The Who frontman bored by Rock Band

By Kristan Reed Published 16 July, 2008

Daltrey won't get fooled again.

The Who frontman Roger Daltrey has grumpily admitted that Rock Band "bored" him, and laments how technology has changed the way we interact with music.

Speaking in an interview with CNN, the ageing rocker said that he tried the EA-distributed music title, but got bored quickly with it. Presumably because you've already sung Won't Get Fooled again 419,393 times over the past 38 years, Rog.

But it's not just videogames Daltrey objects to; he went on to rail against technological advancements in general such as the toaster and the digital watch. Back in the good old days "all we had was music", he said. "There was nothing else. There was cinema, music and sex. Life was better."

Yes, we can imagine being in one of the world's biggest rock groups of the '60s and '70s, surrounded by groupies 24/7, was considerably more fun than being a 64-year old man who can't work out how to use his iPhone and has all the co-ordination of a cat on mandrax.

For those not in a stadium rock band, and not addled by years of rock n' roll excesses, feel free to check out what mere mortals thought of Rock Band.

Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (48) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • mischief #1 4 years ago

    from the man who sung "My Generation"?
    funny

  • Gaol #2 4 years ago

    Heh, nicely written. Its hardly surprising he got bored of RB having done it 'for real' all his life. 'Life was better when I was younger'... there's a shock.

  • Azazel #3 4 years ago

    I remember when this was all fields etc.

  • rudedudejude #4 4 years ago

    mmmmmmmm Sex.

  • udat #5 4 years ago

    Yeah, he might not be the target audience eh?

    The Who are still the best live band around though, so he can't be bored of singing his stuff completely. :p

  • Muddtallica #6 4 years ago

    "Yes, we can imagine being in one of the world's biggest rock groups of the '60s and '70s, surrounded by groupies 24/7, was considerably more fun than being a 64-year old man who can't work out how to use his iPhone and has all the co-ordination of a cat on mandrax."

    Concise and withering. Good work, Kristan. :D

  • rowsdower #7 4 years ago

    A whole generation of kids reading this article are saying "The Who?"

  • McBradders #8 4 years ago

    Swimming in new royalties must really suck huh?

  • Erinan #9 4 years ago

    More important RB news from the Activision conference:

    "Rock Band instruments are compatible with World Tour on the 360. (Supposedly including drums?)"

    http://uk .games.ign.com/articles/889/889... (including some funny comments)
    Edited by 1 at 16/07/08 @ 12:49

  • Turambar #10 4 years ago

    Rock Band bores me as well. So do The Who.

  • monkie_king #11 4 years ago

    Daltrey is a trout farmer these days. True.

  • brainbird #12 4 years ago

    "There was cinema, music and sex."
    We still have those, and cool videogames on top of that.

  • gingerlink #13 4 years ago

    ok, the senility has set in...

    I have only just discovered toasters in the past year and can say they are AWESOME!

  • pikemon #14 4 years ago

    i've spent my life in front of a computer screens since the age of 9. it's fun, but as you get older gaming also gives you a "hangover" unlike sporty outdoor activities, music and sex. maybe life WAS better in the 60's!

  • Bohnsen #15 4 years ago

    Well I got bored of "Won't get fooled again" a whole two minutes before the agonizing solo-part.

    So I guess we're even now, Roger.

    cheers,

    Alex

  • Kami #16 4 years ago

    Cheap jokes aside... it's good to see people interested in music, but people should really go out and learn an instrument if they enjoy this stuff. "I'm so awesome I can do this song on super-elite-hard mode with a perfect score..." Good for you, now why not go and learn to play a real electric guitar? Never know, you might even - gasp! - enjoy it...

    That said though, these games are very popular and selling like hot cakes. He's likely getting royalties so I'm not entirely sure why he cares so much...
    Edited by 1 at 16/07/08 @ 13:20

  • Shakey_Jake33 #17 4 years ago

    My question is, it he a gamer? If he liked games, and dislikes Rock Band from a gaming point of view (I find music games very dull myself), then fair enough. If he's just another musician who has never really played a game, passingly played Rock Band and didn't like it, then I don't think his opinion is relevent, because it's ultimately uninformed.

    I know this is a 'news story' because he's a musician and his song is in the game, but that doesn't make his opinion on the quality of the game relevent at all. I don't give a rats ass what X celeb thinks of X game.

  • Corben_Dallas #18 4 years ago

    I hope he dies before he gets old.......

    :D ;)
    Roger Daltrey sounding like an old fart........... :)
    " When i were a lad....etc etc
    Edited by 1 at 16/07/08 @ 13:18

  • paulf #19 4 years ago

    he might change his tune once the royalties from the who 12 pack come rolling in

  • kangarootoo #20 4 years ago

    @Nick_JC1

    Holy crap. You play a game that you don't much like and you wet the bed in protest. Life as a gamer must be a daily challenge. I can only imagine that your first taste of GH took place in front of other people thart mocked your poor effort, judging by the apparent scars left behind. You need a t-shirt "Liable to overeact" written on it.


    Anyway...

    My take on all of this is that people are reading far too much into what was said. Old bloke gets older, and says old bloke type things like "life was better back then". That is all that has happened here. The fact said old bloke is a milllionairre counts for far less than his age. Its like he even felt the need to mention sex, just so we would remember he isn't an old bloke and in fact can still rock with the best of them.

    Also, I suspect very much that the reason he got bored is because he found the game difficult to play. Almost every guitarist I know who has played GH or RB wasn't really into it (me being the exception, maybe cause I play other stuff too, and am not that good a guitarist). The Easy setting limits their musicality far too much, and on Medium and above it is just too hard to get used to in a short space of time.

    The entry curve into GH or RockBand is pretty steep compared to many other games, and when people have a bad time playing it as a result (especially guitarists who expect to automatically good at it) they disguise their frustration by calling the experience "boring". People were doing that way before GH came along.

  • kangarootoo #21 4 years ago

    @Kami

    Oh come on dude. The whole "got and learn a real guitar" angle is getting pretty old. Do you also suggest people playing GT go and drive a real car, or people playing PGA Tour go play real golf, or people playing Ghost Recon to go and join the military?

    The fact that the controller bears resemblance to a real guitar is irrelevant. People play the game for the same reasons they play any other game. Can we please consider that particular dead horse well and truly flogged?

    P.s. I think some of the guitarists out there have forgotten just how difficult it was back when they first picked up an instrument. I remember clearly. I was bloody awful for weeks. I could barely strum the same string that I was plucking 3 times in a row. Playing along to the vocal line of 18 and Life 60 times in a row did NOT make me feel like a rock god, neither was it an activity I could enjoy with my friends. For the noob, Guitar Hero is almost certainly more fun, at least while they ALSO learn to play the guitar when their friends have gone home.

  • andywilkie35 #22 4 years ago

    i take it as him admitting that this new fangled stuff baffles him coz he's old

    still, if it means pulling all Who songs from Rock Band, i'm all for it! the only shitting song i can't do on expert on drums is that 10 hour long "epic"
    Edited by 1 at 16/07/08 @ 13:48

  • Rodafowa #23 4 years ago

    @ kangarootoo

    Amen. The "why don't you play a real guitar?" thing always sounds to me like "How dare you enjoy this game! How DARE you even get a hint of a taste of a suggestion of what it might be like to be a guitar God without putting months of frustrating joyless practice in first. I play the guitar, nyah nyah nyah, I play the guitar so I’m better than you, I’m better than you, I’M better than YOU!”

    Also: 18 And Life badly needs to be in Rock Band. It's a founder member of the So Terrible It's Actually Awesome Hall Of Fame (along with Big Macs, Hawk The Slayer and William Shatner). I'm not sure I'd be able to sing it all the way through without pissing myself laughing, though.

