The band Pete Townshend said was no fun: “As funny as a funeral”
The genesis of all good rock and roll was about having a good time in the early days. Despite everyone’s concerned parents thinking that it would summon demons from the depths of Hell through an electric guitar, the greatest pieces of rock and roll from Chuck Berry and Little Richard were more about getting the party started before everyone started reaching out for something more. Pete Townshend may have been hungry to take things in a new direction, but he knew that not every direction was exactly going to be a pleasant experience for the audience.
Because when you think about it, The Who were never a band that concerned themselves with being one of the best party bands of all time. There are tunes like ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ and ‘Baba O’Riley’ that have been etched in everyone’s collective memory, but those tunes have far more on their minds than music. This was supposed to be an escape from the norm, and Townshend used his pen as a way to find his own sense of purpose in life.
And when he did decide to go into the world of fiction, Tommy wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. ‘Pinball Wizard’ is certainly fun to listen to out of context. Certain tracks like ‘Go to the Mirror’ have the same punchiness that you’d expect from a classic pop song. Still, the story of a deaf, dumb and blind kid who finds salvation and has every single one of his followers turn their back on him is a lot more tragic than a lot of people like to remember.
But that kind of bittersweet ending has always been a cornerstone of all great art. Some of the biggest artists of all time get to that point by acknowledging the harsh realities of life, so when the punk movement started, Townshend could have been the Nostradamus figure who predicted this kind of angry take on rock and roll.
After the first strains of punk came and went, though, people were already looking to see what else was on the horizon. People needed to hear something more upbeat than before, and while a band like Madness fit that bill for a while, Townshend understood why they needed to sugarcoat themselves whenever they brought out tunes like ‘One Step Beyond’ and ‘Our House’.
Although the core part of rock music should be about having fun, Townshend was proud to be one of the few who understood how little fun Madness was having, saying, “I don’t think rock is purely fun. That’s too simplistic. I mean, Madness have proved me right: they’re about as funny as a fucking funeral these days. ‘Welcome to the House of Fun’: it’s all ‘fun’ on the outside, but behind it all, they’re deadly serious. It’s quite scary in a way.”
In fact, ‘Welcome to the House of Fun’ feels like them capitalising on the wish that Townshend had for himself on ‘My Generation’. He had already sung about hoping that he died before he got old, but hearing this tune feels like the unintended sequel, where everyone has finally come of age and realises that the world is a lot more messed up than they initially thought it was when they were teenagers.
It’s not exactly the most pleasant way of looking at the genre, but rock and roll wasn’t supposed to be sunshine and roses all the time. This was music meant to stir people up, so when bands like Madness come along, it’s important to learn about the core of what they’re talking about rather than mindlessly singing along.
