Great stuff. This is the first I've heard this version of the song, but Pete did something similar in their '97 Quadrophenia tour. It was great then too.
Pete is at his best acoustically. I think he knows this too which is why he seems to put more musical effort into it. Not that he's shabby with The Who, mind you, but its a whole different dynamic. It was hard for him to really shine with such a monster of a band behind him.
Acoustic is a completely different dynamic. I think Pete put his whole body into electric plugged into the stack music. But when you play acoustic, it's a brave new world. Mistakes made with an electric guitar get swallowed up in the wall of sound with enough decibels to drown out the senses. You make a mistake on an acoustic guitar, we all hear it. On top of that, just the physical act of making an acoustic instrument sound good brings out the best in a musician.
Yeah, I had a classical teacher that wouldn't even acknowledge rock music as valid, and then here was one of the very top, if not THE top classical guitarists humbly backing up Pete Townsend and saying in interviews that Clapton was one of his favorites. It was all very vindicating for me.
almost all music teachers don't have any musical talent, that's why they teach. mozart and beethoven both wrote simple dance type music like rock so your classical teacher is very stupid.
it was very hard to make money off writing music before the mass marketing of recordings, and if you were really great like mozart you could make a lot of easy money off teaching other people. today, even if you're ok, you could be lil' wayne or jefferson airplane and sell a lot of records. to even be below that means you don't have much as far as musical talent..
wow, it's easy to find contrition when you take a sentence out of paragraphs. i don't know how much more you want me to simplify it, but I think the problem is is that you're a music teacher and you want to prove me wrong. mozart could make easy/more money teaching rich nobles every day rather then composing a prestigious symphony to sell seats for concert halls for nobles, with the popularity only lasting for weeks. today, with recordings, even taylor swift can be rich and only compose music.
.. so most music teachers can't entertain people as well as even people like taylor swift. or fallout boy, or artic monkeys, who are all very lesser talents.
lol john williams is like a jingle writer, a lot of people are better then him. i probably like only two who songs but i know pete best is better then john williams.
i don't think anyone knows one knows that but you. but have fun teaching another untalented kid to play guitar while you know you will never compose anything someone would like musically. that's funny because you're a musicain, right, i mean you should be able too because that's your job. but I listen to obscure blues songs and token guitar instrumentals, what did i do wrong? you're a failure.
This is a particularly impressive performance considering Townshend was unconscious about 2 minutes before he played. If you watch the movie, you can see he's clearly asleep. And what makes you think he was talking to "the cops" when he sang the hypnotized lyric? He was talking to the audience, baby; that's always been the whole point of the song.
I think that one thought that it was an actual "policemans ball". This is from Amnesty international's Secret Policemans OTHER ball, followed by Secret Policemans Other BALLS
We don't get fooled again or we won't get fooled again?? Everytime he sings that part i understand we don't get fooled again... 3:57 listen to that part
I think in that verse he is "praying" they they Don't get.... Pete is pretty notorious for screwing up his own lyrics anyway. By the way, this version is edited a bit from the vinyl "The Secret Policeman's Ball" album which is The Amnesty International benefit this is from.
Michael J. Fox in the right corner (0.00 - 0.03). He's been a hyge Who-fan since forever, and Rog and Pete are trying to get together a charity show for Mike's Parkinson Foundation.
Huh. I think this is a ´79 performance, and Michael once said he saw Pete at a comedy show in London in his youth. But i'm not gonna say for sure that's him, I could be wrong after all.
Pete gets so pissed off wen he screws up. in some of his other videos he really beats himself up about it. he doesn't realize that he could just go on stage and swear into the mic over and over and people would still clap for him. I guess as musicians were are always trying to fix our faults to give the crowd a better show...
I grew up listening to the Who's live and studio recordings of this song. Then I bought the album this came from, heard this version and it rocked my world.
My favorite version of that song--brilliant performance. Song loses none of its power, in fact it may have more intensity than the original which is really saying something.
