The Who songs Roger Daltrey “hated”
It’s a well-known fact that the relationship between Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey is strained at best and completely volatile at worst. It always has been. Even when The Who were enjoying their early fame, when the world of success was just opening up to them, the atmosphere within the group was rocky. One wrong move and a fight would break out, but that became part of their appeal. On stage, that passion was electric, but behind the scenes, when it came to the songs, it was mostly a hindrance.
The in-fighting within The Who was genuinely part of the reason why they became so big. Stories about them spread fast when they first started performing. Sure, part of that came down to their musicality, to these thrilling songs and to the playing of the members who all went all-out all the time. If you’d seen Townshend playing till his fingers bled or Keith Moon playing like a maniac, you’d probably be telling your friends they had to see it, too.
But if you’d witnessed a band break out into a brawl live on stage, that would certainly be a story you’d share. Often, that’s precisely what happened. “We’re not mates at all,” Daltrey said way back in 1965, right when the band had only just formed. Keith Moon felt the same, stating that same year, “ We have absolutely nothing in common apart from music.” It is a completely baffling and unique connection; the boys seemed to hate each other, but the musical synergy was undeniable.
However, while that worked well on stage, creating the sort of live energy that people would want to see more of as the aggression within the band translated into something truly electric at their gigs, it didn’t work so well in the studio.
With no real personal common ground to smooth things out, the band’s writing sessions were the worst of them, especially when Roger Daltrey began wanting more and more of a lyrical look-in, forcing himself and Townshend to have to find some level of compromise and understanding. But, as time has made clear, that wasn’t and probably will never happen.
Even in 2018, the arguments were rolling on, leading to some songs that Daltrey hated. However, managing to get those songs on the album became a true achievement of Townshend’s as he said of their record, Who, “What I’m proud of is that I managed to get 12 or 13 or 14 songs past Roger Daltrey, who’s a very, very difficult guy to write songs for. He likes to get inside songs.”
“He didn’t like any of them,” Townshend explained as Daltrey made no secret of his feelings towards the demos his bandmate sent him. He even went so far as to suggest Townshend should keep the tracks for a solo project, hinting that they weren’t good enough for the band. But in an uncharacteristically compromising move, he agreed to give them a go; “He agreed to try to record them. And then when he started to record them, he did like them.”
It was one of those moments where it seemed like the beef between the two musicians could potentially be put to bed, but alas, no. In 2024, Townshend said it would be a “river to cross” to ever collaborate with his old bandmate again, as the two now refuse to even speak.
