Who – Sister Disco

The Who Are You album was not the best album The Who released but it has its bright spots. Pete Townshend wrote this song and he said The Who would never use any disco elements in their songs. To his credit, they never used any. At this time Pete was hanging around with some of the punk bands like The Clash…so that makes sense.

The Who Are You album peaked at #2 on the Billboard Album Charts, #2 in Canada, and  #6 in the UK in 1978.

Kenney Jones had the hardest job in the music world at the time. Replacing Keith Moon was an impossible task. He didn’t play in the same style, although not many did, but he did a good job. He was eventually forced out of the band 3 years later when Roger wanted something different. Roger said that Jones was a great drummer but didn’t fit The Who.

The Who after Moon’s passing was this… whether to get a Moon-styled drummer or get someone more traditional. If they’d gone with the former, Blondie’s Clem Burke or Mitch Mitchell would have fit the bill, as Zak Starr does now. But I doubt Clem was known enough to warrant consideration. That leaves a candidate who would not duplicate Moon’s frenetic approach…in Kenney Jones. Pete Townshend wanted stability and more of a straight beat. That is fine…but when they did that they didn’t sound like themselves as much…and Pete was probably happy about that fact.

I liked the Face Dances album a lot when it was released and I still do. Kenney did a great job on that album but with older Who fans…the drums were just as big of a part of the music as the singing and guitar. In other words, Kenney Jones could not win. He was more of a traditional drummer in a band that was not known for that. Entwistle also toned down his bass playing because he would play off of Moon and be all over the place.

Sometimes I wish they would have packed it up like Zeppelin did after Bonham died but I enjoyed a lot of the music that The Who released after Moon died. Jones was in a no-win situation.

Pete Townshend: With ‘Sister Disco’, I felt the need to say that the group would never, ever, in any way do anything like the Bee Gees. We stand over here and what we stand with is all right. They might say we’re boring old farts but we still feel more at home with the boring old farts than any of that crowd.

Pete Townshend: For this track I spent a lot of hours programming my analogue sequencers in my ARP 2500 studio synthesizer. It isn’t quite Kraftwerk, but in 1976 I don’t think they were doing much better. This is a perfect example of the progression I was making towards theatrical music writing. I was trying to evoke absurd Baron Munchausen musical textures. Roger sounds so seriously intent about everything that the pomposity becomes real and threatening rather than pictorial.

Pete Townshend: It’s got nothing to do with disco at all! It’s only a series of lines put together. The chorus ‘Goodbye Sister Disco, now I go where the music fits my soul’…that is not an indictment of disco music. I like a lot of disco music; I even like discos. It’s to do with saying goodbye to, I think, a sort of self-conscious poseur kind of thing The Who had been for such a long time.

Roger Daltrey: I really like ‘Sister Disco’ but I don’t necessarily understand what he’s saying. I do understand what he’s trying to say but I don’t know whether it comes off. It was a song about getting too old for discos and that whole line that Pete sings, ‘Goodbye Sister Disco, I go where the music fits my soul,’ is kind of operatic; it’s a bit pompous. That’s why I personally didn’t sing that line because I can’t…when Pete sings it he’s got enough kind of tongue-in-cheek quality to get away with it and it works, but if I sang it, it would be a total disaster.

This is a rehearsal version with Kenney Jones on drums getting ready for the 1979 tour. The first without Keith Moon.

Sister Disco

As I walked through that hospital door
I was sewn up like a coat
I got a smile from the bite of the wind
Watched the fresh fall of snow

I knew then that my life took a turn
I felt strong and secure
And with adhesive tape over my nose
I felt almost demure

Goodbye Sister Disco
With your flashing trash lamps
Goodbye Sister Disco
And to your clubs and your tramps

Goodbye Sister Disco
My dancing’s left you behind
Goodbye, now you’re solo
Black plastic; deaf, dumb and blind

Bye, goodbye Sister Disco, now I go
I go where the music the music fits my soul
And I, I will never let go, I’ll never let go
‘Til the echo of the street fight has dissolved

I will choose nightmares and cold stormy seas
I will take over your grief and disease
I’ll stay beside you and comfort your soul
When you are lonely and broken and old

Now I walk with a man in my face
Ooh, a woman in my hair
I’ve got you all lookin’ out though my eyes
My feet are a prayer

Goodbye Sister Disco
With your flashing trash lamps
Goodbye Sister Disco
And to your clubs and your tramps

Goodbye Sister Disco
My dancing’s left you behind
Goodbye, now you’re solo
Black plastic; deaf, dumb and blind

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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.

