Who – "Won't Get Fooled Again" (1971)

There’s nothing in the streets

Looks any different to me

And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye

And the party on the left

Is now the party on the right

And the beards have all grown longer overnight

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

Those words were written fifty years ago, but they might as well have been written yesterday.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but you did get fooled again – and you’ll continue to get fooled in the future.  That's the way it works.

Meet the new boss, boys and girls – same as the old boss.

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When I sat down to decide what records would make this year’s class of inductees into the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME and the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE ALBUM TRACKS HALL OF FAME, I put the Who’s “My Generation” on the short list of possible hit singles and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” on the short list of possible album tracks.

But then I did my always-thorough vetting process and learned that “My Generation” peaked at only #74 on the Billboard “Hot 100” – which seemed to disqualify it from being considered a hit single.

I was further surprised to learn that the single version of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” made it all the way to #15 on the “Hot 100.”  

2 or 3 lines isn’t afraid to pivot when pivoting is necessary, so that’s what I did – “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is going into our hit single hall of fame, while “My Generation” (SPOILER ALERT!) will be honored by being inducted into the album tracks hall of fame next month.

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The last few times I took my kids to the old Yankee Stadium, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” was played over the public address system as the Yankees took the field at the beginning of home games.

To be specific, the Yankees played the synthesizer solo that begins at about 6:30 of the album version of the song.  But they always cut the music off before it got to the famous Roger Daltrey scream at 7:45 – which Dave Marsh of Rolling Stone once described as “the greatest scream of a career filled with screams.”  (I always found it tremendously frustrating that the Yankees cut the song off when they did.  If that didn’t give you a bad case of musical blue b*lls, nothing would.)

That scream leads into the song’s coda, which features these two iconic lines:

Meet the new boss

Same as the old boss

Say no more, Pete Townshend – you’ve said it all.

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Click here to listen to the single version of “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” a very deserving member of the 2020 class of the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME.

Click here to listen to the album version of “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” which would have been a very deserving member of the 2020 class of the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” ALBUM TRACKS HALL OF FAME – if the rules allowed the album version of a hall of fame hit single to be included in the album tracks hall of fame.  (Rules are made to be broken, they say.  Hmmm . . .)

Click on the link below to buy the single version of the song from Amazon: