I'm getting sick of this universe

Ain't gonna get better, it's gonna get worse

And the world's gonna sink with the weight of the human race.

The only alternative to despair Townshend gives us is the same offered by all rock musicians with pretensions--the power of their own music. "Guitar and Pen," a bouncy, playful tune, the most good-natured one on the album, predictably tells us just what an artist's only friends are.

Townshend takes a more honest look at his own music in "New Song," which opens Who Are You.

I write the same old song with a few new lines

And everybody wants to hear it...

We sing the same old song like a vintage car

You can look but you won't never drive it.

It might seem that this is exactly what the Who have done onWho Are You--added a few lines here, a few bars there, and sold the same old song. But though the lyrics are old friends, the music has changed. It's become mature--a surprising quality from the boys who brought us smashed guitars and smashed hotel rooms.