The Who songs Pete Townshend can’t bear to listen to: “I hate more than anything on Earth”
There’s no question about The Who‘s status as rock greats. For a time, they were the most ferocious live act in the world, leaving a trail of carnage in their wake and putting on a thrilling show that nobody could compete with.
Not only did Pete Townshend’s guitar-smashing antics make them an anarchic live band, but they also had the songs to back up the eye-grabbing stunts. Additionally, the triumphant power of Keith Moon on drums was unparalleled in the rock business, and Roger Daltrey led the orchestration with aplomb.
However, despite their musical magnificence, there was always an underlying tension within the group, which only heightened interest in The Who. In their heyday, anything was possible at their concerts, including a brawl between members of the band.
The relationship between Townshend and Daltrey is highly peculiar. In one sense, they are Ying and Yang, but they both need each other to survive, which is why they’ve been musical partners for the majority of their lives. “There’s a deep connection between the two of us, but we’re not in-our-pocked friends, you know, it’s not like that,” Daltrey admitted in 2021 of their relationship. “But the creative process that we can conjure up between us is incredibly healthy, and there’s an awful lot of love in that relationship, that’s all I can say.”
Despite the love they share between them, there’s no denying that no person annoys Daltrey more on the planet than Townshend, and the same can be said for vice versa. It’s almost like they were designed in a lab to irritate each other, but somehow, they work together exceptionally.
Admittedly, as both men have matured in recent years, they have stopped verbally sparring in public and seem to have heightened respect for each other as individuals. However, for the sanctity of their well-being, during the making of their 2019 album, Who, the two men recorded their parts in different rooms. This method reduced tension and pivotally meant they wouldn’t fight each other.
Although they managed to complete an album in this unconventional manner, they are bandmates and can’t avoid each other forever. As much as he’d like to, Townshend can’t evade Daltrey when The Who performs a concert, which comes with a whole different set of problems.
Unsurprisingly, they both view The Who’s back catalogue through different lenses. In fact, Townshend once revealed that he’s grown to hate one particular song by the group due to Daltrey’s fondness for the creation. When asked which songs he hates to perform from their oeuvre, the Who guitarist once replied: “‘Dreaming From The Waist’ is the song I hate more than anything on Earth. In fact, I think I hate it most because it’s a song Roger used to like to play.”
‘Dreaming From The Waist’ featured on the band’s 1975 album, The Who By Numbers, and was even elected to be released as a single. By no stretch of the imagination is it one of The Who’s worst tracks, and Townshend’s dissent toward the track is wholly down to Daltrey’s adoration.
In many ways, that strange push and pull between the pair is exactly what gave The Who their spark in the first place. Daltrey’s commanding, straight-ahead approach to rock music often clashed with Townshend’s more cerebral instincts as a songwriter, but those opposing personalities created a tension that translated directly into the band’s music. One was forever trying to keep things grounded while the other constantly searched for something more conceptual and theatrical.
That friction became part of the identity of The Who both onstage and off it. Even when Townshend rolled his eyes at Daltrey’s theatrics or bristled at his enthusiasm for certain songs, there was still an understanding between them that few bands ever achieve. Plenty of groups implode after years of disagreements, but The Who somehow managed to turn decades of irritation into fuel for some of the most explosive performances rock music has ever seen.
Remarkably, there’s one song he hates performing even more for the same reason. Townshend added: “I think actually ‘Sister Disco’ qualifies, yeah ‘Sister Disco’ I hate even more than ‘Dreaming From The Waist’ because there is a point in which every time we’ve done it where Roger comes over to me, stands next to me and makes some kind of soppy smile, which is supposed to communicate some kind of Everly Brothers relationship we have for the audience, which isn’t actually there.”
Townshend continued: “It’s supposed to be an act where I’m supposed to collude like ‘we know each other very well we look like enemies but we are friends really’ kind of look. Often that will be the moment where I look him in the face and go, ‘You fucking wanker’ and he gets angry when I do that.”
Ultimately, as much as Townshend claimed to hate performing certain songs due to his bandmate, there’s no way he’d have survived in a band with Daltrey for 60 years if he genuinely hated him. They may have disagreements and the occasional physical joust, but an unbreakable love has undeniably kept them together all this time.
