The Who song Pete Townshend always loved: “A testament to the universe”
No artist is safe from getting too sentimental whenever they lay down their classics. The best music ever made is about quoting the sounds in your heart, and if that means saying something a little bit cheesy, it’s still worth it to get those feelings off your chest. While Pete Townshend seemed to be going beyond traditional rock and roll with The Who, he had to admit that ‘The Song is Over’ is still a tad corny after all these years.
But maybe that’s because the fans heard the song in the wrong context. When looked at through the lens of Lifehouse, perhaps every track that turned on Who’s Next could have told a far more convincing story than Tommy could. Whereas the protagonist of Townshend’s first rock opera was deaf, dumb, and blind, his initial vision was to have a similar premise of someone detaching themselves from reality.
After fast-forwarding into the future, the protagonist, Bobby, was intended to live life through a machine and be fed all of the joys of life artificially. While it would have made for a nice piece of science fiction, the band’s inability to grasp what Townshend was getting at led to him scrapping the entire thing and putting the record out as it was.
But even in its fragmented state, there are a few tracks that are close to the vision Townshend had in mind. ‘Baba O’Riley’ would have been a thrilling opening for a grand spectacle about finding new lands in the future, and the concept of finding the meaning of life through a musical note in ‘Getting in Tune’ is the most poignant metaphor for one’s love with music ever created.
Despite having the closer to end all closers in ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, ‘The Song is Over’ works much better as a grand finale to Bobby’s story. After finally summoning the courage to sing out, hearing him finally free himself from his self-imposed exile and work to become a human being again is incredibly profound.
Looking back on it, though, Townshend did consider the melody to be a little bit on the nose compared to the vision that he had in mind for the character, saying, “When we do get together musically in this way, it’s like we both acknowledge that there’s something greater than the two of us. I love this song. And a lot of people love it too. It’s an aspirational, kind of corny testament to the universe.”
Regardless of the sentiment, it doesn’t matter as long as the music kicks ass. Roger Daltrey puts everything he has into every word he sings, and despite the story being scrapped, Townshend’s tattered voice is the perfect sound to guide us through this tale of a kid learning what humanity is like again.
Because Lifehouse was never just about the idea of being deaf, dumb, and blind all over again. It was about a journey of self-discovery and not letting yourself waste away, and in that context, ‘The Song is Over’ was Bobby’s first step towards healing.
