teenage wasteland

I just heard the most poignant thing I’ve heard on TV in a while. Pete Townshend, writer and guitarist from The Who, said this in reference to his famous song “Baba O’Riley” (which many people mistakenly think is called “Teenage Wasteland”):

“For me - you know - that notion of ‘teenage wasteland’ - it is about waste. It’s not about getting wasted. It’s about waste. It’s about wasted life, wasted opportunity, wasted years. And I take full responsibility for the fact that my generation complained about the state of the planet and did nothing to change it.”

Now that’s a lot of guilt to live with! But I see his point. They were the biggest rock band and one of the most significant cultural phenomena in the late 1960s to the mid 1970s. That’s quite a bully pulpit they had, if they had chosen to use it.