My iPod #86: The Who – Behind Blue Eyes

Hi everyone. I’m feeling good. Each day just seems to go into the next so quickly, I don’t know where the time is going.

This is the third song from this album that I’ve done a blog on, and I’ve only got five songs from Who’s Next on my iPod. Oh, well.

For those of you who don’t know, “Who’s Next” is only a compilation of songs that were supposed to be used for a much bigger project that Pete Townshend had worked on. After they had finished “Tommy”, Townshend began work on a rock-opera called “Lifehouse”. However, when he explained the concept to his friends and the other band members they just didn’t get what was going on. They couldn’t handle it.

“Behind Blue Eyes” is sung from the perspective of the villain of the story, Jumbo. It was intended to be his ‘theme song’, but of course “Lifehouse” never happened. “Who’s Next” is still considered to be the band’s best album, even though it wasn’t intended to be made. That’s quite funny. You can listen to the album’s intended tracklist, thanks to this playlist on YouTube.

“Behind Blue Eyes” is the penultimate song – before “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. It starts off with Roger singing alone over Pete’s guitar, John later joins in with the bass and vocal harmonies are introduced. The song then changes into a full rock out when Keith and the electric guitars come in. Keith’s drumming is brilliant on this, listen to them here. The song then ends with a reprise of the first sections. With three cymbal crashes on the last three words, the song fades to a close.

It’s quite of a downer. But then the last track begins, and for the next nine minutes you’ll feel great.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

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