Won't Get Fooled Again – The Who

-

Won't Get Fooled Again – The Who


There were big changes going on at one of my old jobs. Lots of people didn't want to move offices when the company decided we were moving from East to West London. It was a real shame as we had a really good team working there, very friendly, great social life and on top of that we were producing some amazing work.

Two of my main friends there were musicians, one played self taught lead guitar and the other was a very accomplished bass player who just happened to love The Who. John Entwistle was a big influence on lots of bass players, matching Keith Moon's drumming madness for lots of their huge hits. Personally I was a fan of their earlier stuff, Pinball Wizard and My Generation and the like. But I had their greatest hits and enjoyed most of them, I've always admired Roger Daltrey's vocals and windmilling Pete Townsend's guitar riffs.

Now to the point of the story, the two guys from work were firm friends and I was the new boy in the threesome, it so happened that my bass playing friend had decided to jump from the sinking ship and was leaving work this particular Friday. He was departing under a bit of a cloud as he was also the main IT man and they hadn't found his replacement yet. The guitar player just happened to book that day off on holiday, so on his last day the bass player was missing his main sparring partner. One of the big things in the office at the time was who was in charge of the communal stereo as they had totally control of what music the rest of us were subjected to. So as a special treat on his last day my bass playing friend was given his go and he set about trying to educate some of the more pop orientated audience with some proper tunes.

This song being the one that stood out amongst many other banging songs, as it started he emailed me directly saying this was his subtle stand against the management and the way his departure had been handled. As my favourite lyric below states, 'Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.' Proving he knew that he was in for more of the same wherever he would hang his working hat. I thought he'd won a small victory and have always thought of him when I've heard this song played.

The song popped into my head yesterday when yet again I was made redundant from my job.

Favourite lyric : Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss


Location: Rayleigh, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wherever You Will Go – The Calling

-
Image
    Wherever You Will Go – The Calling  No idea where this one came from, total American power ballad, it's well chessey but I love it. I'm a sucker for sentimental songs like this, all about always being with the one you love. But it's not really a happy song, apparently it was written about a husband who had lost his wife of over 50 years. The songwriter, Aaron Kamin , was at his grandmother's best friends funeral and the idea for the song came to him. How the husband who was left behind would have followed his beloved if only he could have. Can he now exist without her? The words almost say that they would come back to haunt you if that was possible, love that strong can't be broken. The need to be together is so strong. But like all good songs, you can take it's message in so many different ways. Also most listeners don't delve to deep into the meanings of songs, they just catch onto the suggested obvious tone of the chorus. The general understanding of
Read more

I Am, I Feel – Alisha's Attic

-
Image
  I Am, I Feel – Alisha's Attic I remember this one from 1996, it came back to my mind yesterday as I was on a songwriting course co-hosted by Shelly McErlaine (born Poole), one half of Alisha's Attic . The group was a duo made up of Sheely and her sister Karen Poole , who happen to come from close to where I grew up in East Essex, UK. They have a famous father, Brian Poole who had a band called Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, they had major success in the 1960s. Shelly is married to Ally McErlaine , from the band Texas , they now have an country band together called Red Sky July along with Charity Hair. Shelly is now a songwriter/producer/talent scout and is an amazing person to listen to about how to craft a song. It seems she has worked with so many huge names, but the biggest thing that came across was her absolute love of music. The song itself is a sorry tale of how a man is taking a girl he's with totally for granted. The lyrics are a very clever reply to how he
Read more

Running Bear – Johnny Preston

-
Image
    Running Bear – Johnny Preston I love this song. It's another one from my childhood, it sounds like a kids song, lots of chanting and takes a bit of imagination to get what's going on. It's actually a love song about two Indian's from different warring tribes, they're not allowed to be together.  This is a proper story song, loads of words, total tongue twister. Songs like this were big in the 50's, it's not an obvious setting to write a song about, I guess Westerns were very popular around the time and Cowboys and Indians were a real hit with the public. All sounding very exotic to us over here in the U.K. anything that shouted American was fantasy. Even as a kid listening to this song as a 45 single on a record player 30 years later, it really caught my ear. It was like listening to a bedtime story in three minutes. Running Bear is a cool Indian name, it gives such a strong image of a powerful fast huge guy and Little White Dove gives the impression of
Read more