My Generation (The Who song)
| "My Generation" | |||||||||
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Swedish release
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| Single by The Who | |||||||||
| from the album My Generation | |||||||||
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| Format | Vinyl record (7") | ||||||||
| Recorded | 13 October 1965, IBC Studios, London | ||||||||
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| Length | 3:18 | ||||||||
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| Writer(s) | Pete Townshend | ||||||||
| Producer(s) | Shel Talmy | ||||||||
| The Who singles chronology | |||||||||
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"My Generation" is a song by the English rock band The Who, which became a hit and one of their most recognisable songs. The song was named the 11th greatest song by Rolling Stone Magazine on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and 13th on VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Songs of Rock & Roll. It's also part of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and is inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for "historical, artistic and significant" value. In 2009 it was named the 37th Greatest Hard Rock Song by VH1.
The song has been said to have "encapsulated the angst of being a teenager," and has been characterized as a "nod to the mod counterculture".
The song was released as a single on 29 October 1965, reaching No. 2 in the UK, The Who's highest charting single in their home country and No. 74 in America. "My Generation" also appeared on The Who's 1965 debut album, My Generation (The Who Sings My Generation in the United States), and in greatly extended form on their live album Live at Leeds (1970). The Who re-recorded the song for the Ready Steady Who! EP in 1966, but it was not included on the EP, and this version was released only in 1995 on the remastered version of the A Quick One album. The main difference between this version and the original is that instead of the hail of feedback which ends the original, the band play a chaotic rendition of Edward Elgar's "Land of Hope and Glory." In the album's liner notes the song is credited to both Townshend and Elgar.
Townshend reportedly wrote the song on a train and is said to have been inspired by the Queen Mother who is alleged to have had Townshend's 1935 Packard hearse towed off a street in Belgravia because she was offended by the sight of it during her daily drive through the neighbourhood. Townshend has also credited Mose Allison's "Young Man Blues" as the inspiration for the song, saying "Without Mose I wouldn't have written 'My Generation'." Townshend told Rolling Stone magazine in 1985 that "'My Generation' was very much about trying to find a place in society."
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Wikipedia