{"id":18829,"date":"2026-06-24T01:28:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T00:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/?p=18829"},"modified":"2026-06-24T15:55:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:55:05","slug":"morning-songthe-who-my-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/2026\/06\/24\/morning-songthe-who-my-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning song#The Who #My Generation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>&#8220;<strong>My Generation<\/strong>&#8221; is a song by the English rock band&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Who\">the Who<\/a>, written by guitarist and primary songwriter&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pete_Townshend\">Pete Townshend<\/a>, from their&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/My_Generation_(album)\">debut album of the same name<\/a>&nbsp;(1965). It was released as a single on 29 October 1965, reaching number two in the United Kingdom (their highest-charting single in their home country with 1966&#8217;s &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/I%27m_a_Boy\">I&#8217;m a Boy<\/a>&#8220;) and number 74 in the United States. The song also appeared in greatly extended form on their live album&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Live_at_Leeds\">Live at Leeds<\/a><\/em>&nbsp;(1970).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the band&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_signature_songs\">signature songs<\/a>,<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/My_Generation#cite_note-8\">[8]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0&#8220;My Generation&#8221; was placed number 11 by\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rolling_Stone\">Rolling Stone<\/a><\/em>\u00a0on its list of the &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rolling_Stone%27s_500_Greatest_Songs_of_All_Time\">500 Greatest Songs of All Time<\/a>&#8221; in 2004 and 2010, re-ranked number 232 in the 2021 edition. It was included in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rock_and_Roll_Hall_of_Fame\">Rock and Roll Hall of Fame<\/a>&#8216;s &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/500_Songs_that_Shaped_Rock_and_Roll\">500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll<\/a>&#8221; and inducted into the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Grammy_Hall_of_Fame_Award\">Grammy Hall of Fame<\/a>\u00a0for being &#8220;historical, artistic and significant&#8221;..<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Townshend told&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rolling_Stone\">Rolling Stone<\/a><\/em>&nbsp;in 1985 that &#8216;My Generation&#8217; was &#8220;very much about trying to find a place in society.&#8221;<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/My_Generation#cite_note-11\">[11]<\/a><\/sup>&nbsp;On a later interview for&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Good_Morning_America\">Good Morning America<\/a><\/em>, in 1989, the band was discussing the upcoming 1989 tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tommy_(The_Who_album)\">Tommy<\/a><\/em>, and Townshend talked about the famous line &#8220;I hope I die before I get old.&#8221; He said that, for him, when he wrote the lyrics, &#8220;old&#8221; meant &#8220;very rich&#8221;. The song&#8217;s lyrics comprise a distilled statement of youthful rebellion. The song&#8217;s melody and composition is considered a forebear to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Punk_rock\">punk rock<\/a>. One of the most quoted\u2014and patently rewritten\u2014lines in rock history is &#8220;I hope I die before I get old,&#8221; famously sneered by lead singer&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Roger_Daltrey\">Roger Daltrey<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the band the song was the basis for an extended medley or improvisation, going on as long as fifteen minutes, as evinced by the version appearing on&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Live_at_Leeds\">Live at Leeds<\/a><\/em>. Live recordings from 1969 to 1970 include snippets of music from&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tommy_(The_Who_album)\">Tommy<\/a><\/em>&nbsp;as well as parts of what would become &#8220;Naked Eye&#8221;. Townshend&#8217;s demo version of the song (together with a demo of &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pinball_Wizard\">Pinball Wizard<\/a>&#8220;) appeared on a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Flexi_disc\">flexi disc<\/a>&nbsp;included in the original edition of the book&nbsp;<em>The Who: Maximum R&amp;B<\/em>&nbsp;by Richard Barnes.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/My_Generation#cite_note-12\">[12]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The instrumental elements of the song are fast and aggressive. Significantly, &#8220;My Generation&#8221; also featured one of the first bass solos in rock history.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/My_Generation#cite_note-13\">[13]<\/a><\/sup>&nbsp;This was played by Entwistle on his&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fender_Jazz_Bass\">Fender Jazz Bass<\/a>,<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/My_Generation#cite_note-14\">[14]<\/a><\/sup>&nbsp;rather than the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Danelectro\">Danelectro<\/a>&nbsp;bass he wanted to use; after buying three Danelectros with rare thin strings that kept breaking easily (and were not available separately), a frustrated Entwistle used his Fender strung with nylon tapewound strings and was forced to simplify the solo. The song&#8217;s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Coda_(music)\">coda<\/a>&nbsp;features drumming from&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Keith_Moon\">Keith Moon<\/a>, as well, whereupon the song breaks down in spurts of guitar feedback from Townshend&#8217;s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rickenbacker\">Rickenbacker<\/a>, rather than fading out or ending cleanly on the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tonic_(music)\">tonic<\/a>. There are two guitar parts. The basic instrumental track (as reflected on the instrumental version on the My Generation Deluxe edition) followed by Townshend&#8217;s overdubs including the furious feedback on the coda. Similarly to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Kinks\">the Kinks<\/a>&#8216;s &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/You_Really_Got_Me\">You Really Got Me<\/a>&#8221; (also produced by Shel Talmy), the song&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Modulation_(music)\">modulates<\/a>&nbsp;from its opening key of G up to C via the keys of A and B\u266d. Townshend&#8217;s guitars were tuned down a whole step for the recording.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Posted from: <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/My_Generation\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/My_Generation<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_32895\"  width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"  data-origwidth=\"1200\" data-origheight=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qN5zw04WxCc?enablejsapi=1&#038;list=RDqN5zw04WxCc&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;disablekb=0&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;My Generation&#8221; is a song by the English rock band&nbsp;the Who, written by guitarist and primary songwriter&nbsp;Pete Townshend, from their&nbsp;debut album of the same name&nbsp;(1965). It was released as a single on 29 October 1965, reaching number two in the United Kingdom (their highest-charting single in their home country with 1966&#8217;s &#8220;I&#8217;m a Boy&#8220;) and&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/2026\/06\/24\/morning-songthe-who-my-generation\/\" class=\"\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Morning song#The Who #My Generation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2706],"class_list":["post-18829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-morning-song","tag-the-who-my-generation"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18829"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18833,"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18829\/revisions\/18833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}