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Pictures of Lily

"Pictures of Lily"
Thewho-picturesoflily1.jpg
Single by The Who
B-side "Doctor, Doctor"
Released 22 April 1967 (UK)
24 June 1967 (US)
Format Vinyl record (7")
Recorded 5 April 1967
Studio IBC Studios, London, UK
Genre Power pop
Length 2:44
Label Track
Songwriter(s) Pete Townshend
Producer(s) Kit Lambert
The Who singles chronology
"Happy Jack"
(1966)
"Pictures of Lily"
(1967)
"The Last Time"
(1967)
German Cover
German single cover
German single cover

"Pictures of Lily" is a single by the British rock band The Who, written by guitarist and primary songwriter Pete Townshend. It was released in 1967 as a single, and made the top five in the UK, but failed to break into the top 50 in the United States. In 1971, "Pictures of Lily" was included in the Who album Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy, a compilation of previously released singles.

Townshend coined the term "power pop" when he used it to describe the song in a May 1967 interview with NME.

In the beginning of the song, the singer laments his inability to sleep. When his father gives him the pictures of the song's titular Lily, he feels better, and is able to sleep. Soon, he feels desire for Lily as a person instead of a photo, and asks his father for an introduction. His father informs him however that "Lily" has, in fact, been dead since 1929. Initially, the singer laments, but before long turns back to his fantasy.

According to Pete Townshend in the 2006 book Lyrics by Rikky Rooksby, "the idea was inspired by a picture my girlfriend had on her wall of an old Vaudeville star – Lily Bayliss [sic]. It was an old 1920s postcard and someone had written on it 'Here's another picture of Lily – hope you haven't got this one.' It made me think that everyone has a pin-up period."

Lillie Langtry, the music hall star, died in 1929, the year mentioned in the song. Townshend's statement is unlikely to refer to Lilian Baylis, the theatre manager, who died in 1937.

Mark Wilkerson quotes Townshend as writing that the song is "Merely a ditty about masturbation and the importance of it to a young man." However, the song does not mention masturbation explicitly.


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