Listen To THE WHO's New Single 'All This Music Must Fade'

October 3, 2019

Legendary rockers THE WHO have released a new single, "All This Music Must Fade". The song is taken from the band's first new album in 13 years, titled "Who", due for release on December 6.

Guitarist Pete Townshend describes "All This Music Must Fade" as "a song dedicated to every artist who has ever been accused of ripping off someone else's song. Seriously? Our musical palette is limited enough in the 21st century without some dork claiming to have invented a common chord scheme."

THE WHO has one of the greatest rock legacies in music history — they're one of the all-time great live bands, have sold over 100 million records worldwide and scored nine U.S. and 10 U.K. top ten albums and 14 U.K. top 10 singles in a career spanning six decades.

The songs on "Who" cover a myriad of subjects, including the Grenfell Tower fire, musical theft, spirituality, reincarnation, the power of memory and "an old rock star that has lost his marbles." Singer Roger Daltrey rates it amongst their strongest.

"I think we've made our best album since 'Quadrophenia' in 1973," he said. "Pete hasn't lost it — he's still a fabulous songwriter, and he's still got that cutting edge."

Added Townshend: "This album is almost all new songs written last year, with just two exceptions. There is no theme, no concept, no story, just a set of songs that I (and my brother Simon) wrote to give Roger Daltrey some inspiration, challenges and scope for his newly revived singing voice.

"Roger and I are both old men now, by any measure, so I've tried to stay away from romance, but also from nostalgia, if I can. I didn't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Memories are okay, and some of the songs refer to the explosive state of things today.

"I made new home studio demos of all these songs in the summer of 2018 using a wide collection of instruments old and new. We started recording as THE WHO in March 2019, and have finished now in late August just in time to make some vinyl — maybe even some cassettes — ready for release in November."

Two songs on the record — the epic "Ball And Chain" and string-laden "Hero Ground Zero" — recently got their world premiere when the band played with a 40-piece orchestra to a packed Wembley Stadium. Spring 2020 will see the band embarking on a U.K. tour featuring an orchestra.

"Who" track listing:

01. All This Music Must Fade
02. Ball And Chain
03. I Don't Wanna Get Wise
04. Detour
05. Beads On One String
06. Hero Ground Zero
07. Street Song
08. I'll Be Back
09. Break The News
10. Rockin' In Rage
11. She Rocked My World

Photo credit: Rick Guest / courtesy of NEC Group

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).