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[Hombre_de_ningun_lugar]

"My Generation" is a revolutionary classic recorded by the Who and released as a single in November 1965. The song was written by the band's leader Pete Townshend. The single was very successful in UK, where it reached #2; but Americans may not have been ready for its wild sound, as it merely peaked at #74 in US. Indeed, this song meant a new advance for hard rock, and it may have been the hardest record produced until that point by anybody. Not only a loud guitar can be heard, but also one of the first bass solos and some of the most chaotic drumming in rock history. Everything, including the angry vocal, serves as the perfect medium to shout the protest from the new youth. But the claim is not only made to the outside, since the demand of not getting old is made to the inside. Probably the message could be summarized as burying an old body with a young mind.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=594WLzzb3JI" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=594WLzzb3JI</a>

[Moogmodule]

This song is a great happening. As simple a riff as was ever put to record, flailing drumming, that metallic bass sound, Pete's thrashing guitar. Probably the most mild part is Daltrey's vocals which are forceful without being over the top.

It doesn't do much musically. Not much of a melody or harmonics. Just a fun wild time to be had by all.

It'd interesting how they changed it to a slower tempo in later shows. I recall Pete saying it was a better tempo for his "tired old legs". That was when he was in his thirties. Would he ever have suspected he'd still perform it in his seventies.

[Normandie]

"My Generation" is a revolutionary classic recorded by the Who and released as a single in November 1965. The song was written by the band's leader Pete Townshend. The single was very successful in UK, where it reached #2; but Americans may not have been ready for its wild sound, as it merely peaked at #74 in US.

I might be remembering wrong, but didn't Americans incorrectly assume the song was mocking stutterers when in fact the stuttering was supposed to represent the speech style of a young Mod on uppers?

[KelMar]

I might be remembering wrong, but didn't Americans incorrectly assume the song was mocking stutterers when in fact the stuttering was supposed to represent the speech style of a young Mod on uppers?

I've read that, Kathy.

[Hombre_de_ningun_lugar]

This song is a great happening. As simple a riff as was ever put to record, flailing drumming, that metallic bass sound, Pete's thrashing guitar. Probably the most mild part is Daltrey's vocals which are forceful without being over the top.

It doesn't do much musically. Not much of a melody or harmonics. Just a fun wild time to be had by all.

It'd interesting how they changed it to a slower tempo in later shows. I recall Pete saying it was a better tempo for his "tired old legs". That was when he was in his thirties. Would he ever have suspected he'd still perform it in his seventies.

I've always thought Daltrey was the less talented member of the group. Still, I cannot imagine the Who with another singer.

[Hello Goodbye]

I might be remembering wrong, but didn't Americans incorrectly assume the song was mocking stutterers when in fact the stuttering was supposed to represent the speech style of a young Mod on uppers?

Thanks, Kathleen.  I've always wondered why the stuttering in this song.

[Hombre_de_ningun_lugar]

I might be remembering wrong, but didn't Americans incorrectly assume the song was mocking stutterers when in fact the stuttering was supposed to represent the speech style of a young Mod on uppers?

I didn't know that, Kathleen. Actually I had not related the singing to stuttering before, just saw it as a way to emphasize the protest. But now I'll think Roger is stuttering every time I listen to the song!

[Moogmodule]

I've always thought Daltrey was the less talented member of the group. Still, I cannot imagine the Who with another singer.

He's got a very distinctive voice.  So yes you couldn't slot another singer in.  He doesn't seem to have done much outside of the Who. Did he ever do much songwriting? I can't recall any if he did.

[Hombre_de_ningun_lugar]

He's got a very distinctive voice.  So yes you couldn't slot another singer in.  He doesn't seem to have done much outside of the Who. Did he ever do much songwriting? I can't recall any if he did.

I think his best contribution was "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere", which was a co-writing effort with Pete anyway.

And the only song I remember as being totally written by Daltrey is "See My Way", one of the worst things recorded by the Who:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFAIocFPfFo" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFAIocFPfFo</a>

It seems that each member of the Who was asked to write at least one or two songs for their second album (A Quick One); and apparently that was the best thing Roger was able to contribute.

[Normandie]

He's got a very distinctive voice.  So yes you couldn't slot another singer in.  He doesn't seem to have done much outside of the Who. Did he ever do much songwriting? I can't recall any if he did.

He's done some acting (other than Tommy, of course). I saw him in A Comedy of Errors on PBS and thought he did a very respectable job. (He was also in MacVicar and The Legacy, earlier in his career.) He's released some solo material, but none of it really amounted to much in terms of chart success.

I remember when he released "Under a Raging Moon," back in the late 80s, and everyone immediately hailed it as a tribute to Keith Moon,  even though in the liner notes it clearly reads "For Kit" (Lambert).

[Moogmodule]

He's done some acting (other than Tommy, of course). I saw him in A Comedy of Errors on PBS and thought he did a very respectable job. (He was also in MacVicar and The Legacy, earlier in his career.) He's released some solo material, but none of it really amounted to much in terms of chart success.

I remember when he released "Under a Raging Moon," back in the late 80s, and everyone immediately hailed it as a tribute to Keith Moon,  even though in the liner notes it clearly reads "For Kit" (Lambert).

I remember seeing him in MacVicar. That seemed to be his high point as an actor . He was also in the Ken Russell film Lisztomania. Can't claim to have watched it but anyone I know who has doesn't speak highly of it.

[Hello Goodbye]

But now I'll think Roger is stuttering every time I listen to the song!

Stuttering.  Well, here's how it works in reverse.  American country music singer and songwriter Mel Tillis stutters badly.  Sometimes he resorts to singing his sentences...

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aweaoakyK8&amp;t=58s" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aweaoakyK8&amp;t=58s</a>

He's able to sing without stuttering...

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7XPh481E9A" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7XPh481E9A</a>

As a child, Mel Tillis (1932- ), was laughed at because he stuttered. He said to himself, "Well, if they're gonna laugh at me, then I'll give them something to laugh about."

In 1957 he began working as a singer for Minnie Pearl, Nashville's great country comedienne. Pearl encouraged Tillis to talk on stage, but he refused, afraid that he'd be laughed at.

Pearl replied, "Let 'em laugh. Goodness gracious, laughs are hard to get and I'm sure that they're laughing with you and not against you, Melvin."

Little by little, Tillis increased his speaking on-stage. He developed humorous routines about his stuttering. Then "word began to circulate around Nashville about this young singer from Florida who could write songs and sing, but stuttered like hell when he tried to talk. The next thing I knew I was being asked to be on every major television show in America." Tillis' career took off.

But before Nashville and fame and fortune, Tillis was looking for a job in Florida. No one hired him. At the last place he applied, the owner said that he had once stuttered. He wouldn't hire Tillis, but gave him a piece of paper to read every night, saying that it had changed his life.

On the paper was a prayer:


Oh Lord, Grant me the Courage to change the things I can change, the Serenity to accept those I cannot change, and the Wisdom to know the difference. And God, Grant me the Courage to not give up on what I think is right, even though I think it is hopeless.

Tillis concludes his story,


For the first time in a long time, I slept well that night. I woke the next morning with a different outlook on life. I told myself that if I couldn't quit stuttering, then the world was going to have to take me like I was. What you see is what you get. From that day on, things started looking up for Mel Tillis. Soon after, I headed for Nashville in a '49 Mercury with a wife and a four-month-old baby girl; her name was Pam.

In 1976, Tillis was named Country Music Entertainer of the Year.



Carly Simon also stutters but can sing without stuttering.