Won't Get Fooled Again

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

> It would seem to me that
> "WGFA"'s theme of fighting oppressors and overthrowing dictators would fit
> in with this story line.

Ian:

Possible. However, the message of WGFA is that revolution usually trades
one oppressor for another (the people formerly known as The Oppressed).
And that is clearly not the message of Lifehouse. There, the "heroes"
escape their oppressors completely.

> I think Townshend wrote this as a reaction to Woodstock.

Now this definitely could be true...especially if you're talking about
the Abbie Hoffman incident! I've always thought that WGFA was a reaction
to the countercultural revolution in the US. He was telling them (us)
how it usually turns out.
The Woodstock ideal, or the so-called hippie dream, wasn't what PT
touched on in WGFA (however much he may have hated it). The song is
about active revolution, which was (at best) a fringe part of the `60s
hippie lifestyle (which was a social revolution rather than political).
And not much of a factor at the Woodstock festival.
It seems to me that both TOMMY and Lifehouse fit very well into that
hippie dream...mysticism, drugs, sex, and a final triumph against the
stronger enemy (which was traditional, conservative, and fascistic). On
the other hand, I would never say Pete was a hippie at any time in his
life.
Anyway, it may be that Abbie disgusted Pete so much that he felt
compelled to write a song about him. "Don't follow leaders..." Townshend
was a Dylan fan, too.

- -- 

            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