BARGAIN
(Pete Townsend)
I’d gladly lose me to find you
I’d gladly give up all I had
To find you I’d suffer anything and be glad
I’d pay any price just to get you
I’d work all my life and I will
To win you I’d stand naked, stoned and stabbed
I’d call that a bargain
The best I ever had
The best I ever had
I’d gladly lose me to find you
I’d gladly give up all I got
To catch you I’m gonna run and never stop
I’d pay any price just to win you
Surrender my good life for bad
To find you I’m gonna drown an unsung man
I’d call that a bargain
The best I ever had
The best I ever had
I sit looking ’round
I look at my face in the the mirror
I know I’m worth nothing without you
In life one and one don’t make two
One and one make one
And I’m looking for that free ride to me
I’m looking for you
I’d gladly lose me to find you
I’d gladly give up all I got
To catch you I’m gonna run and never stop
I’d pay any price just to win you
Surrender my good life for bad
To find you I’m gonna drown an unsung man
I’d call that a bargain
The best I ever had
The best I ever had
In life one and one don’t make two
One and one make one
TOWNSEND GETS OVERLOOKED AS A LYRICIST TOO OFTEN!
I asked Bobby Dylan, I asked the Beatles, I asked Timothy Leary, but he couldn’t help me either…
That’s what I am talking about
But my dreams, they aren’t as empty as my conscience seems to be…
He was on a roll on Who’s Next. Lyrics met Sound and new musical territory. It’s funny how lyrics will always be our reference point
There’s this cool moment on Endless Wire where they hit the track Tea and Theatre. Nothing revolutionary about the lyrics, but they just seem to sum it all up:
We did it all – didn’t we?
Jumped every wall – instinctively
Unravelled codes – ingeniously
Wired all the roads – so seamlessly
We made it work
But one of us failed
That makes it so sad
A great dream derailed
One of us gone
One of us mad
One of us, me
All of us sad
A very sincere view of the band and what they mean/meant to each other. Its sad that they couldn’t have played this song in this way during the heyday. It would have had to be pushed up into something bigger when it is right just where it is at…
The Who’s audience really strangled them into a narrow realm
WHEN ONE REALLY SEES TOWNSEND’S LYRICS, HE DEFINITELY DOESN’T APPEAR TO BE A HAPPY CAMPER MOST OF THE TIME. DARK SOUL? SELF-LOATHING? JUST PLAINLY A DRUNK AND DRUG USER? WHO KNOWS?
He is a complex kid but has spent a career looking into inner turmoil
It could be karma from breaking all those guitars…
He still feels he is the unsung man….
You know Chris, I’d argue that they were all the unsung men. I’m not sure anyone give any of the band the just deserve they should have received.
At this point it is very true