One of the all-time great political protest songs, still relevant today. The parting on the left is now parting on the right... meet the new boss, same as the old boss so we won't get fooled again. I remember seeing this when it first came out and still think it's one of the best concert films ever and has Monty Python to boot. Glad to hear it's available somewhere on DVD and thanks for posting.
The guy who is playing along is named John Williams. I just wondered if it was the John Williams who compose music to movies (mostly Steven Spielberg's work), but it doesn't look like him, so i suppose it's not him.
I wonder why Amnesty International doesn't release all of these musical performances that were performed at the Secret Policeman's Ball series. Does anyone know? The Secret Policeman's Other Ball was released back in the early 90s on CD by Rhino, but soon went out of print a year or two later.
This album is truly excellent, and I just remembered that I own it... somewhere. I've been meaning to convert it to MP3s, since who knows when (if) it will come out on another media besides vinyl. It also has an acoustic "Roxanne" and "Message In A Bottle" by Sting, and "The Roof Is Leaking" on solo piano by Phil Collins. Good stuff.
The Secret Policeman's Ball Album was just an outer dust jacket with a cartoon guy in a trench coat. Townshend started with "Pinball Wizard", then "Drowned". The rest is all acoustic & had some other lesser-known talent. John Williams played Bach & "Cavatina" - Both stellar performances. The performance ended with "Won't Get Fooled".
ONE OF MY FAVORITE ALBUMS!
Sadly, it was NEVER released on CD, and I've never seen it available as an MP3. If anyone finds it, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!
I bought it in Melbourne, where I live (except I'm in China right now). I think (not sure) an Australian guy bought the rights to a whole load of obscure stuff like this concert, videos with a small potential audience. I think his company is called "Umbrella Productions" or something like that. It must be available elsewhere, I suppose. Mail order?
It's John Williams, the classical guitarist. It just shows how classical and rock musicians just don't mix. He's obviously floundering, big time. In his defence, a rock music would be similarly bewildered having to play along in the classical genre.
It's the miking for the video recording that doesn't pick up what Williams is doing. I have the vinyl LP that was recorded at the same time as the film, and his playing comes thru the mix just fine, and is quite tasty.
The video has also been edited, I listened to the vinyl last night, there'a a few minutes cut out at the end, you can see the poor editing/cuts if you look closely.
Speechless....
MariaKonner 1 year ago
Great stuff. This is the first I've heard this version of the song, but Pete did something similar in their '97 Quadrophenia tour. It was great then too.
insideofitall 1 year ago
Gotta be the best performance of this song I've ever heard.
KevinwHFS 1 year ago
amazing someone hasn't commented in 2 years....this video is a GEM! thanks for the upload!
Flerg3 1 year ago
Comment removed
thankyoupourlavideo 2 years ago
Awesome
logansrun16 2 years ago
Pete is at his best acoustically. I think he knows this too which is why he seems to put more musical effort into it. Not that he's shabby with The Who, mind you, but its a whole different dynamic. It was hard for him to really shine with such a monster of a band behind him.
lucifer73 2 years ago
Acoustic is a completely different dynamic. I think Pete put his whole body into electric plugged into the stack music. But when you play acoustic, it's a brave new world. Mistakes made with an electric guitar get swallowed up in the wall of sound with enough decibels to drown out the senses. You make a mistake on an acoustic guitar, we all hear it. On top of that, just the physical act of making an acoustic instrument sound good brings out the best in a musician.
Saygrace67 2 years ago
Well put.
lucifer73 2 years ago
Best version of the song I've ever heard!! <3 geeflat
aggeman2 2 years ago
Wonderful Pete ! It´s the first time I understood every word of this song and it´s realy worth it ! Great text, great song, great artist
Echnaton1954 2 years ago 2
I like Pete's voice better than Daltrey's in this song
deweypug 2 years ago 2
2:27 he mouths "b" to John williams for the key change. I love it!
TheUnknownPlayer 2 years ago 3
wow his voice is soo awesome. go pete!!
