the simple things you see are all complicated...

After a long period of dormancy, I've started playing the guitar again. I find it very soothing, something to help mend my broken heart. I only wish I'd develop emotional calluses as hard as those that have re-emerged on my finger tips. I mention this only because I’m currently teaching myself the main riff from Substitute, and my efforts have reawakened me to what a great song it is. I think it might be the best thing the Who ever did, next to Eminence Front... But all kidding aside, Substitute is about as close as the Who ever came to recording a flawless pop song. If the received wisdom is true and Pete Townshend was the first to coin the term power pop, then I think it's fair to say that Substitute is the prototype. The song's riff is so perfect in its simple, direct immediacy. And I like the way the main guitar in the song is acoustic, which gives things a lovely mid-60s folk rock vibe. ...I’m not usually a fan of Keith Moon’s drumming – it’s generally too frantic and wild for my taste - but the layers of percussion in Substitute, and especially the prominence of the tambourine, are wonderfully satisfying. I know it’s a song everybody’s heard like a gazillion times. But if you really listen closely, unpack the song's component parts, and then reassemble them in your mind with newfound appreciation, you can almost get back to the amazing feeling that overtook your body the very first time you heard it…