Roger Daltrey’s 10 greatest vocal performances
Half of the reason why we’re still talking about The Who to this day is because of Pete Townshend. As much as every member made the band what they were, Townshend’s way of working on individual characters on each album turned every one of their rockers into an artistic experience, from the punk of ‘My Generation’ to the grandiosity of ‘Baba O’Riley’. Then again, they would have been nothing without Roger Daltrey at the helm.
While Daltrey may not have been known as the most prolific songwriter in the band, his greatest strength came from how he inhabited every song he was given. Despite John Entwistle’s insistence on singing most of his material, Daltrey had a unique way of taking on a character whenever he sang Townshend’s work, bringing an almost theatrical feeling to every one of their shows.
Outside of being one of the most entertaining frontmen of his generation, though, there are a lot of vocal lines that have left people spellbound over the years. From the highest screams he has ever delivered to the most soft-spoken ballads, Daltrey had an impressive strength in most ranges whenever he stepped up to the microphone, mostly attributed to his history of working in the London clubs.
No matter what song he is singing, there’s no doubt that you are always hearing Daltrey’s soul whenever he steps up to the microphone. Whether it’s a hard rocker or a tearjerker, you’re getting a look at the man behind that rough exterior when he delivers Townshend’s rock classics.
The 10 best Roger Daltrey vocal lines:
10. ‘So Sad About Us’ – A Quick One
One often-neglected side of the Who is how well they worked alongside the British Invasion bands of their time. Where most Mod acts were making the kind of songs that were meant to showcase R&B, Townshend was writing tunes that paved the way for punk rock and hard rock in the years that followed. While Daltrey was along for the ride throughout the journey, he had an impressive flair for power pop as well.
Although A Quick One is usually known for the amazing title track that predicted the band’s ambitious side, ‘So Sad About Us’ is one of the most earnest breakup songs the band would ever deliver. While Townshend was known to deliver the song on acoustic guitar a handful of times live, Daltrey has the better range for the song, sounding absolutely defeated, knowing that he probably caused the breakup at hand.
Despite being a one-off, most of the bands that followed went even further with the concept, with acts like The Jam paving the way for power pop and pop punk by covering this rock classic. Daltrey wasn’t really looked at as the sensitive type all the time, but ‘So Sad About Us’ is the kind of delightful piece of pop that often gets forgotten amid the 1960s classics.
9. ‘Christmas’ – Tommy
Daltrey had one of the most deceptively complicated roles when putting together Tommy. Despite Townshend having his hands full putting together the story of the rock opera, many of Daltrey’s vocal performances on the album had to involve him constantly switching his vocal style to serve whichever character was speaking. This causes many songs to play out like a dialogue; ‘Christmas’ is the closest the band came to making a scene with music.
As we look in on Christmas Day in Tommy’s household, Daltrey plays the role of the mother as she wonders what is going on inside his head. Since Tommy can’t easily emote, there’s a certain yearning in Daltrey’s voice, fearful that her little boy will never find religion and be condemned to Hell by not praying.
While the song sounds much better suited to the stage show production, Daltrey delivers the song with as much gusto as a Broadway performer, making Townshend look feeble by comparison when he comes in with the ‘See Me Feel Me’ refrain. Tommy was still just an idea at this stage, but Daltrey’s voice turned Townshend’s visions into a reality.
8. ‘The Real Me’ – Quadrophenia
The next phase of The Who’s career was always going to be centred around the sounds of rock operas. After all, it worked so well the first time with Tommy, so why not do it again? Although everything went wrong when Townshend failed to get the next volume, Lifehouse, off the ground, Quadrophenia stormed out of the gate from the moment that Daltrey came in on the song ‘The Real Me’.
After getting warmed on the song ‘I Am the Sea’, this is the most punk-sounding song the band had ever made to that date, featuring every band member in fine form as Daltrey tells the story of a former Mod who thinks he’s slowly losing his mind. Whereas most people go back to the strength of the rhythm section throughout the song, Daltrey might actually surpass him, sounding like he’s on the verge of bursting a blood vessel when singing every lyric.
Since Daltrey was known for his rough exterior throughout the beginning of the band, this is probably the best outlet for his anger, getting more confrontational as he talks to his doctor, mother, and eventually you, the listener. Quadrophenia was bound to go in some strange directions, but from the menace in Daltrey’s voice, things were just getting started.
7. ‘Baba O’Riley’ – Who’s Next
It’s a real shame that fans never got to hear what the album Lifehouse could have been. Although Townshend has been able to make different versions of his second rock opera over the years, the proper album feels relegated to the lost world like The Beach Boys’ Smile, ultimately shelved and never released. If the album kicked off with ‘Baba O’Riley’, though, it looked like it would have given Tommy a run for its money.
Telling the story of a boy living in the future and being desensitised to everything life has to offer, this is the moment where everyone breaks free and heads to the countryside. Even though Townshend delivers the famous line about teenage wasteland, Daltrey is just the voice you want to hear at the front of the pack leading the charge.
Despite Townshend talking about how the line about teenage wasteland being taken out of context over the years, there is nothing but sincerity in how Daltrey sings, determined to find the meaning of life through the notes that he’s singing. There may have been some trepidation at first, but when Daltrey opened his mouth, there wasn’t one insincere bone in his body.
6. ‘I Can See For Miles’ – The Who Sell Out
Looking back on the band’s niche for conceptual pieces, The Who Sell Out is still one of their most quirky albums. Being the first full-blown concept they ever tried, the madcap parody of pirate radio stations is a pretty good time throughout every track, especially the mock commercials every band member gets to perform. For all of the great potential singles like ‘Tattoo’, ‘I Can See For Miles’ was the kind of song that stunned listeners when they heard it back in the late 1960s.