  • Wander #24 4 years ago

    @monkie_king

    Is 'trout farmer' a euphemism, or does he indeed...farm trout?

  • kangarootoo #25 4 years ago

    "WTF is ur point?"

    That is irony right there.

  • kangarootoo #26 4 years ago

    @Rodafowa

    Monkey Business might make a better RB track. Too many long chords in 18 and Life, though it has a great big hair solo in it as I recall (if a bit short).

    /is revealing far too much about his terrible rock music past as is comfortable

  • Kami #27 4 years ago

    @ kangarootoo; Yeah, military maybe not a right angle but hell - paintballing perhaps? You can rent cars for trackdays or do go-karting as well. Gaming is great but if you enjoy it then why not try something real and tangible as well? It at least gets you out and active or keeps your mind working on something and that's never a bad thing. And yeah, Guitar Hero is likely a great way to muck about with mates whilst you try to fumble with the strings when no-one is around to make fun of you. But we all start somewhere.

    It's not a case of "How dare you have fun!", more a "If you like this, then why not try bowling/paintballing/golf/whatever other example you want to fit in here - it can also be fun and you in the end may have something more real to be proud about!". Feel threatened all you want, I enjoy guitar hero and I play guitar (not well, I admit... s'why I also suck at guitar hero I'd wager). I think you can have the best of both real and game and enjoy it all.

    I know not everyone puts that point across very well. Enjoy it, be awesome at it, and if you really do enjoy it - there's usually something out there you can do for real as well. Sorry for the wishy-washy common sense approach.

  • Redeye #28 4 years ago

    Fair play to Rog - so he doesn't enjoy games. Given the fact that 'been there, done that' doesn't even begin to cover it where he's concerned, I can understand his apathy.
    And as far as all the 'old' comments are concerned, you lot'll be there too one day - unless you intend to follow his lyrics to the letter and croak beforehand...

    *gets pipe and slippers, turns Magic Bus up to 11*

  • krudster #29 4 years ago

    The most depressing thing about comments from old stagers is that you'd hope they'd have more of an open mind. Coming from the era that they did, I'd expect a more intelligent response than carping on about them new fangled things making things worse.

    Maybe we're just all genetically programmed to reach a certain point in our lives and reject what's modern and long for when things were simpler. Mind you, he's hardly the target audience for Rock Band, as someone pointed out. It's impressive that he's even tried it at all.

    While I'm on my soap box, he's just plain wrong about music being just 'background noise' now. Maybe for some, but surely that's been the case since the 'wireless' was invented. I'm just as much as an excitable twat about new music as I was when I was 12. I can't see that changing anytime soon. I'd like to think that gaming has helped stop me turning into an old fart like some of my technophobe friends.
    Edited by 1 at 16/07/08 @ 14:38

  • rhubarbandcustard #30 4 years ago

    As a gamer I'm not over the moon about a paedo like Pete Townsend ending profits from my favourite hobby.

    But, now the precedent has been set could we please have Gary Glitter's "I'm the leader of the gang"

    Failing that, just re-heard for the first time in years Zodiac Mindwarp's 'Prime Mover'. Now that is rawk. Inclusion please.

  • miiiguel #31 4 years ago

    @ krudster: it's not like all older ppl are retarded. Take my retired father, he just loves techy stuff. I even managed to get him to use Linux, at the age of 60.

  • johnnybrn #32 4 years ago

    I think what a lot of these musicians forget is that , HEY ITS A GAME! ITS FUN! FUNNIER IF DRUNK!

    Surely they had games in the 60's although not electronic

    Get over yourselves, no one is saying that this is the music of the future.

  • Lebowski #33 4 years ago

    Who?

