Who are you? Who, who, who, who?

[coloradodem2005]

Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?

I woke up in a Soho doorway
A policeman knew my name
He said "You can go sleep at home tonight
If you can get up and walk away"

I staggered back to the underground
And the breeze blew back my hair
I remember throwin' punches around
And preachin' from my chair

chorus:
Well, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
Tell me, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
'Cause I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)

I took the tube back out of town
Back to the Rollin' Pin
I felt a little like a dying clown
With a streak of Rin Tin Tin

I stretched back and I hiccupped
And looked back on my busy day
Eleven hours in the Tin Pan
God, there's got to be another way

Who are you?
Ooh wa ooh wa ooh wa ooh wa ...

Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?

(chorus)

I know there's a place you walked
Where love falls from the trees
My heart is like a broken cup
I only feel right on my knees

I spit out like a sewer hole
Yet still recieve your kiss
How can I measure up to anyone now
After such a love as this?

(chorus)

[General Zod]

1. The last great song from the original lineup........

Even though the album itself was uneven, "Who Are You' was six minutes of classic Who music.
The story behind that song is very interesting. Pete had just settled a lawsuit with his former management team(Kit Lambert, Chris Stamp) when he went to a club and saw several members of the Sex Pistols. Pete was drunk and enraged about the current state of rock music.

He began to pontificate about how The Who were finished and how bands like the Pistols were the future of rock. Drunk, he staggered home from the club and passed out in a doorway. A cop found him in the morning and told him that if he could get up, he would let him go and not arrest him.

[coloradodem2005]

2. Was he enraged about punk being the future of music?

Or was he enraged because he felt like a dinosaur? I know that the punk community loved the Who.

[Squeech]

3. What he said

was that the Who were washed up, and that it was up to them (the Sex Pistols) to save rock. The Pistols tried to reassure him by telling him how much they loved the Who, but Townshend was not in a mood to be reassured.

As it happens, it wasn't the smart or creative or ideological Pistols, it was Jones and Cook. Lydon would probably have told Townshend he was an old tosser, which was probably what he wanted anyway.

And as it happens, the Who were washed up-- they had a mere handful of great songs left in them. Fortunately, "Who Are You" was one of them. (There are a couple good ones from the Kenney Jones era-- I like "Cry if you Want"-- but it's not worth buying those records; get your lucky Pepsi bottle caps and download the few good tunes.)

[General Zod]

4. You, are correct sir.

I had forgotten some of the details of that story. Didn't he mistake Cook for Johnny Rotten?

Have you ever read "Before I Get Old /The Story of the Who" by Dave Marsh?

I think that's where 1st heard that story.