The classic song by The Who that Roger Daltrey has a “problem” with
Naturally, considering the vast nature of The Who‘s back catalogue, Roger Daltrey’s relationship with the band’s songs has changed over the decades. While the band are still going strong today, there’s one classic track in their repertoire that Daltrey believes has become “stuck in this box” and hasn’t aged as gracefully as he had hoped.
The track, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, is one of The Who’s most popular creations. The hit song, released in 1971, was the closer on the seminal Who’s Next and has remained a stalwart of their live sets ever since. Although Daltrey has ill feelings towards the material, he continues performing it with The Who and giving the fans what they want to hear.
Initially, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ was written by Pete Townshend as part of his Lifehouse project, which was ultimately abandoned. However, rather than let the song rot away in the archives, The Who found a home for it on Who’s Next. Even without Lifehouse’s broader context, listeners remain immensely connected to the effort, making it achieve definitive status.
Townshend wrote the track in response to Woodstock Festival, at which The Who played alongside Jimi Hendrix and many others. While most people left the event with a rejuvenated sense of optimism, Townshend hated the experience and wrote ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ in retaliation. “I wrote ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ as a reaction to all that – ‘Leave me out of it: I don’t think you lot would be any better than the other lot!'” he once said during an interview with Creem.
While Daltrey knows The Who have an obligation to play their biggest hits on tour, to keep themselves interested after all these years, they typically change the arrangement of their songs and move them into a new era. Yet, despite his best efforts, the legendary group have been unable to make any alterations to ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ and continue to perform the song in its original form.
“With the maturity I have now and looking back on life, I’m more connected to our songs than ever. The only song I get bored with playing because it’s immovable from its arrangement is ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’,” Daltrey told Vulture.
He continued: “I mean, I love the song, and I don’t mind singing it. But for some reason, it never quite takes off from anywhere different than it was from the time I recorded it. I don’t know why. It’s the only song I have that problem with. Because with other songs, some nights they breeze out into some other areas, and it’s wonderful. But ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ seems to be stuck in this box.”
Daltrey elaborated: “We’ve done it acoustically, which certainly gets out of the box, but people seem to want the full blast — the whole bit. It was groundbreaking at the time. But it just seems to be set in aspic.”
Although The Who haven’t changed how they play ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, the footage below from their headline set at Glastonbury in 2015 explains why there’s no need for alteration.
