FEATURE:
I Hope I Die Before I Get Old
IN THIS PHOTO: The Who in 1965/PHOTO CREDIT: GAB Archive/Redferns/Getty Images
The Who’s My Generation at Sixty
__________
THE album of the same name…
turns sixty on 3rd December. On 29th October, its first single was released. Perhaps the most loved and popular track from The Who. A song that seemed to capture a distinct feeling and rebellion in 1965, The Who’s My Generation has endured and is still relevant I think. Written by the band’s guitarist and primary songwriter, Pete Townshend, in 2012, Paste placed My Generation at number six on their list of the twenty best The Who songs. it was placed number eleven by Rolling Stone on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time In 2004 and 2010, re-ranked number 232 in the 2021 edition. I am taking this information from the Wikipedia article about the song. Reaching number two in the U.K. upon its release, My Generation is notable as it features one of the first bass solos in Rock history. Also, Roger Daltrey’s stuttered delivery of some of the lyrics meant that the song was almost banned for a long period by the BBC through fear it would offend people living with a stutter. However, once My Generation became a hit and was successful, the BBC decided to play the song. I am going to come to some features about the sensational My Generation. I cannot imagine how thrilling it was hearing this song in 1965! Especially for teens. In a year when there was little like this around in terms of the song’s energy and punch, it would have been a revelation! The first song from The Who’s debut album, this was a spellbinding and astonishing introduction from the band! A track that stirred something in a generation that heard it back in 1965. It has not aged or lost its edge sixty years later.
American Songwriter featured My Generation in 2023. Writing how this was a rallying cry for those who feel like they did not fit in and were alienated by society, The Who could not have predicted how it would impact and drive the counterculture for decades to come! Even though it was not their debut single - I Can't Explain was released earlier in 1965 -, it was their most powerful one to that point. It is interesting looking at the meaning behind the song and its background:
“The pervasive story of why Townshend wrote “My Generation” involves The Queen Mother removing his Packard hearse from in front of his house – which happened to be near Buckingham Palace.
“It turned out that [the Queen Mother] had it moved because her husband had been buried in a similar vehicle and it reminded her of him,” Townshend once said. “When I went to collect it, they wanted two hundred and fifty quid. I’d only paid thirty for it in the first place.”
While that moment might have been a point of contention for Townshend, the actual motive behind “My Generation” came from a much larger problem for the guitarist: his struggle to find his place in society.
“‘My Generation’ was very much about trying to find a place,” Townshend once told Rolling Stone in 1987 (per Songfacts). “I was very, very lost. The band was young then.”
In 2019, Townshend provided a little more color to the song’s inspiration. “‘My Generation’ was inspired by the fact that I felt as artists we had to draw a line between all those people who had been involved in the second world war and all those people who were born right at the end of the war,” he said.
“Those people had sacrificed so much for us, but they weren’t able to give us anything,” he continued. “No guidance, no inspiration. Nothing really. We weren’t allowed to join the army, we weren’t allowed to speak, we were expected to shut up and enjoy the peace… And we decided not to do that.”
With “My Generation,” The Who took a side in the ever-growing culture clash between an older generation of Brits and a younger one that strived to break free of norms.
People try to put us d-down (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Just because we get around (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I hope I die before I get old (talkin’ ’bout my generation)
This is my generation
This is my generation, baby”.
Candice Littlejon wrote this fascinating feature about a timeless song. Transcending the 1960s, My Generation defined youth culture and rebellion for decades after its release. I wonder whether this song invented Punk or was one of the forbearers. It definitely influenced a lot of Punk acts that would arrive in the 1970s:
“At first glance, analyzing the lyrics to one of the Who’s most popular songs seems like a simple task; after all, the phrase “my generation” is repeated more than 40 times during the song’s duration of a little over three minutes. True to the nature and beauty of rock ‘n’ roll, the song wasn’t written to camouflage its message behind flowery metaphors; it was written simplistically which is where most of its magic lives.
