Song 226: This week's playlist song is I Can See For Miles by The Who, written by Pete Townshend. The YT video that I link to for the track is from the band's appearance on the Smothers Brothers TV show, and they perform both this song and My Generation, though of course, as was so often the case during that era, they're just miming to the records, but at any rate, along with the mime, at the end of the second song Pete Townshend also does a bit where he appears to smash a guitar and an amp. In the fall of 1967, along with the music scene buzz about Sgt. Pepper's, the Doors, the J-Plane and an amazing new guitarist named Jimi, people were talking about this new English band called The Who that ended their shows by destroying their equipment. That sounded dumb to me, and I decided that I probably wouldn't like their music, but then I Can See For Miles came across the airwaves, knocking down all my expectations -- the record didn't just sound good, it sounded unbelievably good, and to this day, it remains one of my favorite tracks, as I hear both Keith on the drums and Pete on the guitar setting off musical explosions and rocking so hard that it seems as if one of them might himself explode at any moment. Appropriately enough for a song about seeing for miles and miles, the band recorded the backing tracks in London, did vocals and other overdubs in New York, and had the recording mixed and mastered in L.A., covering a lot of miles in between, most likely by riding in an airplane, and from a window seat, anyone can see for miles and miles, though you still might need some kind of magic, or a crystal ball, to see through the haze of a lover's deception.
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