Who – Pictures of Lily

Starting with The  Who’s Tommy album…everything after that gets noticed. Their brilliant early singles sometimes get criminally overlooked. Personally, and I know I am in the minority, I think many of their early singles trump both the Beatles’ and Stones’s early singles. The Who and Kinks didn’t have the quality of the sound of those bigger bands…but that was the point. Those singles were exciting and raw…a few experimental. Paul McCartney was influenced heavily by The Who when he wrote Paperback Writer and Helter Skelter.

On July 8, 1989, I traveled to Atlanta Georgia to see The Who for the first time. Nashville at that time had no place really big enough for them to play. Vanderbilt wasn’t allowing rock concerts at their stadium at that time. I’ll never forget when The Who played this song that night. Roger forgot the words to it and said “I don’t know the bloody words to this song.” I found the clip and I’ll have it below.

The only part of that concert that bothered me was the volume or the lack of really. Entwistle had to turn down his volume and they carried a brass section with them because of Pete’s tinnitus. It sounded great of course but not as in your face as when I saw them in Nashville in 2016. My only guess is now the PA equipment is better because The Who were much louder in 2016 than when I heard them in 1989.

Describing The Who’s next new single (Pictures of Lily)…Pete Townshend coined the term “Power Pop” to describe this song before it was released. It made it to #4 in the UK Charts, #60 on the Billboard 100, and #36 in Canada in 1967. The song tells the story of a father giving his son risque pictures of a woman taken in the 1920s…and after a while, the son finds out that she had died many years ago.

It is a song about the lust of a teenage boy…we will keep it at that. John Entwistle played the French Horn on this that he later didn’t like.

Pete Townshend: On Karen’s (his future wife) bedroom wall were three Victorian black-and-white postcard photographs of scantily dressed actresses. One was the infamous Lily Langtry, mistress of Prince Edward, later King Edward VII, and one sunny afternoon while Karen was at work I scribbled out a lyric inspired by the images and made a demo of ‘Pictures of Lily’. My song was intended to be an ironic comment on the sexual shallows of show business, especially pop, a world of postcard images for boys and girls to fantasise over. ‘Pictures of Lily’ ended up, famously, being about a boy saved from burgeoning adolescent sexual frustration when his father presented him with dirty postcards over which he could masturbate.

John Entwistle:  “The thing I hate about ‘Pictures Of Lily’ is that bloody elephant call on the French horn. I also hated the backing vocals, the mermaid voices, where we’d sing all the ‘oooooohs.’ I hated ‘oooooohs.'”

Below is the concert I was at when Roger forgot the words. It’s around the 1:36 mark. 

Pictures Of Lily

I used to wake up in the morningI always feel so gladI got so sick of having sleepless nightsI went and told my dad

He said, “Son, now here’s some little somethings”And stuck them on my wallAnd now my nights ain’t quite so lonelyIn fact I don’t feel bad at all (I don’t feel bad at all)

Pictures of Lily that make my life so wonderfulPictures of Lily that let me sleep at nightPictures of Lily that solved my childhood problemPictures of Lily, they make me feel alright

Pictures of Lily (pictures of Lily)Pictures of Lily (Lily, oh Lily)Pictures of Lily (Lily, oh Lily)Pictures of Lily (pictures of Lily)Pictures of Lily, pictures of LilyPictures of Lily, pictures of Lily

And then one day things weren’t so fineI fell in love with LilyI asked my dad where Lily I could findHe said, “Don’t be silly”

“She’s been dead since 1929”Oh, how I cried that nightIf only I’d been born in Lily’s timeIt would have been alrightThere were always pictures of Lily to help me sleep at nightPictures of Lily to help me feel alright

‘Cause me and Lily are together in my dreams (my mind)And I was wonderin’, mister, have you ever seen?

Pictures of Lily to help you sleep at nightPictures of Lily to help you feel alright

‘Cause me and Lily are together in my dreamsAnd I was wonderin’, mister, have you ever seenPictures of Lily?

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

48 thoughts on “Who – Pictures of Lily”

  3. Great footage! I will say I’m not a very serious Who fan but I’ve always liked this song, got hooked when I was a teen, big surprise. Funny to hear band members say what they hate about their own songs!

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      2. Yes I do! My neighbor is a retired fire chief…he saw the Who in 1972 with Moon…I have asked him every thing about that lol…I know when he sees me coming he thinks…oh I wish I would have never told him.

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      4. He is a great guy…but very monotone… I could say hey here is a million dollars! “ok thanks” would be about it…. that is the way he is built.

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  4. I guess Lily was a looker! I liked that song more than I expected, especially with references to ‘Helter Skelter’ and over-active French horns in the writeup. Pretty decent single, I’d never heard it before. One guessed Pete T forgot he had heard it himself when you saw them, LOL. From my fairly limited knowledge of them, I am thinking I generally like their stuff from this era (‘Magic Bus’ is another good example) more than when they became super-popular around 1970.

