The eighth Who album, and the last with drummer Keith Moon, who passed away a week or two after its release, was partly inspired by Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend’s boredom at the prospect of playing old material again, as directly addressed in New Song. It also has some lingering elements of the failed Lifehouse project Townshend would never truly get over and is The ’Oo’s response to punk.
Keyboard-heavy and experimental – the flagging Moon couldn’t get his head around the odd time signature of Music Must Change – it houses in the unassailable title track possibly their last truly great song, inspired by both an on-stage improvisation and a night on the tiles when a pissed-off and pissed-up Townshend ran into some Sex Pistols and a sympathetic policeman.
