The Birth of an Anthem: Pete Townshend on "My Generation"
How The Queen Mother and a Gang of Mod Fans Inspired Rock's Ultimate Rebellion
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Few songs speak to an entire generation and sit at the intersection of multiple music histories quite like The Who's "My Generation." This groundbreaking track wasn't just a hit—it became an anthem that defined youth culture in the 1960s and continues to resonate today. And let me tell you, getting Townshend to spill the tea on this particular track took some persistence; two years of email exchanges before we finally connected. In a rare, extended conversation with Switched On Pop, Pete Townshend, The Who's guitarist, songwriter, and singer, reveals the surprising origins and evolution of this iconic song
A Commission from the Audience
Unlike many hit songs that emerge from a sudden burst of inspiration, "My Generation" came from what Townshend describes as "a commission" from his audience. After The Who's performance of their first hit "I Can't Explain" at the Goldhawk Club in London, a group of fans approached Townshend with a request: write more songs that expressed their generational experience.
"A group of Irish boys and one girl came up and asked if they could speak to me," Townshend recalls. "They said, 'Listen Pete, we want you to do more songs like "I Can't Explain".' And I said, 'Why?' And they said, 'Because we really think it's important.'"
When Townshend pressed them further, they explained: "We hear it as a song about the fact that none of us can really explain how we feel about anything. This is our standard now. This is the flag we're going to wave."
This direct request from fans gave Townshend a clear creative direction. "I've got a brief here. I've got a commission. I've got an audience. And how do I serve that audience?" he remembers thinking.
Class Consciousness and Royal Resistance
The specific inspiration for "My Generation" arose from Townshend's experiences living in upscale Belgravia after growing up in West London. Two incidents crystallized his feelings of class alienation.
First, while buying milk at a local shop, Townshend was rudely interrupted by a wealthy woman in a fur coat who demanded to be served before him. The second incident was even more remarkable: after purchasing an old hearse to convert into a hot rod, Townshend discovered it had been towed away based on a complaint from none other than the Queen Mother herself, who found it distressing as it reminded her of her husband's funeral.
Imagine having your car towed because the Queen Mum found it upsetting. Talk about the ultimate 'get off my lawn' move from the royal family. No wonder Townshend was ready to channel some righteous musical rebellion.
"I sat down and looked through my lyrics and I found this song which was an attempt to emulate two of my heroes at the time: Mose Allison, the jazz singer, and Bob Dylan," Townshend explains. He began crafting lyrics from a place of "resentment and a feeling of class consciousness," capturing the frustration of being "the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Evolving the Sound
The evolution of "My Generation" from concept to recording was unusually methodical. Townshend created multiple demos, experimenting with different approaches: a blues-inspired version, a Dylan-esque folk take, and finally a rock version with his signature stuttering vocals.
"I started to burble a little bit, like somebody that was pilled up," Townshend explains, referencing the amphetamine use common among young people at the time. The stuttering in “My Generation” wasn't just a musical choice; it was essentially Townshend doing his best impression of a mod kid so zonked on pills they can't get their words out straight. Pretty bold for 1965 radio—the perfroamnce got them banned from the BBC. This stuttering technique was also inspired by bluesman John Lee Hooker, who had an actual stutter.
The final piece came when producer Chris Damp suggested the song needed key changes to avoid becoming monotonous. The result was a track with three modulations, an unusual structure that would later influence artists from Whitney Houston to Beyoncé.
A Generation's Voice
What made "My Generation" resonate so deeply with young people in 1965? Townshend believes it captured the profound disconnect between youth and the older generation that had survived World War II.
"We felt disenfranchised. Absolutely," Townshend says. Young people were seeking meaning in a society dominated by those who had experienced the war but wouldn't discuss it. "Our conversations were all about what can we do to make ourselves count? What can we do to make our lives joyful? What can we do to make ourselves feel that we matter as much as these previous generations?"
The song's infamous line "Hope I die before I get old" wasn't merely youthful bravado but "a shout against the establishment, against the way that people were living, the way that they assumed that anybody without money and without status should be ignored."
From Burden to Legacy
Interestingly, Townshend reveals that "My Generation" quickly became "a burden" for the band. By the late 1960s, they were still performing it as a closing number despite feeling the conversation had moved on. Even today, he admits, "I hate playing it. It's difficult to play, it changes key a lot. I have to play the fucking thing and try to create this sound of planes going to war on a guitar that's plugged into a five watt amplifier.""
Despite this ambivalence, Townshend recognizes the song's enduring importance. "The success of it really for me as a songwriter was just doing the job that I was born to do and doing it right, and it lasting so long."
Looking Back and Forward
For Townshend, now approaching 80, the conversation that began with "My Generation" continues. Whether discussing his rock opera Tommy or his album Quadrophenia, he sees a consistent thread: young people drawing lines between themselves and previous generations, seeking to establish their own identities and values.
Perhaps that's why "My Generation" continues to resonate nearly sixty years after its release. Each new generation faces its own struggle for recognition and understanding, making Townshend's anthem of youthful frustration eternally relevant.
As we navigate today's generational divides, "My Generation" reminds us that the desire to be heard, understood, and valued remains a timeless aspect of the human experience, a conversation that, in Townshend's words, is "exactly the same" now as it was in 1965.