THE WHO launch new single - 'I Don’t Wanna Get Wise'

25 November 2019

THE WHO have released their new single titled I Don’t Wanna Get Wise.

It follows All This Music Must Fade, with both tracks included on the band’s upcoming studio album Who, which will launch on December 6 through Polydor Records.

The single comes just days after fans visiting London’s new Music Walk Of Fame were given access to a preview of the track.

It’s also been revealed that the deluxe edition on the new record will include two ‘lost tracks’ from the 60s: Got Nothing To Prove and Sand.

Guitarist Pete Townshend says: “Both these songs are from the summer of 1966. They would not have been rejected by the band members but rather by my then creative mentor, Who manager Kit Lambert.

“In 1967, when the song seemed destined for the bottom drawer, I did offer Got Nothing To Prove to Jimmy James and the Vagabonds who used to support us at The Marquee in 1965. I remember playing him the demo at my house in Twickenham.

“They were still managed by Peter Meaden who had been so influential on me in particular in the short period he was our PR man in late 1964.

“Jimmy liked the song, and suggested making it more R&B, in a slower tempo, but nothing happened. I have a feeling Kit may have felt the song sounded as though it was sung by an older and more self-satisfied man than I was in real life. That would have applied to Roger too I suppose.”

He adds: “Now, it works. Back then, perhaps it didn’t. Dave Sardy and I decided to ask George Fenton to do a Swinging Sixties band arrangement to make the song more interesting, but also to place it firmly in an Austin Powers fantasy. I love it.”

As for Sand, Townshend says it came from the same period, and adds: “This is a simple idea, about a sunny beach vacation romance that doesn’t last once the lovers get back home to the rain.

"Again, Kit passed on this, even as an album track, and it simply got filed away. I have always loved it, but have been waiting for computers to get smart enough to fix some of the tape stretch problems that had affected the demo.”

Townsend reports that some backing vocals and guitar work have been added, along with “a feedback section to properly evoke the era.”

The deluxe edition will also include the tracks This Gun Will Misfire and Danny & His Ponies – both were recorded and sung by Townshend during the new album sessions.