A-side "Had Enough" Recorded 4 October 1977 | Format 7" Genre Rock | |
Released 14 July 1978 (UK)
5 August 1978 (US) Length 6:20 (Album Version)
5:01 (Single Edit)
3:24 (US Single Edit) | ||
"Who Are You", composed by Pete Townshend, is the title track on The Who's 1978 album, Who Are You, the last album released before Keith Moon's death in September 1978. It was released as a double-A sided single with the John Entwistle composition "Had Enough", also featured on the album. The song became one of the band's biggest hits in North America, peaking at number 7 in Canada and at number 14 in the US. The keyboard pieces on the track are played by Rod Argent.
Contents
Background
Musically, the origins of "Who Are You" can be traced back to "Meher Baba M4 (Signal Box)", a 1971 synthesizer instrumental track that was later released on Pete Townshend's solo album, Psychoderelict. Early performances of the song were seen in both 1976 and 1977.
The lyrics of "Who Are You" were inspired by an incident Townshend experienced. After going out drinking with Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols, Townshend was found in a "Soho doorway" by a policeman, who let him go if he could safely walk away.
"Who Are You" was written about meeting Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols after an awful 13-hour encounter with Allan Klein who, in my personal opinion, is the awesome rock leech-godfather. In one sense the song is more about the demands of new friendship than blood-letting challenge. Roger's aggressive reading of my nihilistic lyric redirected its function by the simple act of singing "Who the fuck are you..." when I had written "Who, who, who are you..." Steve and Paul became real 'mates' of mine in the English sense. We socialized a few times. Got drunk (well, I did) and I have to say to their credit, for a couple of figurehead anarchists, they seemed sincerely concerned about my decaying condition at the time.
"Who Are You" was released as a double-A side with the John Entwistle song, "Had Enough", but "Who Are You" was the more popular song, reaching the Top 20 in both the US and UK. The song has since been featured on multiple compilation albums. The single mix contains an alternate acoustic guitar solo to the album mix.
Composition
According to musicnotes.com, the song is a bright rock beat song written in the key of E major.
Lyrics
The album version includes a third verse compared to the much shorter single. Additionally, a "lost verse" mix of the song was released on the 1996 reissue of Who Are You, with a completely different second verse: "I used to check my reflection / Jumping with my cheap guitar / I must have lost my direction, cause I ended up a superstar/ One-nighters in the boardroom/ Petrify the human brain/ You can learn from my mistakes, but you're posing in the glass again".
The song is unusual in that it contains two instances of the word "fuck" – at 2:16 and 5:43 (at 2:14 and 4:27 in the single edit version) – yet has been played frequently in its entirety on rock radio stations (although, in the wake of the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction and ensuing crackdown by the FCC, this song is now often heard in an edited form, expunging this word and replacing it with "hell"). The expletives, while not clearly enunciated and slightly obscured by Moon's drum fills, are nevertheless quite audible. This led to some controversy when ABC's unedited broadcast of The Who's Live 8 performance retained them. The American single edit changes this to "Who the hell are you?" and can be heard at 1:55. Other versions replaced the phrase with just one of the main choruses, "Tell me, who are you" and "I really want to know".
Video
A promotional video was filmed on 9 May 1978 for The Kids Are Alright documentary; originally, the intent was to have The Who simply mime to the single version's backing track with Roger Daltrey adding live vocals, but the decision was made to also re-record the guitars, backing vocals, drums, and piano. Only John Entwistle's bass and the synthesizer backing remained intact from the original version.
Live performances
This song was first performed live at the Gaumont State Cinema, Kilburn on 15 December 1977, albeit without synthesizers and only a portion of the lyrics. This can be seen in the DVD At Kilburn 1977 + Live at the Coliseum. Despite that being the first performance, this song had its roots in jams in the band's 1976 concerts, most notably at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto on 21 October 1976, drummer Keith Moon's last North American appearance with The Who, where the band played a very early version of the song with Townshend on vocals. The first live performance with synthesizers (via a backing tape of the same synthesizer track found on the studio version of the song) was at the Rainbow Theatre, London on 2 May 1979, which was also Kenney Jones's first live show with the band. Since then, it has remained a staple for their live shows. The Who opened their segment of The Concert for New York City on 20 October 2001 with the song and performed a medley featuring the song in Super Bowl XLIV. They also used the song to begin their set at 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief on 12 December 2012. In later performances, Roger Daltrey also plays acoustic rhythm guitar.