palatable version of Townshend’s ambitious side, but he suddenly realised that he didn’t need to cower to the radio format to be one of the greatest voices in rock.
Today, ‘I Can See For Miles’ occupies a fascinating place in The Who’s catalogue. It may not have delivered the commercial triumph Townshend envisioned, but its reputation has only grown with time. The track captures a songwriter standing at the crossroads between pop craftsmanship and grand artistic ambition, providing an early glimpse of the conceptual masterpieces that would soon define his legacy. In that sense, the song ultimately achieved something far more enduring than a chart-topping single ever could.
