WCSX Classic Cuts
The Who: “My Generation”
The Hook: Be careful what you ask for.
Album: The Who Sings My Generation
Year: 1966
Writer: Pete Townshend
Stats: Although it peaked at a lowly number-74 on the Billboard Hot 100, it got to number-two on the British singles chart.
Background: Practically since he wrote it, Pete Townshend has been answering questions about the line in The Who’s “My Generation” declaring, “I hope I die before I get old.” Here’s what he had to say about it at a 1989 press conference in New York.
At a 1989 press conference, Pete Townshend addresses his famous words from “My Generation,” “I hope I die before I get old.” OC:…adequately today. :22
“The only thing now is that looking back on those words, ‘I hope I die before I get old,’ I really know now that that will happen – that will happen to all of us – and in a sense, in a lot of ways, it has already started, that process. Certain bits of me, which were operating extremely well when I wrote those lines, don’t function quite so adequately today.”
