Song of the day: “Nothing to Prove” by The Who

This track appeared on music blog Said the Gramophone’s “Best of 2019” list, and I agree. Originally recorded by the band back in 1966, their then-manager and producer Kit Lambert rejected it at the time. Pete Townshend said that it may have had to do with the fact that back in ’66, well before a lot of their hits, they still had lots to prove:

“I have a feeling Kit may have felt the song sounded as though it was sung by an older and more self-satisfied man than I was in real life. That would have applied to Roger too, I suppose. Now it works. Back then, perhaps it didn’t.”

They took the original vocal tracks and replaced the instrument tracks with a 1960s soundtrack arrangement to, in Townshend’s own words, “make the song more interesting, but also to place it firmly in an Austin Powers fantasy.”

(This is odd praise, considering that ten years ago, he said that the Austin Powers character trivialized the London scene of the 1960s.)

That being said, the track is wonderfully shagedelic, and will be on high rotation on my sound system.