1:59
single, 1964
Written by Peter Meaden
The High Numbers are actually the Who, temporarily renamed by their first manager, Meaden. The song is a copy of the 1963 song "Misery" by the R&B group the Dynamics. After this tailor-made-for-Mod single failed to take off, the Who took their name back, fired Meaden, and then proved definitively that they didn't need him by writing "I Can't Explain." So this is a justifiably forgotten dead end in the Who story, but it's not bad. The track rides a primitive, stomping beat with a noodling guitar break that hints at Townshend's restless energy, even if it's boxed in by the concept. Lyrically, it's nothing more than a celebration of a flashy guy's immaculate clothes: identity expressed entirely through cut, stripe, and swagger. I'm charmed, though, by the slang. "So all you tickets I just want you to dig me / With my striped zoot jacket that the salts can plainly see." Is being a "ticket" an insult? Is a "salt" an authority figure, a square, or just any outsider? The ephemeral fruit-fly life of this movement almost makes it worth bringing the jargon back.
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