THE "MY GENERATION" STUTTER

It's always interesting to go back and learn something about a song. Particularly a song that you've heard hundreds, if not thousands, of times. In this case I'm referring to "My Generation" by The Who.

Specifically, I'm referring to why they decided to stutter in the song. What's up with that? There are actually a few explanations for this. One of these is that they got the idea from the John Lee Hooker song "Stuttering Blues." Here's just a sample of the lyrics.

I'm a stut-stut-stut-stutterin' man.
And I can't talk worth a damn.
Sometimes I wanta cry.
Sometimes I wanta die.

They don't call them the blues for nothing. The song could very well be about himself, because it turns out he stutters. Who knew. I've known of John Lee Hooker for a long time and even have songs of his. His "Boom Boom" with his booming voice is a blues classic. And so is his "Boogie Chillen." Yet I never knew he stuttered. He was illiterate as well. That's a new one on me, a writer who is illiterate.

It also turns out there is another Blues legend who stutters as well. And his name is BB King. Again, who knew. I've never even thought of this before, but now that I know he stutters, I wonder what the B B's stand for. He must've had a horrible time saying his name.

Another explanation for Roger Daltry stuttering in "My Generation" is that the band was making fun of the British upper class stammer. Kind of like that Hugh Grant stammer.

Whatever the reason for the stuttering in the song, it seems to work. And there was no reason for the British Broadcast Corporation to ban the song because they didn't want to offend people who stutter. Thankfully, when the song took off, they changed their tune and started playing it on the radio.