The “Non-Love Song” Song of the Day: The Who

Let’s revisit The “Non-Love Song” Song of the Day blog post today, shall we? In thinking about what song(s) I could feature, I thought about how The Beatles were featured in the previous posting. Many bands from the 196’s are often associated with primarily writing about love, but really, many other bands wrote about plenty of other things. Today I am featuring one of my favorite bands who does just that: The Who.

The Who have a number of songs (from, for example their Rock Operas) that help to tell a story, which thus do not always involve a love story. Today I’m featuring three prime examples of their mastery of the non-love song. First up is the song, Bell Boy from their album/movie/sensation, “Quadrophenia.” This song is fantastic for more than reason, but one being that it’s about a bellhop- my Halloween costume for the past two years.

The next song is frequently played around Halloween time. The Who’s creepy crawly song, Boris The Spider. As much as I don’t like the idea of a song about a spider, this is a fantastic song because well frankly, the spider dies in the end. But this is also a fantastic song because it’s about a spider! Who thinks to write a song about a spider in the first place?! I love that it has nothing to do with anything, except an experience with an unpleasant arachnid.

Our last non-love song today is the ever-classic, My Generation. With lyrics like, “I’m not trying to cause a big sensation,” and ” people try to put us down,” there shouldn’t be any doubt that this song has nothing whatsoever to do with love, or lack thereof. The Who are having fun and not concerned with any of that lovey dovey junk. They have a message about their youth and their peers and just want to sing it out.

The Who goofing off.

I am so glad to have The Who’s music around for those times where all I want to do is listen to a song about a spider. Thanks to The Who, we don’t need to have every single song be about love or break-ups. Be it spiders, bellhops, or a youth movement, The Who really knows how to do non-love songs.