The Who

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The first time I saw the Who was in 1969. Some friends and I who were in Boy Scouts together were supposed to be going on a Scout trup when we ran into a traffic jam on Maryland Rte. 29. Hundreds of cars filled with young people were patinetly wating to get into the parking lot at Columbia's Merriweather Post Pavilion. We decided to ditch the scout trip and went to the concert instead. Since there were more people than there were tickets it turned out to be free. The next time I saw the Who was in 1973. I was graduating from high school in a week and they were playing at a concert hall in Frankfurt, Germany where my dad was stationed. Their album Who's Next was topping the charts. Of course, they played Baba O'Riley and Won't Get fooled Again. It's the second song that always meant a lot of different things, the most important being the line "We won't get fooled again." According to Pete Townshend, this was in reaction to all of the political powertripping that was going on in the youth culture of the day. Last year, before he went on tour he noted that it could apply just as easily to the political manipulations of today's leaders.