TheLibby3 2 years ago 2
Yeah, I had a classical teacher that wouldn't even acknowledge rock music as valid, and then here was one of the very top, if not THE top classical guitarists humbly backing up Pete Townsend and saying in interviews that Clapton was one of his favorites. It was all very vindicating for me.
samswank 2 years ago 3
Well put. Cheers!
lucifer73 2 years ago
almost all music teachers don't have any musical talent, that's why they teach. mozart and beethoven both wrote simple dance type music like rock so your classical teacher is very stupid.
iamamannow 2 years ago
Comment removed
samswank 2 years ago
it was very hard to make money off writing music before the mass marketing of recordings, and if you were really great like mozart you could make a lot of easy money off teaching other people. today, even if you're ok, you could be lil' wayne or jefferson airplane and sell a lot of records. to even be below that means you don't have much as far as musical talent..
iamamannow 2 years ago
Comment removed
samswank 2 years ago
wow, it's easy to find contrition when you take a sentence out of paragraphs. i don't know how much more you want me to simplify it, but I think the problem is is that you're a music teacher and you want to prove me wrong. mozart could make easy/more money teaching rich nobles every day rather then composing a prestigious symphony to sell seats for concert halls for nobles, with the popularity only lasting for weeks. today, with recordings, even taylor swift can be rich and only compose music.
iamamannow 2 years ago
.. so most music teachers can't entertain people as well as even people like taylor swift. or fallout boy, or artic monkeys, who are all very lesser talents.
iamamannow 2 years ago
A lot of people would say that Pete is a lesser talent than John Williams. I'm not one of those people and neither, apparently, is John.
samswank 2 years ago
lol john williams is like a jingle writer, a lot of people are better then him. i probably like only two who songs but i know pete best is better then john williams.
iamamannow 2 years ago
Comment removed
samswank 2 years ago
i don't think anyone knows one knows that but you. but have fun teaching another untalented kid to play guitar while you know you will never compose anything someone would like musically. that's funny because you're a musicain, right, i mean you should be able too because that's your job. but I listen to obscure blues songs and token guitar instrumentals, what did i do wrong? you're a failure.
iamamannow 2 years ago
@iamamannow Suck it man boy. Suck it hard!
samswank 2 years ago
@iamamannow with this comment you demonstrate your ignorance
crohno 1 year ago
Simply Wonderfull
marcpreston1 2 years ago
This is bloody brilliant.
Arkady63 2 years ago 2
Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend is the most wonderful person.
<3
longlivethesixties 2 years ago 9
cldnt agree anymore
TwoEarsWet 2 years ago
projectspillman, if you think the other guy cant play why dont you check out , Asturias by John Williams, i think you may be quite surprised. ;-)
beardofslugs 2 years ago 5
Love this acoustic version. I did my version. Click on my name and check it out. No one can match Pete but I tried. Thanks.
sherrillwallace 2 years ago
I've always admired Townshends acoustic vocal range, we don't see or hear enough of it
1ST1LL10V3C1IT 2 years ago
This is AMAZING =] Pete is the best!! and messes up but that is okay!
xocandyox123 2 years ago
This is a particularly impressive performance considering Townshend was unconscious about 2 minutes before he played. If you watch the movie, you can see he's clearly asleep. And what makes you think he was talking to "the cops" when he sang the hypnotized lyric? He was talking to the audience, baby; that's always been the whole point of the song.
bobgee1999 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
that other guy cant play guitar to save his life u cant even hear him
projectspillman 2 years ago
That is Australian-born classical guitar virtuoso John Williams. It may be in the production that John's music is very subtle.
GardensOfStone 2 years ago
damn. i love watching pete sing his songs. it seems so heartfelt. theyre his babys xD
longlivethesixties 3 years ago
"I know that the hypnotized never lie - Do You" - as he looks directly @ the cops.
Love 'em.
luckyvet 3 years ago
How do you know he's looking at the cops?
dimesy94 2 years ago
I think that one thought that it was an actual "policemans ball". This is from Amnesty international's Secret Policemans OTHER ball, followed by Secret Policemans Other BALLS
passelin1 2 years ago
great version
brucecolrabi 3 years ago
Pete is an awesome musician and composer
BerndS 3 years ago 7
We don't get fooled again or we won't get fooled again?? Everytime he sings that part i understand we don't get fooled again... 3:57 listen to that part
yalcinnnnnnnn 3 years ago
I think in that verse he is "praying" they they Don't get.... Pete is pretty notorious for screwing up his own lyrics anyway. By the way, this version is edited a bit from the vinyl "The Secret Policeman's Ball" album which is The Amnesty International benefit this is from.
