Jul 6, 2026 · 19 min · 6 segments
An early song that could have easily defined a band's career, but instead just gave us a glimpse of what was to come, and a cover by a great band that was out in the wilderness making some bad…
Uh, it was number 11 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2010, re-ranked to number 232 in 2021, which to me shows an enormous amount of recency bias on part of Rolling Stone.
I don't know what the heck they're thinking there.
Um, it's in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, uh, as one of the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll, the Grammy Hall of Fame for being historically and artistically significant.
It's one of the first rock songs ever featuring a bass solo.
Uh, and, and so first off, let me just say we're, we're what, eight years in at this point?
Mm-hmm.
Eight and a half, yeah.
And this is the first time we're actually talking about a Who song.
I don't quite know how that happened.
Yeah, it's a little odd.
Um, we're gonna, we're gonna have a session where we have to work through our shame on that one.
Uh, but, but here we are.
Uh, and, and this is, as a Who song, to me, this is so fascinating because it is a great song.
There's no question about it.
This is an absolutely incredible song.
And, and at the same time, if, like, in 1965, if you heard this for the first time, it was mind-blowing.
No question this was new, and nobody else was making music that had sounded like this at all.
And later, as they matured as a band, they were not inside those constraints at all, and they were doing something wholly other.
And hearing this with, you know, like the, what Baba O'Riley was gonna sound like in a few years in mind is so interesting because you can hear how each member of the band progressed.
Mm-hmm.
[laughs] And, and really in so many ways, the bass carries this song as the, the, the only instrument that's always forward, right? Their guitar, drums, vocal all have their moments in the sun.
Uh, it was number 11 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2010, re-ranked to number 232 in 2021, which to me shows an enormous amount of recency bias on part of Rolling Stone.
I don't know what the heck they're thinking there.
Um, it's in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, uh, as one of the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll, the Grammy Hall of Fame for being historically and artistically significant.
It's one of the first rock songs ever featuring a bass solo.
Uh, and, and so first off, let me just say we're, we're what, eight years in at this point?
Mm-hmm.
Eight and a half, yeah.
And this is the first time we're actually talking about a Who song.
I don't quite know how that happened.
Yeah, it's a little odd.
Um, we're gonna, we're gonna have a session where we have to work through our shame on that one.
Uh, but, but here we are.
Uh, and, and this is, as a Who song, to me, this is so fascinating because it is a great song.
There's no question about it.
This is an absolutely incredible song.
And, and at the same time, if, like, in 1965, if you heard this for the first time, it was mind-blowing.
No question this was new, and nobody else was making music that had sounded like this at all.
And later, as they matured as a band, they were not inside those constraints at all, and they were doing something wholly other.
And hearing this with, you know, like the, what Baba O'Riley was gonna sound like in a few years in mind is so interesting because you can hear how each member of the band progressed.
Mm-hmm.
[laughs] And, and really in so many ways, the bass carries this song as the, the, the only instrument that's always forward, right? Their guitar, drums, vocal all have their moments in the sun.
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