39 thoughts on “Who – Sister Disco”

    1. Yea Roger wasn’t as happy with him from the beginning but was satisfied…it’s a wonder they didnt get Mitch Mitchell.

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  3. Great pic to kick off the week! The version they do on Live at Shea/82 is killer. Glad to see ya swinging the flag for Face Dances. What a great album that no one but myself and you talk about. lol

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  6. Not bad. I probably like the elements that you don’t Max – the little synthesizer flourishes and the fact that the drums aren’t really prominent (actually they maybe could have been put up a bit in the mix, but perhaps that’s just limitations of the phone I was hearing it on). Either way, I can see how a diehard fan of old Who might not be thrilled by it.

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    1. No it would not fit them like it did the Stones in Miss You…if anything the Who was anti disco. I love Face Dances and their last album they released in 2019. I like some of It’s Hard….

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      1. I like both those albums you mentioned. I saw them when Jones just joined. It was a huge venue with the Clash and T Bone Burnett.
        Yes I’ve been hearing the music with new ears and finding lots of great listening. Like the Kinks they had so many tunes that unless you bought the albums you would never have heard. Hey I’m a fan and like Pete’s ideas and how the band brings it to life.

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      2. I bet that was a great concert. They were really rockin’ on that tour from all of the film I’ve seen of it. With those other two…you couldn’t lose.
        I bought Face Dances and Give The People What They Want around the same time…right after I got the greatest hits Hooligans. That was my first “real time” big band purchases that wasn’t older. So I love this period as well.

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      3. You came in at the right time for you. You got hooked. Exposed to some great music. ‘Hooligans’ was a perfect name for those guys.
        Yeah losing Moon was a hole in their sound for sure. Him and John worked so well together in fact he was such a big part of the whole vibe but we’ve talked before about the substance issues. Couldnt go on. Like a cut on the album ‘The Music Must Change’. Onto a new sound with Kenny that still worked. The guy was a very good drummer. Off for a little workout, maybe some Who accompaniment.

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      4. Oh no doubt he is a great drummer. You can’t replace Moon as far as sound because there is not another one. I don’t think Kenney changed the sound…Moon dying changed their sound… but it was still good songs….plus Townshend was changing as well…so it all fit.
        It’s hard/impossible to compete with a memory…and not fair.
        Another Tricky Day, The Quiet One, Don’t Let Go The Coat, and the huge one…You Better You Bet…I call that one Who Are You’s sister.

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      1. So much other music to give time to obb. Saying that I stayed with them and the music always delivered, some took a little more time but I eventually was taken in. I was telling Max that the “Twos” last album has been playing a lot on my music box.
        I found i havent spent a lot of time with Springsteen’s later recordings but will eventually gorge.

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  11. Yes, I said it in the reply to DEke I guess. Appreciate the effort they put in though. They just took a spur on the Rock railroad that didn’t go where I was heading at the time. Ah well, not all views can align all the time.

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  12. Wow, I know I’ve listened at least a couple of times to the entire “Who Are You” album, but I’m afraid I couldn’t recognize “Sister Disco.” I think it’s fair to say while it’s not a terrible song, it’s not among the best by The Who. The only song I well remember from that album is the title track, which I’ve always liked.

    Any musician replacing someone who was as closely associated with a band as Keith Moon was with The Who is a tough task. I’ve only seen The Who with Zak Starkey and thought did a great job. Then again, perhaps my comment would have been different, had I ever seen them with Keith Moon.

    One thing’s for sure. With Kenney and now Zak, The Who had/have a drummer with a less volatile character.

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    1. Zak Starkey has come the closest to playing with the spirit of Keith Moon. I think Mitch Mitchell would have been interesting because he drummed like Keith….but Townshend wanted a time keeper more than a Moon.
      Who Are You was not their best album…infact it was their worse album with Moon. It had a few songs I liked…this is one of them.
      Who Are You the song of course is a classic.

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