Mugsycache14567 3 years ago
the song is We Wont be Fooled Again but they say we dont get get fooled again.
cubsfan821 3 years ago
Michael J. Fox in the right corner (0.00 - 0.03). He's been a hyge Who-fan since forever, and Rog and Pete are trying to get together a charity show for Mike's Parkinson Foundation.
Swesuburan 3 years ago 5
Umm...actually I'm pretty sure this is a '77 performance, which would have made Michael about 16 years old.
rrrock6 3 years ago
Huh. I think this is a ´79 performance, and Michael once said he saw Pete at a comedy show in London in his youth. But i'm not gonna say for sure that's him, I could be wrong after all.
Swesuburan 3 years ago 2
You could be right...
rrrock6 3 years ago
It is 79
EnglishGirl91 3 years ago
If I was Michael I would have taken the DeLorean back a who show
Eamuesrtsionn 3 years ago 2
Something wrong with Williams mic? I can't hear him. Or weren't they recording him? Sounds diffrent when you listen to the album.
Pete's acoustic work is as always clear, sharp and brilliant!
TheGoldenSphinx 3 years ago 4
You are hearing Williams. He's playing the chords and notes a few frets down, nice counter to Pete's playing.
lastangelman 3 years ago
Pete gets so pissed off wen he screws up. in some of his other videos he really beats himself up about it. he doesn't realize that he could just go on stage and swear into the mic over and over and people would still clap for him. I guess as musicians were are always trying to fix our faults to give the crowd a better show...
jdob2pwnsall 3 years ago 4
Niceness.
208jon 3 years ago
Beautiful People!!!!
Please Sign the Petition to induct Melanie into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame! Please Visit...
Flower Power Lives! on My Space !!!
IT'S ABOUT TIME!
maryjanemars 3 years ago
I grew up listening to the Who's live and studio recordings of this song. Then I bought the album this came from, heard this version and it rocked my world.
Plhamel 3 years ago
Wow, that was a cool video. Very nice work PETE>
wrsawy 3 years ago
My favorite version of that song--brilliant performance. Song loses none of its power, in fact it may have more intensity than the original which is really saying something.
glassslide 3 years ago 2
One of the all-time great political protest songs, still relevant today. The parting on the left is now parting on the right... meet the new boss, same as the old boss so we won't get fooled again. I remember seeing this when it first came out and still think it's one of the best concert films ever and has Monty Python to boot. Glad to hear it's available somewhere on DVD and thanks for posting.
DHoward487 4 years ago
Is that John "Jaws" Williams?
Swesuburan 4 years ago
where?
PindamonhaMAN 3 years ago
The guy who is playing along is named John Williams. I just wondered if it was the John Williams who compose music to movies (mostly Steven Spielberg's work), but it doesn't look like him, so i suppose it's not him.
Swesuburan 3 years ago
John Williams, the Australian classical guitarist, not John "Jaws" Williams. Different guys.
geeflat 3 years ago
Thanks for the info
Swesuburan 3 years ago
Songwriting doesnt get any better than this. Thanks Pete
rek525 4 years ago 2
I can finally understand the words.
tranespotter 4 years ago
now that's music!
lukessummer 4 years ago
It is John Williams
benji5 4 years ago
Is that the great classical Guitarist John Williams? Is he even plugged in? What's he doing there?
pitbullexpress 4 years ago
Apparently he can be heard on the album.
chadchap 4 years ago
Man, I remember getting blown away when I first heard this version while watching the Secret Policeman's Other Ball. Thanks for posting
lionelsanchez 4 years ago
brilliant
chadchap 4 years ago
this is pretty cool video. i wish keith moon hadnt died tho, pete would prolly been happyer in this concert if keith was alive ya kno??
petetownshend248 4 years ago
Pete isn't calling out a chord change. He's telling Williams that he's going to the "b"ridge.
