Who – Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere

These sixties singles by the Who are so exciting. They sounded different from their peers and were cutting their own path. This was The Who’s second single. It was the follow-up to I Can’t Explain. When this was sent to their American record label to distribute, they sent it back, assuming the feedback meant there was something wrong with it.

Townshend turned what most engineers considered a mistake into an instrument. Those piercing squeals and roars mid-song weren’t accidents; they were the sound of pop music evolving in real time. The Who didn’t want to sound clean or polite; they wanted to sound like the inside of a jet engine, and they nailed it.

The Who’s early singles like Can’t Explain, The Kids Are Alright, Substitute, I’m A Boy, and A Legal Matter don’t get the airplay that their later music does. They were innovative at the time with feedback, distortion, and Moon’s aggressive drumming.

Townshend later said the song was about personal freedom, and that’s exactly what it feels like. The right to be loud, to be different, to not apologize for who you are. You can trace the line from this track straight through to everything that came after: The Jam, The Clash, The Raspberries, Big Star… all carrying that same spark of defiance.

This song was written by Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey. It was one of the few times they wrote together. Super session man Nicky Hopkins was on the piano.

The song peaked at #10 in the UK in 1965.

Roger Daltrey: ‘Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere’ was the first song when we attempted to get that noise onto a record and that was a good deal of time before Hendrix had even come to England, the American pressing plant sent it back thinking it was a mistake. We said, ‘No, this is the f—ing noise we want. CUT IT LOUD!'”

“We were doing this feedback stuff, even before that. We’d be doing blues songs and they’d turn into this freeform, feedback, jazzy noise. Pete was getting all these funny noises, banging his guitar against the speakers. Basically, the act that Hendrix is famous for came from Townshend, pre-‘I Can’t Explain.'”

Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere

I can go anyway, way I choose
I can live anyhow, win or lose
I can go anywhere, for something new
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere I choose

I can do anything, right or wrong
I can talk anyhow, and get along
Don’t care anyway, I never lose
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere I choose

Nothing gets in my way
Not even locked doors
Don’t follow the lines
That been laid before
I get along anyway I dare
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere

I can go anyway, way I choose
I can live anyhow, win or lose
I can do anything, for something new
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere I choose

(Oooh) anyway
(Oooh) Anyway I choose, yeah
(Oooh) Anyway I want to go
(Oooh) I want to go ‘n do it myself
Do it myself
Do it myself, yeah
Anyway, way I choose
Anyway I choose
Yeah, yeah
Ain’t never gonna lose the way I choose
The way I choose
The way I choose

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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.

34 thoughts on “Who – Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere”

  2. Pingback: Who – Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere – MobsterTiger

  3. I know, I know, I know…..I was okay with the Who, but then they’d do something like squeeze box, and I’d lose interest…I still like the Seeker a lot, and the live Woodstock performance….and yeah the singles too…honestly when I started to hear Townshend with just him and a guitar, that got my attention.

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    1. Both America and Canada missed these singles real time and they were great. I wished they would have got more attention at that time…I think it was a record company thing….but most only know them from Tommy or Who’s Next on.

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  4. I do think their singles from this period were a lot better than the ones which are ‘classic rock staples’ from probably 1970 or so. ‘Magic Bus’ for example, good single, never played on radio anymore. I did hear ‘Athena’ on a retro channel last week (obviously from a later era of theirs), hadn’t heard that for years! It kind of confirmed my 80s opinion of it – not a bad song but not one I was going to go out and buy the album for.

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    1. Yea that was my favorite song off of that album…Athena.
      These singles are loud and experimental…they hit well in the UK but were not played much here at all. Thats many only know them from Tommy or Who’s Next on…which is a shame. There are a few people know….My Generation, Magic Bus, I Can See For Miles but that is about it. A Quick One While he is Away is awesome…but you never hear that one either.

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  6. I completely agree. I love these singles. Always considered Tommy as a second phase of the band, and loved that too. But there’s a special place in NY heart for the early singles.

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  7. I don’t think the US was ready for this music yet, as ‘Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere’ failed to chart on the US Billboard Hot 100 upon its initial single release in 1965 and received little American radio airplay at the time.

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  9. Much prefer the various live versions I’ve heard to the studio one. For some reason this one didn’t grab me as much as their other early singles, but the live cuts kick it up several notches.

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  12. Richard Thompson does a medley of early Who songs. They all stand up, even when presented with a single guitar. Yeah, that guitar is played by the incredible Richard Thompson.

    Substitute, I’m a Boy, Magic Bus, I Can See For Miles. I loved this period. And yeah, I think Max is right that their label here in the States, Decca, just didn’t promote them enough.

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  15. I’m sure I’ve said this before, but most of my favourite Who singles are from 1965-67. Their massive seventies era, while still classic, doesn’t do it for me the same way. They started to sound more American. And I don’t mean that as an insult!

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    1. lol…no problem. Yea they cut down on the experimentation…but…to be fair…you have to admit that Who’s Next was a huge experiment with that keyboard…alhough it wasn’t a usual keyboard. It could have sounded so dated the next year…but to me…it sounds timeless

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