The song was never assumed to become a generational anthem but acted more as a telling diary entry of what it meant to be young and misunderstood. However, since the song’s 1965 debut, youthful misunderstood generations have been blasting “My Generation” on their records, 8-tracks, CDs, iPods, and playlists ever since.
The angst chant touts a possessiveness of its generation; its repeated line of “my generation” could more accurately be heard as, “mine, not yours.” Distinguishing between two groups, as the song so rigidly does, magnifies differences, conflict, and contrast. It isn’t just knowing one generation is different from the next, but being proud of the difference: most noted in the line “I hope I die before I get old.” The song also dismisses its opposition (referred to only a few times as “people” and “you”) for their inability to understand the Who’s generation, figuratively patting them on their naive heads for even trying.
A great bit of trivia and a wonderful addition to the discussion of this classic track is that the quintessential stutter that Roger Daltrey took on was unintentionally intentional. Having had a minor struggle with a stutter, Daltrey accidentally stuttered while recording the track, but when attempting to re-record was suggested to keep it and add it in on multiple other lines. The artistic choice’s main objective was for Daltrey to sound hopped up on drugs, a judgmental factor many of the older generations commonly accredited to London youth (although it may have often been based on fact).
The creative choice took the song to a whole new level and is now one of the most famous rock songs cited for its stuttering. Of course, many others over the years have utilized this phonetic utilization (“Changes” by David Bowie, “Barbara Ann” by the Beach Boys, and “Bennie and the Jets” by Elton John, just to name a few) but choice for a stutter is intentional in these cases, usually chosen by the artist or band as a way to add interest or syllables to a word or phrase. (The only other notable rock song that a stutter was chosen on accident was with American rock band, Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet”, in which the lead singer didn’t intend to release the song that way, but only to poke fun at his brother’s stuttering problem).
My Generation” is a simple rock track, made up of some of the most classic, simplistic elements of rock music, particularly in its time of the 1960s: two verses that are repeated interchangeably, a hook that listeners can easily chant along to, and back-up vocals that mimic the popular “call back” method of many blues, soul and Motown songs of the time. It’s in its simplicity that the song My Generation finds a brilliant legacy. Both timeless and timely, the clear message of the song – our generations are different and we like it that way – resonates with Millennials today as much as it did with mods in the ’60s.
The differences between the young and old will always exist; each generation witnesses different disasters, overcomes obstacles unique to their decade, and therefore comes to care about different social and political agendas. Generations X, Y, and Z create a fascinating spectrum to look through, in which priorities, hopes, politics and structures of thought vary and change as we all navigate time. The one thing that may never change is how powerful music can be and how we utilize it to express ourselves.
Many older generations write off Millennials, labeling them as a generation that cares more about likes on their Instagram account than what’s going on in the world around them. Whether or not this is true from individual to individual, unpredictable elements of everyday life – such as social media or cell phones – have come to not only define a generation but consequently pigeonhole it. (Just as the Vespas and exquisitely greased hairstyles of the mods had them labeled as apathetic and pompous.)
My Generation was a favorite of our teenage-aged grandparents and then our teenage-aged parents, today it expresses the same message but to a different set of ears. We may change and mature, but classic songs, such as My Generation are comfortingly always the same”.
There are a couple of other features I want to cover off before wrapping up. Gold Radio looked at the meaning behind the lyrics of My Generation. I think the standout elements are the stuttered words. Something that was very unusual in Rock music. Also, that idea of a young Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, Keith Moon and John Entwistle playing a song that is all about youth. The horror of growing old! The Who are still performing. Even though half of the original line-up are no longer with us, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend are still together and going strong (though they might not have many gigs left in them):
“Roger Daltrey's stuttered delivery of 'My Generation' was one of the reasons why it became so iconic, mainly because it hinted at other ill-mannered words he'd wished he'd spurted out but couldn't.
A stutter in a song was certainly unusual, and was requested by the band's manager Kit Lambert after Daltrey had already recorded two vocal takes.
Talking to Uncut magazine in 2001, Daltrey recalled: "I have got a stutter. I control it much better now but not in those days."
