...but you've heard it before

Don't artists tire of repeating themselves?

“True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time.” George Gershwin

We don’t know for absolute certain that the great American composer George Gershwin actually said that. But the guy who shocked the world in 1924 with “Rhapsody In Blue,” a beautiful composition that scandalously threw a bit of African-American-flavored jazz into a classical music piece, might have been right.

Why, for instance, do some songs endure and others wither? Could anybody ever anticipate what would last and what wouldn’t?

When the Who’s Pete Townshend was writing songs for “Lifehouse,” a project that ended up not really happening, one of the numbers was a three-chord, I-IV-V number (F, C and B flat or about as common a chord progression as there is.) Did he have any inkling that it would become what seems an everlasting, radio-friendly, money-gathering classic? I just heard its opening notes accompanying a Starbucks ad. And it’s the soundtrack for how many TV shows?

During a recent interview on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Townshend was asked to list his top five songs. He listed “Love Reign O’Er Me,” “Behind Blue Eyes,” “Let My Love Open The Door” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” - all songs that Who fans would definitely applaud and agree with him.

But for the fourth song on the list - “Baba O’Riley,” - Pete added a side note. “It has 1.5 billion streams on Spotify.” In other words, the entire population of India could be streaming the song right now. And chances are, they, too, would get the title wrong.

One of the great album covers of all time. Look carefully and get the joke - “Who’s Next?”

“Teenage Wasteland” is the song’s chorus and Townshend wrote it about the desolation he saw across the landscape after Woodstock had ended. The festival ground in Bethel, N.Y., was an absolute mess, a disaster that somebody else had to clean up. He titled the song in part because he was a religious devotee of Meher Baba at the time, hence the “Baba,” and there was an avantgarde musician named Terry “Riley” that Townshend also liked. He put the two together in the title, which is never mentioned in the lyrics.

According to Setlist.fm, The Who have played the song in concert either 840 times or 925. Oh. For a guy who certainly and rightfully thinks of himself as a composer, how does it feel to play that three-chord progression he thought of when he was a young man in 1971 throughout the decades of the 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s, 2010’s and 2020’s?

On the one hand, you have to be thrilled that you were able to come up with a song that was so phenomenally popular. One that filled your wallet, too. But on the other hand, you’ve been writing songs for the past 40-plus years and you haven’t matched it. Or surpassed it.

Another way to put it is this: Does re-living a past glory every night you’re on tour ever get depressing? Or tiresome? “Gee, I thought of this when I was 26. And that was it? My peak? What have I done since?”

Did Townshend himself think it was his peak? Does popular appeal determine that? It’s a good question. Why was that such a hit? Did he feel like trying to match it?

For an artist, repeating his or herself may at times be annoying. They’re trapped in a way, aren’t they? Pete certainly knows that when The Who do a concert, they HAVE to play “Baba O’Riley” among other Who classics. Which is both a compliment and maybe a bit of a curse.

The other day, I read about someone who attended a recent Bob Dylan concert and, discovering that Bob wasn’t going to play “Tangled Up In Blue,” walked out. Had he done a little research he would have learned Bob hasn’t played that song since August 18, 2018. Let the concert goer beware.

What would a Who fan think if they had attended a concert and Pete said, “Nah, I don’t feel like playing “Baba O’Riley” tonight. How about “Substitute?”

I’d bet the audience reaction would make him feel like smashing his guitar.

Pete Townshend on Stephen Colbert

John Nogowski is the author of several books, including a third edition of “Bob Dylan: A Descriptive, Critical Discography and Filmography” and a forthcoming similar edition on Neil Young. He’s also written two books on baseball - “Diamond Duels” and “Last Time Out” and several other books, all available on Amazon. He’s been writing a free Substack since May of 2024. Stop by and say hello.