He’s even gone as far as to pick out The Who songs he hates, with one, in particular.
The song is arguably one of The Who’s most famous songs, ‘Pinball Wizard’. Artists disliking their own songs is nothing new, after all,
Townshend, he disliked ‘Pinball Wizard’ almost instantly and has since called it an “awful” song as well as saying in the album’s liner notes: “I’m embarrassed. This sounds like a Music Hall song,” he wrote.
Originally written as part of The Who’s epic rock opera Tommy from 1969, Townshend later admitted that he wrote the song to impress Nik Cohn, who had been giving the band some terrible reviews. As well as being an influential music critic Cohn was also a well-know lover of pinball and so Townshend shamelessly directed a track at the writer in a bid to gain some favourable reviews.
Describing the writing of the song, Townshend said: “I knocked it off. I thought, ‘Oh, my God this is awful, the most clumsy piece of writing I’ve ever done. Oh my God, I’m embarrassed. This sounds like a Music Hall song. I scribbled it out and all the verses were the same length and there was no kind of middle eight. It was going to be a complete dud, but I carried on.
"From Tommy onwards, I've always heard Pete's writing going more towards the classical form. So, in my head, it's always been like this. I'm really enjoying these shows. It's wonderful to hear these musicians who work so hard to get their positions in these orchestras, and they really get off on playing fresh music.
"Actually, me and also Pete we both love The Song Is Over". Townshend did consider the melody to be a little bit on the nose compared to the vision that he had in mind for the character, saying, “When we do get together musically in this way, it’s like we both acknowledge that there’s something greater than the two of us. I love this song. And a lot of people love it too. It’s an aspirational, kind of corny testament to the universe.”
(Sources: Farout/ VMZ/ NME)
