Pun Salad

The story up to now: John J. Miller compiled a list of the 50 greatest conservative rock songs for National Review. Sitting right up at number one: "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who; certainly one of my all-time favorites, too.

Pete Townshend took time to reply. Miller responds. And both Althouse and Bainbridge comment. Radley Balko is unimpressed. All worth reading.

The interesting part (for me) was Townshend's comment that Daltrey's interpretation of the song significantly shifted Townshend's original intent:

I am just a song-writer. The actions I carry out are my own, and are usually private until some digger-after-dirt questions my methods. What I write is interpreted, first of all by Roger Daltrey. Won't Get Fooled Again - then - was a song that pleaded '… leave me alone with my family to live my life, so I can work for change in my own way…' But when Roger Daltrey screamed as though his heart was being torn out in the closing moments of the song, it became something more to so many people. And I must live with that.

The Official Pun Salad Comment on Miller's list: If you're going to put in Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man", then it's an utter travesty to leave off Glen Campbell's "Galveston" (written by Jimmy Webb). Miller compounds this error by leaving it off his followup list here, while putting in a Charlie Daniels song.