It's a shame that the middle solo has been edited. Does anybody have the whole thing?
WeaselDriver 5 years ago
Yeah, I've got the 6:09 minute version---just the song, not the video
bobgee1999 4 years ago
The bridge is in B though
wcfluke 4 years ago
Does anybody have the clip of Phil Collins doiing in the air tonight? It is by far the best version I have ever heard.
squidseatmonkeys 5 years ago
I wonder why Amnesty International doesn't release all of these musical performances that were performed at the Secret Policeman's Ball series. Does anyone know? The Secret Policeman's Other Ball was released back in the early 90s on CD by Rhino, but soon went out of print a year or two later.
anthonyls 5 years ago
All of the past amnesty international shows have been released onto DVD, well in the UK anyway as I bought them a couple months ago
Bunniesatemybaby 4 years ago
I have uploaded Drowned from the show...
fasima 5 years ago
This album is truly excellent, and I just remembered that I own it... somewhere. I've been meaning to convert it to MP3s, since who knows when (if) it will come out on another media besides vinyl. It also has an acoustic "Roxanne" and "Message In A Bottle" by Sting, and "The Roof Is Leaking" on solo piano by Phil Collins. Good stuff.
paulbuddyhead 5 years ago
The Secret Policeman's Ball Album was just an outer dust jacket with a cartoon guy in a trench coat. Townshend started with "Pinball Wizard", then "Drowned". The rest is all acoustic & had some other lesser-known talent. John Williams played Bach & "Cavatina" - Both stellar performances. The performance ended with "Won't Get Fooled".
ONE OF MY FAVORITE ALBUMS!
Sadly, it was NEVER released on CD, and I've never seen it available as an MP3. If anyone finds it, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!
Dracqla 5 years ago
do you own it in any other forms? like cassette or anything
famouspogs 4 years ago
thanks.. saw thsi years ago and wanted it ever since... BTW... Do you have 'slit skirts' from the same show (SPB)? if so, could you post it..?
bearclaw27 5 years ago
Best acoustic performance ever! I believe it came from one of the secret policeman ball concerts
richde123 5 years ago
Do you have "Drowned"? He really whails on that one. Great stuff, thanks.
agentban 5 years ago
It's funny how townsend has to call out the chord change at around 2:25.
jjazz22 5 years ago
whoa i just saw that
isn't he saying "b"?
inandaroundthelake 5 years ago
Pity it wasn't tagged with 'who'.Thousands are missing out on this. Like hak1963 said 'acoustic music at it's best.
chadchap 5 years ago
Good idea. I'll do that. Thanks.
geeflat 5 years ago
Awsome performance!
GravityBoy72 5 years ago
Where did you get this video? I had the album many years ago.
phximam 5 years ago
I bought it in Melbourne, where I live (except I'm in China right now). I think (not sure) an Australian guy bought the rights to a whole load of obscure stuff like this concert, videos with a small potential audience. I think his company is called "Umbrella Productions" or something like that. It must be available elsewhere, I suppose. Mail order?
geeflat 5 years ago
Acoustic music at it's best
hak1963 5 years ago
who's the other guy, i can't hear him. If he dosen't know how to play the song he shouldn't have come
Shmade 5 years ago
It's John Williams, the classical guitarist. It just shows how classical and rock musicians just don't mix. He's obviously floundering, big time. In his defence, a rock music would be similarly bewildered having to play along in the classical genre.
geeflat 5 years ago
It's the miking for the video recording that doesn't pick up what Williams is doing. I have the vinyl LP that was recorded at the same time as the film, and his playing comes thru the mix just fine, and is quite tasty.
fanmini 5 years ago
Thanks, fanmimi. I didn't know that (I've never heard the LP; didn't know there was one - bet that's a real collector's item now).
geeflat 5 years ago
The video has also been edited, I listened to the vinyl last night, there'a a few minutes cut out at the end, you can see the poor editing/cuts if you look closely.
fanmini 5 years ago
Thanks for sharing the vid.
BB1295 5 years ago