Pete Townshend wrote this song about a revolution. In the first verse, there is an uprising. In the middle, they overthrow those in power, but in the end, the new regime becomes just like the old one (\"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss\"). Townshend felt revolution was pointless because whoever takes over is destined to become corrupt. In Townshend: A Career Biography, Pete explained that the song was anti-establishment, but that \"revolution is not going to change anything in the long run, and people are going to get hurt.\"
The synthesizer represents the revolution. It builds at the beginning when the uprising starts, and comes back at the end when a new revolution is brewing.
Townshend wrote this as part of his \"Lifehouse\" project. He wanted to release a film about a futuristic world where the people are enslaved, but saved by a rock concert. Townshend couldn't get enough support to finish the project, but most of the songs he wrote were used on the Who's Next album.
Roger Daltrey's scream is considered one of the best on any rock song. It was quite a convincing wail - so convincing that the rest of the band, lunching nearby, thought Daltrey was brawling with the engineer. (thanks, Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England)
The album version runs 8:30. The single was shortened so radio stations would play it.
In a 1985 \"My Generation\" radio special, Pete Townshend said he wrote the song as a message to the supposedly \"new breed\" of politicians who came around in the early '70s.
This is the last song on the album. It was also the last song they played at their concerts for many years.
This was one of the first times a synthesizer was used in the rhythm track. When they played this live, they had to play the synthesizer part off tape.
Townshend (from Rolling Stone magazine): \"It's interesting it's been taken up in an anthemic sense when in fact it's such a cautionary piece.\" (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)
This was used in commercials for the 2000 Nissan Maxima. Some people considered this the biggest sell-out in Rock, but The Who made lots of money in the deal. The same year, Nissan used The Who's \"Baba O'Reily\" in an ad for their Pathfinder.
This song was played by the remaining members of the band at \"The Concert for New York City,\" a fundraising concert in the wake of the devastating attacks on September 11, 2001. Daltrey omitted the last line of the song: \"Meet the new boss, Same as the old boss.\" (thanks, Chris - Philadelphia, PA)
Part of this is used in the opening sequence of the CBS TV show CSI Miami.
This was played in Super Bowl XLI (2007) as the Indianapolis Colts came out of the locker room. The Colts won the game. (thanks, Colin - New Egypt, NJ)
In The Simpsons episode \"A Tale of Two Springfields,\" Homer forms \"New Springfield\" and gets The Who to play there. Pete Townshend blasts the wall between old and new Springfield by blasting the guitar riff from this song. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)
In its May 26, 2006 issue, the conservative National Review magazine published a list of \"The 50 greatest conservative rock songs.\" \"Won't Get Fooled Again\" was ranked song number one. Pete Townsend responded on his blog as follows:
\"It is not precisely a song that decries revolution - it suggests that we will indeed fight in the streets - but that revolution, like all action can have results we cannot predict. Don't expect to see what you expect to see. Expect nothing and you might gain everything.'' Townsend then goes on to explain that the song was simply ''Meant to let politicians and revolutionaries alike know that what lay in the center of my life was not for sale, and could not be co-opted into any obvious cause.'' (thanks, Dale - Laguna Niguel, CA)
