Re: Won't Get Fooled Again

["Mark R. Leaman" <mleaman@sccoast.net>]

> I never considered WGFA a song about active revolution, unless it was a
> shunning of it.  IMO the song is about remaining indifferent to the
> various revolutions (social and political) which swirl around us.

Leo:

There's no doubt that Townshend's taking the view from the outside.
Let's look at the lyrics:

"When we're fighting on the street/With our children at our feet/And the
morals that we worshiped will be gone/And the men who spurred us on/Sit
in judgement of all wrong/They decide and the shotgun sings the song..."

Violent revoltion, no doubt...fighting in the street. Also, we see the
"leaders" dispensing high justice without consulting the people they
liberated, having betrayed the morals they used to stimulate the
revolution in the first place. Already on the path to ruin.

"I tip my hat to the new constitution/Take a bow for the new
revolution/Smile and grin at the change all around/Pick up my guitar and
play/Just like yesterday/And get on my knees and pray/We don't get
fooled again..."

Pete sees right through it all. He's saying: "I'll pay lip service to
the concept but I know that nothing has changed, really. I hope we don't
get fooled again."

"The change it had to come/We knew it all along/We were liberated from
the foe/That's all/And the world looks just the same/And history ain't
changed/Cause the banners they all flown/In the last war..."

There's nothing in this revolution that's any different from the ones
preceeding it. Pete's saying that revolution doesn't change anything.

"I move myself and my family aside/If we happen to be left
half-alive..."

See? Definite violent revolution.

"I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky/Cause I know that the
hypnotised never lie/Do ya?"

I don't know what the first line means, but the second is referring to
how easily people are led (or, as Lazarus Long said: Never underestimate
the power of human stupidity).

"There's nothing in the street/Looks any different to me/And the slogans
are replaced/By the by/And the parting on the left/Is now parting on the
right/And the beards have all grown longer/Overnight..."

Here Pete refers to the fact that the new leaders become the same as the
ones they replaced.

"Yyyyeeeeaaaaaahhhhh!"

(sorry, I couldn't help it)

"Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss..."

Obvious.

> There was a political element to Woodstock, at least an attempted one.

By the bands, not the organizers.

> The funny thing is, MG is often cited as a model for the Punk
> songs of the Seventies, but WGFA is just as cynical as "Anarchy In The
> U.K." ever was.

Gotta agree with you there. And other songs were too; AAA of course, The
Real Me, etc. etc.

- -- 

            Cheers                ML

 "It's more than a looking back...it's a bringing up to date.
  Quadrophenia is about where we're all at today...maybe you too,
  I don't know..."
            Pete Townshend