The Who song with which Pete Townshend annoyed Roger Daltrey

Townshend was a long way from the guitar dynamo he would become in just a few years. He began his musical career as a schoolboy, playing banjo in a jazz band called The Confederates, which also featured brass player John Entwistle. Later, the pair realised that rock’n’roll was more in vogue, and Entwistle dropped the ‘R’ from his favourite instrument.

Townshend and Entwistle were probably the closest of The Who, having the longest history together and a shared passion for jazz. When their paths crossed with Roger Daltrey and later Keith Moon, they knew they had met a great rock singer and drummer who could play both innovatively and explosively.

Despite The Who’s success in the 1960s and 1970s, the band suffered from simmering resentment. Of course, the band got along well when things were going well, but bitter periods were all too common. Famously, early disagreements in the mid-1960s almost led to the band breaking up before it had even gotten off the ground, and in 1969, when Townshend was tearing his hair out to finish his later-abandoned rock opera Lifehouse, they almost gave up on the band altogether. “We were as close to breaking up as we’d ever been,” Daltrey later recalled.

Although Moon’s well-documented hedonism and unpredictable escapades were certainly a stress factor, the biggest rift always seemed to be between Townshend and Daltrey. The pair clashed in 1973 while preparing for the Quadrophenia Tour, a fight that saw Townshend nearly hit his singer in the head with a Les Paul. In the end, Daltrey knocked the guitarist out with a clean uppercut.

Today, Daltrey and Townshend are the only surviving members of The Who’s classic lineup. They have found ways to get along as ageing colleagues, but still claim they are like night and day. In 2016, Townshend spoke about their differing political views as an example of one of the differences between them.

“I am for remaining, he is for Brexit,” he said The Telegraph“I believe in God, he doesn’t.”

In 2022, Daltrey also commented on the couple’s differences, explaining that while they had good chemistry on stage and enjoyed making music together, they had very little to say off stage. “Our relationship works, and that’s about it,” he said.

He added: “But when we go on stage, there’s a chemistry. When we play well, it really starts to work. It’s still as wonderful as ever. But off stage, we never really had a strong relationship. It’s as simple as that.”

As it turns out, the chemistry on stage wasn’t exactly there either. Although Townshend doesn’t like some of his old songs, including “Pinball Wizard,” none compare to “Sister Disco.” The reason for his dislike of the song lies in the live show and his fake chemistry with Daltrey. “‘Sister Disco’ I hate even more than ‘Dreaming From The Waist’ because every time we’ve played it, Roger comes over and stands next to me and gives a cheesy smile that’s supposed to convey to the audience some kind of Everly Brothers relationship that we have but that doesn’t really exist,” he said.

The guitarist seemed to develop a love/hate relationship with the song, enjoying playing it so he has the opportunity to tune out his bandmate. “It’s meant to be a show where I’m like, ‘We know each other really well; we look like enemies, but we’re actually friends,'” he added. “A lot of times that’s the moment where I look him in the face and say, ‘You fucking wanker,’ and he gets mad when I do that.”

Related topics