‘I Can See For Miles’: The song that marked a significant change in The Who’s trajectory
The music industry of the 1960s is often viewed as some kind of untouchable gold standard, during which artists were freely producing a wealth of profound, groundbreaking music. It must be said, however, that much of that reputation arises from a sense of rose-tinted nostalgia. In actuality, the music industry of the decade was experiencing an intense period of transition from a wholly commercial focus to truly treating music as an art form. One group who were aware of this transition more than most were The Who.
When The Who first got together in 1964, the music industry was still operating in the same way it had done since the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll. Importance was placed almost solely on single releases, as audiences – particularly young people – were deemed more likely to buy 45 rpm singles rather than LPs. As a result, Pete Townshend was more or less bound to writing short, sharp singles that stood on their own merit outside of an album, tracks like ‘My Generation’ or ‘I Can’t Explain’, for instance.
During these early years, these single releases allowed The Who to become synonymous with this adrenaline-fueled adolescent rock rebellion. However, songwriter Pete Townshend always yearned for something a little deeper. As a former art student, Townshend came into the music industry seeking a form of artistic expression, as opposed to fame and riches. Pretty soon, therefore, it became clear that the band would have to adapt from being solely a “singles band”.
Meanwhile, groups like The Beatles and The Beach Boys were completely reinventing perceptions of the album as a format. Gone were the days of albums being a disjointed collection of songs that weren’t commercial enough to make it as a single release; all of a sudden, artists were creating albums with overarching narratives and themes throughout. It was the birth of the concept album, and Townshend was taking notes.
So, for their third record, The Who Sell Out, Townshend crafted a postmodern masterpiece. An extensive parody of advertising and commercialism, Sell Out was, ironically, not a huge commercial success. The only really successful single the record produced was ‘I Can See For Miles’, whereas an album by a group of The Who’s popularity would usually be expected to produce multiple hit singles. For The Who, however, this switch to being album-orientated was all a part of their master plan.
Speaking on this, frontman Roger Daltrey once reflected, “When we went back into the studio, we just had a mediocre success with ‘I Can See For Miles’. I thought that was was a brilliant single. Probably one of the best we ever did. But with us being a singles band, it was wearing thin. Pete was getting worn down, sort’ve frazzled.”
“Having to come up with hit singles all the time, that’s the hard bit of the music industry,” he told Rolling Stone, “But coming up with music? That was much easier. Well, I don’t know about easier…It was more artistically attractive to [Townshend].” So, in the years that followed Sell Out, Townshend and The Who dived headfirst into the creation of profound albums rather than hit singles.
Beloved records like Tommy or Quadrophenia would have seemed bizarre to music industry executives due to their lack of hit single potential. However, it was these stunning concept albums and rock operas that earned The Who their rightful reputation as one of the most groundbreaking and incredible rock bands to ever grace the airwaves.
