Who Are You (song)
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"Who Are You", composed by Pete Townshend, is the title track on The Who's 1978 release, Who Are You, the last album released before drummer Keith Moon's death in September of 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 US hits, peaking at #14.

Lyrics

The album version includes an extra 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 night I was in the boardroom/ Affected by the human race/ You can learn from my mistakes, but you're posing in the glass again".

The song is unusual in that it contains two clearly audible 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. The expletives did, however, cause controversy when ABC's unedited broadcast of The Who's Live 8 performance retained them.¹

Interpretation

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According to Townshend,^{citation needed} the song is about an encounter he had with Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols after a difficult 13-hour meeting with Allan Klein related to song royalties. Later, the drunken Townshend was awakened outside the bar by a policeman, who offered to let him go if he could "get up and walk away."²

Townshend has also written^when? that the song has a spiritual context related to Eastern mysticism.^{citation needed} The line "Who are you? Who, Who?" is directed at God, according to Townshend,^{citation needed} as "Hu" is an ancient name for God.

Video

A promotional video was filmed on May 9, 1978; 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. This version was later released on The Kids Are Alright documentary. The video also makes Keith Moon's poor state of health evident as it shows him to be significantly overweight.

Media Usage

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• This is one of The Who's most popular songs, featured in concerts including their 2005 appearance at Live 8 and was played at The Concert for New York City.
• It is used as the theme song for the hit CBS drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. (It was also used for the CSI/Two and a Half Men crossover episode, "Fish In A Drawer", where the chorus was sung as "Whooooo are you? MEN MEN, MEN MEN!")
• During ESPN's Sunday Night Football, the opening of the song was used when a team's starting offense was introduced. (AC/DC's "Hell's Bells" was used for the defense.)
• The song is also played at University of Phoenix Stadium when the opposing team enters the field.
• It was used in promotional advertisements for the 1996 Doctor Who Summerfest on WTTW.
• It was sung by Ted's Group "The Worthless Peons" in Scrubs season 7, episode 4 My Identity Crisis.
• It was used in film Non Plus Ultras, about AC Sparta Praha's ultras
• In the Dean Gray song, Ashanti's Letterbomb of the album American Edit, the guitar line is used on a loop for around a minute.
• The video game Rock Band features the song as part of a 12 pack of downloadable tracks from "The Who".

References