Dylan took to X to wish his fellow Grammy winner a happy birthday on Monday, May 19, writing,
"Happy birthday Pete. Who's the new boss? Is he like the old boss? Have you met him yet? Say hello to Roger." As fans the world over know, Dylan's message was a witty reference to the iconic Who song "Won't Get Fooled Again" - written by Townshend - which features Roger Daltrey singing the lyrics, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." Happy birthday Pete. Who's the new boss? Is he like the old boss? Have you met him yet? Say hello to Roger. —
Bob Dylan (@bobdylan) May 19, 2025 Music lovers knew exactly what Dylan was talking about, with one person quoting "The Seeker," a song by The Who that name-checks the "Like a Rolling Stone" singer: "I asked Bobby Dylan, I asked the Beatles, I asked Timothy Leary, but he could not help me either." Another fan shared a pic of Townshend and Dylan posing from what appeared to be the '80s writing: "Fashion icons."
Fashion icons. pic.twitter.com/NUGBGCj1bJ
— weisser (@julianweisser) May 19, 2025
Won’t Get Fooled Again is one of the biggest classic rock anthems of all time. Written by Pete Townshend and released by The Who as a single in June 1971, reaching the UK top ten. It was the final track on the incredible Who’s Next album, released August 1971.
The track was originally conceived for an entirely different project. Following the success of Tommy, the band’s 1969 double concept album that sent The Who into rock’s elite division, Townshend started work on a new conceptual project called Lifehouse.
For the demo of Won’t Get Fooled Again, Pete linked a Lowrey organ into an EMS VCS 3 filter that played back the pulse-coded modulations from his experiments. He subsequently upgraded to an ARP 2500. The synthesizer did not play any sounds directly as it was monophonic; instead it modified the block chords on the organ as an input signal.
“When I did this sound for Won’t Get Fooled Again I didn’t have the full equipment. It arrived during the making of the demos. By the time I had finished the demos I knew how to work it, but what I did have was a much simpler organ synthesizer. I took the output of the organ and put it through a filter, which is what they call ‘sample and hold’ – you get these random voltages coming out. I suppose I was just sitting there and playing it for hour after hour, getting into it. The chords I used were very simple – almost kind of naïvely simple, but then again, the end result is extraordinarily harmonically complex.”
