The true inspiration behind The Who’s ‘My Generation’
Now regarded as one of Britain’s most notable rock exports, The Who burst onto the scene in the mid-1960s with their debut single ‘I Can’t Explain’. Soundtracking both the pop art movement and the rise of the mod subculture among Britain’s youth, the group had a huge influence on the pop music of the time and contributed to the image of the swinging sixties that we all know and love.
Although the band soon progressed into epic rock operas and concept albums in the 1970s, with albums like Tommy becoming some of their most popular offerings, The Who never escaped from the success of their early single, ‘My Generation’. Championed by early pirate radio stations, the track is a blistering, angry and defiant song that firmly cemented The Who as one of the bands of the 1960s.
‘My Generation’ acted as the perfect theme tune for the mod subculture. Characterised by young men in flash Italian suits, riding scooters and taking amphetamines, mods challenged the status quo of stuffy old England. Originally, the subculture was soundtracked by modern jazz, soul and blues music, but as the culture progressed into the ’60s, groups like The Kinks and The Who became popular with mods.
Not only did The Who’s track prove popular with mods, but it is also credited with inspiring the formation of punk rock in the 1970s. The fast-paced, young versus old, us versus them atmosphere of the song captured the spirit of punk over a decade before The Damned were credited with releasing the first UK punk single, ‘New Rose’. In fact, this track was so influential on punk music that the godmother of punk rock, Patti Smith, covered ‘My Generation’ in 1976.
Later, at the height of the punk rock scene, The Who released Quadrophenia, a film based upon their album of the same name, which details the mod subculture and its clashes with rockers – their rival gang. One of the most memorable scenes in the film takes place when a gang of mods crash a middle-class house party, abruptly throwing the drab stylings of The Cascades off the stereo and putting ‘My Generation’ on; a perfect visual summation of The Who destroying what had come before them and infecting the youth with this new, angrier, sound.
So, what were the origins of this incredibly influential track? There is a popular rumour that Who guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend was inspired to write the track after the Queen Mother, who had the guitarist’s car (a 1935 Packard hearse) towed, as she was offended by the sight of it during her travels through the neighbourhood where it was parked. “That’s not really what happened,” Townshend told BBC Radio X. “‘My Generation’ was inspired by the fact that I felt, as artists, we had to draw a line between all those people who had been involved in the second world war and all those people who were born right at the end of the war.”
Townshend, who belonged to the latter group of people, continued: “Those people had sacrificed so much for us, but they weren’t able to give us anything. No guidance, no inspiration. Nothing really. We weren’t allowed to join the army, we weren’t allowed to speak, we were expected to shut up and enjoy the peace…and we decided not to do that.”
Such a quote could easily have been attributed to Joe Strummer or Johnny Rotten talking about how punk came to be, which just goes to show the impact that ‘My Generation’ had on the face of pop music in the 1960s.