Coming around the same time The Beach Boys were making ‘Good Vibrations’, the sheer size of the vocals on the song is a sound to behold, featuring Daltrey packing as much force into the song as he can. Compared to the other bad attitude songs they had been making, Daltrey practically sounds like a stoic badass in the middle of an open field, coming after the listener with that same thousand-yard stare that Clint Eastwood could rock at the best of times.
While not being atonal or harsh by any means, this was one of the heaviest songs that the band had ever made at that point, bridging the gap between rock and roll and the various offshoots that would come later. No wonder Paul McCartney got jealous and made ‘Helter Skelter’ as an answer back.
5. ‘My Generation’ – My Generation
Forget everything you know about The Who for a brief second. Outside of the other British Invasion bands like The Beatles and The Stones, these are just a bunch of rockers that no one had seen before trying their hand at making it big. Everything looks right at first, and then ‘My Generation’ comes on and blows your mind.
Breaking down the doors for punk rock and hard rock, ‘My Generation’ is still one of the immortal anthems of rock and roll, as Townshend writes about, hoping that he dies before he gets old. Even though demos exist of Townshend singing the song to show the band, no other band member could have sung this song but Daltrey, singing with the same kind of disaffected machismo of any punk kid looking for something better than what he was given.
Even though the song is basically just one section that repeats over and over again, Daltrey makes it feel like you hear it for the first time every time he steps up to the microphone, especially when it starts jumping up keys, and he starts straining his voice. It’s certainly not that flashy yet, but ‘My Generation’ was always about a feeling rather than a perfect performance from back to front.
4. ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ – Who’s Next
From day one, there had always been a certain rage bubbling inside Roger Daltrey. Whether it was because of his rough time working on the streets or his power struggles with Townshend, Daltrey never lost that signature anger that turned him into the tour de force singer back in 1965. It’s all about balancing that anger when you’re young, and ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ was the ideal sound of a man trying desperately to hold his temper inside.
Ignoring the god-awful Limp Bizkit version, Daltrey’s voice is aching with emotion from the moment he starts singing, knowing that no one knows the real person inside him behind his wall of anger. As soon as he gets almost too personal, though, Daltrey switches his tone on the line about love being vengeance, as if to remind everyone listening not to push him too much.
Outside of that anger, this is a song about Daltrey desperately asking for help, reaching out to his lover to help him unclench his fist before he loses his cool. Many artists have tried and failed to look real in front of their audience, but when Daltrey sings lines about that titular sad man, there’s no doubt that he’s living every word of the song.
3. ‘Go to the Mirror’ – Tommy
With a plotline as convoluted as Tommy, you kind of need every band member to sing at least a handful of songs. For everything Daltrey gives to the band, Townshend was the ideal choice to narrate different pieces of the dialogue, and even Keith Moon did a decent job providing the batshit insane soundtrack for ‘Tommy’s Holiday Camp’. When getting down to the dramatic pieces, Daltrey goes from rock singer to Shakespearean style actor on ‘Go To The Mirror’.
After the family figures they should take Tommy to the doctor to figure out what’s wrong, Daltrey is playing double duty, playing the role of both the doctor and Tommy’s mother, depending on which verse he’s singing. As the doctor spits out different lines about not knowing what’s wrong with Tommy, Daltrey plays the mother as if she’s on the verge of tears, desperately wondering what’s really happening in her son’s head.
If you’re following the storyline, it’s easy to put yourself in the mother’s shoes hearing these lines, gazing into her son’s catatonic eyes and hoping that he hears his mother’s voice at least a little bit. The mirror may provide a sense of closure, but it doesn’t mean anything as long as a mother can’t understand her little boy.
2. ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ – Who’s Next
The Lifehouse project was always going to end on some kind of triumphant note. Whereas the ending of Tommy played out like a Greek tragedy, the sound of people trying to find salvation should have ended with good overcoming evil and music becoming the saviour of the show. While ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ is all of those things and more, there are a lot more disturbing elements going on underneath the surface.
As Daltrey sings about fighting in the streets, he’s also talking about the changes that are going on as part of the resistance. By the time he becomes the next star of the show at the end of the song, the new boss becomes the same as the old boss, as the resistance soon becomes the same old establishment they had fought against.
And, let’s see, have I missed anything? Oh yeah, one of the greatest screams in rock history. Once Townshend hits that thunderous A chord, Daltrey’s voice doesn’t even sound human, making the kind of noise that would take most people a lifetime to develop. As much as artists have tried to imitate that scream, no one gets to that point unless it’s coming from the soul rather than the throat.
1. ‘Love Reign O’er Me’ – Quadrophenia
Every story needs to have some sort of satisfying ending. While Townshend had certain ideas of where he was going to take Quadrophenia, it’s clear that Jimmy is going down a dark path throughout the album, finally ending up venturing out to sea in an attempt to kill himself. As he’s sitting on the rock gazing up a the sky, Daltrey breathes one last shot of life into Jimmy as he screams into the heavens.
Even though Townshend’s impressive production on ‘Love Reign O’er Me’ is among the finest in rock history, Daltrey never hit these kinds of vocal acrobatics ever again, sounding like he’s bathed in a white-hot spotlight and looking to these clouds to find some sort of salvation. It might be Townshend’s band, but Daltrey has full command over the group for these few minutes, even subtly slowing down the tempo in one of the verses before going for the highest notes he ever hit.
By the time Townshend builds up the tension one last time, the story ends with Daltrey’s final scream as the drums provide a thunderclap sound underneath him. It’s unclear what happened to Jimmy that fateful night in the water, but given Daltrey’s conviction in delivering these lines, he either succumbed to his fate or ascended into the heavens.
