The Who song Roger Daltrey said was absolute nonsense: “I struggled like mad”
Finding your own unique voice is an essential skill within the realm of the music industry, and one which elevated Roger Daltrey above countless other rock and roll vocalists back in the heady days of The Who’s 1960s golden age, even if the process took a little while to perfect.
On a purely technical basis, there are many vocalists, both now and then, who eclipse Daltrey’s vocal skills in terms of range, tone, and any number of other attributes that might be taught by vocal trainers. However, the frontman’s sheer power and distinctive timbre set his voice apart from virtually everybody else back in the 1960s, combining both his adoration for old-school blues and R&B performers with his own raucous sensibilities as a rebellious young mod on the streets of London.
It was that distinctive power that set the stage for Daltrey to earn his spot on the upper echelon of rock and roll frontmen, who, despite many imitators, has never truly been matched in quality. One of the most impressive aspects of that quality, though, is the fact that Daltrey has always been able to keep up with the ever-changing sound of The Who.
After all, Pete Townshend’s songwriting rapidly developed during the band’s early days, stretching from the youthful rock rebellion of tracks like ‘My Generation’ to profound, expansive, and pretty complicated compositions of Tommy or Quadrophenia.
That sonic diversity within their discography always formed a core element of The Who’s appeal and, throughout it all, Daltrey’s vocal prowess has never appeared to falter. Such was the nature of his talents that he seemed equally at home on a relatively simply track like ‘Zoot Suit’ as on a song as physically demanding as ‘Love Reign O’er Me’.
“I mimicked the blues players,” Daltrey shared, explaining the roots of his vocal prowess during an interview with Dennis Elsas. “I mimicked James Brown. I could mimic Johnny Cash. And I could sing those songs with feeling.” That feeling certainly carried itself over into The Who’s output, combining Daltrey’s extensive pool of influences. There was, however, one particular song which the vocalist struggled to grasp during the band’s early days.
Initially, Daltrey had no issue with the relatively straightforward tracks Townshend was coming up with. “When Pete started writing those first songs, they were easy,” he recalled. “‘Can’t Explain,’ ‘Substitute.’ ‘Anyway Anyhow Anywhere,’” none of those songs, according to the singer, demanded he used the entire breadth of his vocal powers. “And then he presents me with ‘Happy Jack.’”
Seeing Daltrey share vocal duties with Townshend and John Entwistle, the band’s 1966 single certainly marked a departure from their earlier output, and the frontman wasn’t particularly fond of that fact. “The lyrics are nonsense,” he shared. “I struggled like mad to get any sense of anything out of that record. It was a hit; I don’t know why.”
In the end, of course, Daltrey’s vocal performance on ‘Happy Jack’ was commendable enough to earn the song a spot at number three in the UK singles chart, even if the singer couldn’t make head nor tail of Townshend’s bizarre lyrics.
