November 04, 2006

Oh, for Pete's Sake


Pete

As much as I'd still like to continue to support Pete Townshend and his music (even though what I have heard so far of The Who's Endless Wire has less than underwhelmed me), Pete's mouth keeps* getting in the fucking way:
You take a song like "Won't Get Fooled Again," which has been rightly fingered now as a reactionary tune written to say, "Listen, I can't cope with the counterculture. I'm twenty-four years old and I've got a baby. Please don't come a-knocking on my door and say, 'The revolutions is happening, Pete, and you've got to lead us.' Go away." When Roger sang it, suddenly it became almost the anthem of the counterculturalists. You say to somebody, "I'm not doing it," and they hear you say, "I'm doing it." Like "I'm not going to tell you that I think President Bush is a bad man." And people go, "Oh, OK, so President Bush is a bad man." Let me tell you again: He fucking is not a fucking bad man, you fucking idiot. And the debates I had backward and forward through Harvey Weinstein with Michalel Moore were beyond belief. He wanted to use my song "Wont Get Fooled Again" (in Fahrenheit 9/11). I said to Harvey, "The guy wants to misuse the misuse of the song." It's not political or partisan or parochial. I do feel like, as an artist and a writer, I float above it all and look down at all you guys running around, and I think, "I don't have the answer, but I can write the theme tune.
I'm sure right-wing producer Jerry Bruckheimer will continue to find a much better way to misuse Pete's songs on C.S.I.-Whatever-the Fuck. As Pete himself says in the interview in regards to touring, "I don't need to play old Who songs. I could sell them to fucking CSI."

(*quotes are from the print version of Rolling Stone)

1 comment:

Jeff said...

Oh my.
I'm a lifelong Whohead. I dislike to new Who very much.
I'm glad to see someone shares my opinion.