Released 1971
"Won't Get Fooled Again" is a rock song performed by the British rock band The Who and composed by band member Pete Townshend.
The song originally appeared on the 1971 album Who's Next. It is famous for its angular synthesizer backing part set against guitar power chords, leading up to an extended synthesizer break into a drum entrance followed by a long scream, a scream which is considered to be one of the defining moments in rock and roll history.
Like many songs, the meaning has been debated by listeners for a long time. One interpretation is that it expresses disenchantment with the counterculture and supposed "revolution" of the 1960s. For this reason, the song was banned in South Korea until the emergence of democracy there in the early 1990s; copies of Who's Next sold there omitted it. The song's final lines are "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss," which many take to be an expression of dissatisfaction with the results of the revolution. In an April 2006 editorial for Time magazine, retired Lieutenant General Greg Newbold referenced the song, calling it an "antiwar anthem" that "conveyed a sense of betrayal by the nation's leaders, who had led our country into a costly and unnecessary war in Vietnam". [1]
