The Punk and the Godfather

The Punk and the Godfather is an interesting song because it is actually a conversation between two people. What happens is that Jimmy goes to see The Who play and he waits for them outside because he use to know one of them. At first the band member doesn’t recognize him so Jimmy shouts at him which is when the exchange happens. Jimmy goes on about how The Who would be nothing without kids like him, that they are the reason for their fame, and the Godfather responds by saying that the punk shouldn’t really be feeling to good about himself at the moment because he doesn’t have that much to be proud of.

 

The next thing that I want to talk about is who I think the Godfather actually is. It has to be member of The Who, but I’ve never read anything that says which member it is. I think that it is Pete Townshend. During the 60’s people thought of The Who as the premier Mod band, and Pete Townshend wrote all these great Mod songs, which would make him the Godfather of the Mods. I think that situations like this probably happened all the time, where some kid would yell at them after concerts, and sometimes people just snap. The last verse is sung by Pete Townshend and I think that it is the Godfathers thoughts, that he saw something in Jimmy that reminded him of himself and he has this thought.

I love how, musically, The Punk and the Godfather has a real argument vibe to it. Roger Daltrey sings all but the last verse and it still sounds like two different people, there are two distinctive voices, one young and angry, and one annoyed and mocking. I also love how The Who was never afraid to mix vocals in a song. Roger was the singer, but sometimes a different quality was needed to drive a point or idea home. In this song you need Roger’s harsh tough guy tone for the argument and Pete’s smoother style for the introspective section. It’s an interesting mix and the voices work really well with each other.