"When we were in the studio doing 'My Generation', Kit Lambert came up to me and said 'STUTTER!' I said 'What?' He said 'Stutter the words – it makes it sound like you're pilled', and I said, 'Oh… like I am!'"
"And that's how it happened. It was always in there, it was always suggested with the 'f-f-fade' but the rest of it was improvised."
Producer Shel Talmy offered a different take saying it was "one of those happy accidents" after Daltrey struggled to fit the lyrics to the music during recording, as he hadn't rehearsed beforehand and couldn't hear his voice in the monitors.
IN THIS PHOTO: Roger Daltrey/PHOTO CREDIT: GAB Archive/Redferns/Getty Images
There’s a hint of irony about 'My Generation' these days
"I hope I die before I get old" is the lyric which continue to resonate to this day with new generations discovering 'My Generation'.
But it's also become a bit of an albatross for members of The Who in the years since it was first released, because they got old.
The Who's legendary and hell-raising drummer Keith Moon did commit to the mantra, tragically dying of a drug overdose at the age of just 32.
In 1965, Roger Daltrey insisted he'd stand by the lyric and claimed he would kill himself before the age of 30 as he didn't want to get old.
Understandably, his naive stance changed as he got older, but had to answer the inevitable questions about his pledge.
Daltrey claimed when asked that the line is about an attitude, not a physical age, whilst Townshend responded by saying for him when he wrote the lyrics that'"old" meant "very rich".
Produce Like a Pro ran their feature in 2021. They celebrate a song that defined Rock’s defiant and raw spirit. I don’t think we have heard a song quite as thrilling and generation-defining by Rock bands since. My Generation has been covered by, among other artists, Oasis, Patti Smith, and Green Day:
“My Generation” was released by Brunswick on October 29, 1965 as a single, peaking at number 2 in the UK — their highest charting single of their career in the UK. The single only peaked at 74 in the US, which may be due to the fact that Brunskwick’s US side (Decca) didn’t quite know what to do with the recording. Many of the record label’s executives even thought that they had received a bad tape — because of all of the feedback on the record. Despite their hesitancy, the song has enjoyed over a half-century of fame in the US as one of rock history’s most influential tracks. Rolling Stone named the song number 11 on their “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named it in their list of “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”. It was even inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for “historical, artistic, and significant” value.
“My Generation” remains a critical piece of rock history because of how it shaped music and even rock’s identity. It defined rock by its attitude. Perhaps one of the most iconic moments in the song occurs in the first verse when Daltrey cries out “I hope I die before I get old”. In a song all about generational conflict, this declaration asserted the youth culture as the true leaders of the future. And as the post-war generation aged, the song remained an anthem of their identity- one which constantly redefined their conception of aging. As the decades progressed, they declared that rock’s spirit would transcend age. In 2006, Pete Townshend explained what the line meant to him, as he performed the song in his sixties:
” ‘I hope I die before I get old.’ This time I am not being ironic. I am 61. I hope I die before I get old. I hope I die while I still feel this alive, this young, this healthy, this happy, and this fulfilled. But that may not happen. I may get creaky, cranky, and get cancer, and die in some hospice with a massive resentment against everyone I leave behind. That’s being old, for some people, and probably none of us who don’t die accidentally can escape being exposed to it. But I am not old yet. If getting older means I continue to cherish the lessons every passing day brings, more and more, then whatever happens, I think I’ll be happy to die before I get old, or after I get old, or any time in between.”
With “My Generation” The Who created an anthem that would not only define their generation but also transform rock history. A song of power, identity, attitude and the epitome of rock’s spirit, it has lived on for over a half a century, teaching new generations what it means to rock ‘n roll”.
Turning sixty on 29th October, My Generation is one of the most important songs in Rock history. In terms of the impact it had on people. The young generation. The song was a blueprint for genres such as Garage Rock, Punk, and Heavy Metal, influencing numerous artists and establishing The Who’s legacy. Recognised influential and genius by Rolling Stone, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Grammy Hall of Fame, this is a song that will be cherished and saluted for generations more. Could The Who ever have guessed the impact My Generation would have…
WHEN they released it in 1965?!