the best songs ever

[Eric the Green]

I don't know if Peter Townshend saw this documentary by his fellow Brit or not. But it meant a lot to me, and so it was appropriate that I saw this doc not long before Won't Get Fooled Again came out. The song could be another soundtrack for the doc. And the remarkable fact is that the first four notes of the theme of Beethoven's Leonore Overture (featured in the doc) are the same as those of The Who's 1971 song (with the third note repeated). "We are still the offspring of the romantic movement, and still victims of the fallacies of hope" says Kenneth Clark. Of course, The Who's song was also a follow up to John Lennon's well-known song "Revolution," the flip side of Hey Jude. But Peter Townshend took it farther to encompass the entire modern journey and the romantic movement, which surged again in the sixties. Nothing, except maybe this doc, brings revolution and all its dangers and delusions to life as well as this song, and the fact that violent revolution leads to war, but the synth theme is a picture of continuity and the lingering hope within our collective psyche for a movement that has not ended, and can't end until all its goals are accomplished. It's our destiny, despite the recurring cycle of revolt and failure. So I interpret the song positively; that as the new boss becomes the old boss, the movement moves on to the next higher stage, just like Hegel said. And all romantic music, including this song, is a variation on La Marseillaise. So well produced that it contains more music in it than any piece since those earlier romantic days, it's #1 on my rock list.