  • RexRunti #34 4 years ago

    Who Are You mr daltry to talk about My Generation, The Kids Are Alright and Won't Get Fooled Again by The Seeker of the 5:15 Magic Bus to the old peoples home. Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere I'm A Boy and I Can't Explain why I'm Free to be a Happy Jack playing rockband. we should all Join Together afterall You Better You Bet he was a Pinball Wizard back in the day.

  • kangarootoo #35 4 years ago

    @Kami

    Maybe I misunderstood your original post. I thought you were saying "go play a guitar instead".

    If you are actually saying "go play a guitar AS WELL" then I totally agree, but I don't think that is what Grumpy McStrop-on of rock band The Who was saying. He just seemed to be having one of those "its bollox, its not proper music" type moments.

    @Redeye

    I will absolutely be old one day (to many youngsters, I probably seem old already), but I would hope I never turn into the sort of grumpy old bugger that fears new things. My dad is in his 60s, older than grumpy old Who Fart (I am trying to see how many different insulting names I can come up with, for a musician I actually respect a whole lot), but has always been interested in new technology and ideas. Both my parents play video games, except they stick to the stuff that doesn't baffle their failing reaction times (such as city builder games). They wouldn't enjoy GH for 1 single second, but they wouldn't dismiss it purely on such a self centered basis.

  • kangarootoo #36 4 years ago

    @WaxBrazillian

    "BTW any answer keep it one line not the mini essay shit"

    Ah sorry, I must have missed the meeting where that rule was drawn up. If you don't like it, don't read it, that is the best i can do for you. And you know if you weren't so damn grumpy all the time, I wouldn't pick on you :)

  • Feanor #37 4 years ago

    Agreed, JSPOOLE.

    I got a real guitar as a Christmas present from someone who thought I'd like it because I got Guitar Hero 3. Well, I don't even have enough time to get good enough at GH to get past the third song on Hard, let alone learn to play a very difficult musical instrument from a bloody instruction book.
    Edited by 1 at 16/07/08 @ 16:46

  • darc #38 4 years ago

    "Oh come on dude. The whole "got and learn a real guitar" angle is getting pretty old. Do you also suggest people playing GT go and drive a real car, or people playing PGA Tour go play real golf, or people playing Ghost Recon to go and join the military?"

    Heh, that's funny stuff. And now I feel guilty for putting down sports titles for so long eg. just go outside and play some damn football...

    I think the guitarists that get all cranky about GH and RB are largely missing point. These games are not so much an analogy for performing music as they are an extension of listening to music. Playing an instrument is vastly different than playing a Rock Band controller, but playing Rock Band is a means of engaging with music in a new and participatory way. Not a better one... perhaps in some ways a lesser one... but ovbiously entertaining for some.

    As far as the "go learn to play a real yada yada..." that just comes off as veiled egotism to me. Essentially another way of saying "look at me, I play the guitar!" (That and $4 *might* get you a latte...) I have put the years of joyless practice in and I can tell you, no matter how good you are, you don't have The Who (or whomever) backing you whenever you turn on your amp. Turn on your XBox, and you can have some small sense of that experience. (Beer helps suspend disbelief.)
    Edited by 1 at 16/07/08 @ 16:54

  • PlugMonkey #39 4 years ago

    Yeah, he might not be the target audience eh?

    Heh heh! Yeah, what next? Ronaldinho in "Playing FIFA isn't as good as winning the actual World Cup" shock! Lewis Hamilton in "real racing more exciting than Gran Turismo" sensation! I think if you are a real life rock god, you might not fully see the appeal of Rock Band. A busman's holiday if there ever was one.

    On the subject of music now just being background - one of the main things I love about GH and RB is that they make me focus on music in a way I rarely do when I'm just listening to it.

    EDIT:"These games are not so much an analogy for performing music as they are an extension of listening to music. "
    Absolutely my point! Very well said.
    Edited by 1 at 16/07/08 @ 16:54

  • darc #40 4 years ago

    "Get over yourselves, no one is saying that this is the music of the future."

