The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again

This performance has a different kind of approach and energy since there are Pete Townshend’s windmill guitar strums that slay in the air and Roger Daltrey’s scream that reverberates the walls. Daltrey’s vocals then are full of steely authority and when he curses out, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” it is as though he is the voice of the people who have had enough of the empty rhetoric.

The Who – Won’t Get Fooled Again – Live at Shepperton Studios, 1978.

This performance immediately drives right into Keith Moon’s drumming that is crazy and the entirety of the performance is all Rock and Roll. Akin to Elvis Presley, he belongs to the latter category—excessive energy with traces of genius. The playful aspect in him and the bordering heavy steadiness in John Entwistle’s bass licks completes the racial composition of the song.

Townshend smashing his guitar excitedly while Daltrey tosses his microphone during the climax is just pure awesomeness. This is not just a show; it is something more that reverberates even in the future because of the significance it bears in rock.

Lyrics:
We’ll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I’ll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again

A change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that’s all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain’t changed
‘Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

I’ll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half-alive
I’ll get all my papers and smile at the sky
For I know that the hypnotized never lie

Do you?

Yeah

There’s nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are effaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

Yeah
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

Songwriters: Peter Townshend