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    1. You are the exact opposite of most people! During this time they had I Can See For Miles and others. When Who’s Next came out….they pretty much help invent 70s rock from then on…that overshadows these wonderful singles.

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      2. I’m with Dave, I believe I’ve said before, I prefer 60s Who, I just didn’t get moved by them AFTER Tommy. For me there’s a distinct line. One is power pop, the other is more set up for stadium rock. ‘I’m A Boy’ ‘Happy Jack,’ ‘Substitute.’ I also didn’t know the ‘Lily’ was Lily Langtree.
        (And yes, I’ll address the elephant in the bed room- for the young lad staring up at pictures of Lily sleep must have come as a relief.) (Sorry Max, but it was crying out to be said…)

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      3. Glad you got it out…and that matter is straightened up…uh…never mind.

        I do like both eras…but they are different animals in a lot of ways. She Loves You compared to Come Together is close to the same. Those early singles…are so loud, brash, and in your face…but in a different way.

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  5. One of my favorite bands from “the old days”. I always preferred them to the Beatles and the Stones, especially their later work. Only got to see them once, when they were touring the Quadrophenia album in the mid-90’s. One of the best shows I’ve ever seen!

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    1. I love The Who…intelligent writing and live…more powerful than any other band I’ve seen. Won’t Get Fooled Again is still the greatest live song I’ve ever heard…it’s like a mini movie.

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    1. Yes…that is Max… How exciting those singles were CB. They had the melodies…but added that experimental feel. Feedback, insane drumming and bass playing…most of all…intelligent writing…and that wash of sound.

      Ron and I were talking about the Who’s early singles…they sounded like no one else…so there is nothing to be… average with.

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      1. It’s never who’s better (that’s a bullshit game) but who grabs you. The Who grabbed me. You nailed a lot of why. It was just the edge they had, nothing seemed to be pushed, it just happened. This is such a brilliant song. Davies and Pete were so alike on certain songs. This is one of them.
        I was listening to their version of Barbara Ann yesterday. Again they greased it up in the studio. Totally messing around and coming up with the Who sound

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      2. One of my favorite clips of them is in The Kids Are Alright…is where they do Barbara Ann…yea it’s sloppy and spontaneous but it’s alive.
        I like all eras of the Who…and thank goodness for the Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy album…that had all of these singles on it. Thats when I heard the 60s singles.

        Pete and Ray do share that… with Bruce also I think…just opposite sides of the ocean. That British everyday life with Bruce’s Americana.

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      3. They actually cut the tune way back. I guess it was a thing to appease Moon. He loved the surf shit. You nailed it on “sloppy and spontaneous but it’s alive”. That’s a great album with an all tome classic cover.
        Totally agree on those three. We could throw a few more in that gang if we thought about it. Great tune Max.

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      4. Thanks dude….sorry for the rambling comment…I was in a talking mood! When I wrote that I knew I was going to get some feedback…I feel alive today! Oh yea….by the way….that album that you sent me…fantastic.

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      6. Yes!!! I picked one to do Saturday…that is a mark of a great album when you have trouble choosing one.
        Cool CB…thats always good.

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    1. What I was getting at about the Beatles and Stones wasn’t that the Who were better…it was more of the brash sound they got. My Generation…that was The Who’s first official single. Compare that to Love Me Do and Come On…and they continued to push…was it as commerical? No… but besides Magic Bus, I Can See For Miles and My Generation…they are not heard as much.

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  9. I like this song. A guy I was working with flew to Toronto to see this tour back in ’89 and came back screaming when I asked him how it was. He had no ida that Pete was strumming acoustic lol as he explained to me he wanted Electric Pete. lol..
    I told him I knew that as I had read a Rolling Stone cover story on The Who for that tour where they openly talked about it. My co-workers response to that was ” oh for fuck sakes” lol

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    1. lol… I knew going in he would be playing acoustic…now it was great! It was…you know where I’m coming from…first time to see The Who…and I did miss the windmills etc…but to be truthful….they probably…quality wise…sounded better than ever before. In 2016…whew…it was more like the old Who. They blew me away both times…

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      1. Thats awesome. My co worker at the time was closer to 40 years old as he saw The Who in Toronto in 80 and 82 I believe. He was expecting that band hahaha

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      2. No…see I went in expecting 1972…of course that would not happen lol…but in quality and it sounding like the album? Yes the 89 tour was it…I did enjoy their 2016 tour more…because it wasn’t a stage full of musicians.

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  11. I wonder if it’s a US thing, that the Who didnt get noticed so much in the 60s…? To me their sixties hits are just as important as the big 70s ones, and I prefer them if I’m being honest!

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    1. It was more of a record company thing…they didn’t push the records at all…over here…only 3 singles are played…My Generation, I Can See For Miles, and Magic Bus…that is it of their 60s stuff minus Tommy.

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