    LOL yeah, ironically GH is largely retro music. And Rock Band is largely boring music... Hey wait a minute. Maybe Daltrey didn't dislike the game, maybe he just didn't like the *songs*. Or maybe it wasn't loud enough, or he hadn't had enough beer. And can he still hear?

    Plugmonkey, right on the money. Re: the busman's holiday (not a metaphor I'm familar with BTW) comment, didn't John Mayer make a similar stink a couple of weeks ago. "Not nearly as much fun as really playing guitar (when you happen to be a very good guitarist mind you...)" Er, duh?

  • darc #41 4 years ago

    LOL well now we are just crossing in the mail it seems.

  • kangarootoo #42 4 years ago

    "LOL yeah, ironically GH is largely retro music"

    I actually heard from a friend that a youngster they knew (daughter, or cousin or something) aged about 16 thought the songs in whatever version of Guitar Hero she had been playing were all made up for the game. She hadn't heard of any of the bands she played along to. Maybe she had only played a few tracks or glanced at a set list or something. I wouldn't like to think she genuinely hadn't heard of a single band on there, wouldn't be surprised though (insert old fart type comment here about the kids of today).
    Edited by 1 at 16/07/08 @ 17:19

  • bobmar360 #43 4 years ago

    if anyone here actually likes Roger Daltry then watch the film McVicar - it's an old movie but pretty (my opinion anyway).

    He's a dude on the run and stuf - i wont ruin the plot

  • Rodafowa #44 4 years ago

    I think the guitarists that get all cranky about GH and RB are largely missing point. These games are not so much an analogy for performing music as they are an extension of listening to music. Playing an instrument is vastly different than playing a Rock Band controller, but playing Rock Band is a means of engaging with music in a new and participatory way. Not a better one... perhaps in some ways a lesser one... but ovbiously entertaining for some.

    That's a really interesting point. RB/GH are basically air guitar with rules, a sort've halfway-house between listening to a song and playing it, and they definitely have the ability to make you think about music differently. As a small f'rinstance, since playing Rock Band I've found myself hearing basslines far more easily and prominently.

  • RM2KMaster #45 4 years ago

    Miserable old twat.

  • Corben_Dallas #46 4 years ago

    "Who Are You mr daltry to talk about My Generation, The Kids Are Alright and Won't Get Fooled Again by The Seeker of the 5:15 Magic Bus to the old peoples home. Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere I'm A Boy and I Can't Explain why I'm Free to be a Happy Jack playing rockband. we should all Join Together afterall You Better You Bet he was a Pinball Wizard back in the day."

    Absolute legend Rex, me likes :D

    WaxoffyourBrazilian.
    pls read above
    < for the fick out there.
    Lyrics for My Generation by the Who (sung by Roger Daltrey)
    "...i hope i die before i get old"

    Can ye taste the irony kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Moribundman #47 4 years ago

    @Waxbrazillian

    Jesus, get over yourself kid; what are you twelve or something? Get back to school and stop texting the board.

  • darc #48 4 years ago

    "That's a really interesting point. RB/GH are basically air guitar with rules, a sort've halfway-house between listening to a song and playing it, and they definitely have the ability to make you think about music differently. As a small f'rinstance, since playing Rock Band I've found myself hearing basslines far more easily and prominently."

    I can imagine that. The first time I played Guitar Hero I was really taken by the amount of legitimately musical information that was coming at me. It even had me appreciating songs that I'd always disliked. "Never noticed the change from 8th note to triplet feel there before, here comes that cool hook, etc..." So in addition to being entertaining, I hold that for all it's limitations it can also be educational for both musicians and listeners.

    Getting back to Daltrey, funny thing: Not sure how the business model works, but didn't he need to agree for his tracks to be included in RB? And isn't he profiting in some small measure? But he has no regard for the product? Interesting partnership/ career decisions there.