The Who - My Generation Song Meanings
 Top Rated Interpretation
anonymous
January 31st, 2006 08:58PM
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This song is about the 60s... and how at this time generational differences stood in stark contrast... more conservative and slightly befuddled parents on the right, and their hippie/liberal/anti-war/free love children on the left.
So what he's saying is basically just a shout out to everyone in his generation, and he's talking about how people were trying to put the younger generation down and criticize their lifestyle choices, ideas, activism, music tastes, etc. because they were new and different and so the older generation got a bit scared and confused and wondered where the heck they went wrong.
And he bascially concludes "I'm not tryin to make a big sensation/... Just talkin bout my generation."
He's just trying to point out that his generation isn't any better or worse than anybody else's... It's just his generation and he doesn't think people should decide they're all wrong because they aren't comfortable with the way the new generation does things.
smitch
March 8th, 2006 07:41PM
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Personally, I believe the Who wrote this song to live on forever. It's a brilliant song about any youth generation. The line, "I hope I die before I get old," rings through society today. All of youth's greatest fear is becoming like their parents, and becoming old can be taken literally as said or taken from a different angle like so: becoming "old" is no longer having fun with life, and life becoming a waste and no one wants that. The Who, especially Roger Daltry and Pete Townshend were amazing song writers, and they knew if they wrote this song it would live through the "generations", therefore the Who living on, and them making a lot of cash.
anonymous
November 26th, 2006 03:28PM
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The reason Roger stutters is to express the frustration every generation feels when trying to deal with the previous.
anonymous
October 3rd, 2007 08:14PM
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As a few of you said this song is about the 60's, and also how young people don't want to be old and be like their parents.
I also agree with the anonymous person before me on the "fade away" part.
anonymous
July 23rd, 2008 12:03PM
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Song isn't about hippies and acid, they were Mods from England, a completely different movement. Townsend has even stated that he didn't think much of the hippies.
The stuttering is a device to show frustration, not that they're drugged up, and in fact wasn't even introduced to the song until halfway through the recording process.
Try learning something about them first before you make all kinds of assumptions, there are plenty of documentaries and books out there.
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