View source for La-La-La-Lies

{{Short description|Song by The Who}}
{{Infobox song
| name       = La-La-La-Lies
| cover      = La-La-La Lies.jpg
| alt        =
| type       = single
| artist     = [[the Who]]
| album      = [[My Generation (album)|My Generation]]
| B-side     = [[The Good's Gone]]
| released   = 11 November 1966<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.discogs.com/release/2490126 |title=The Who - La-La-La-Lies (Vinyl) |website=Discogs.com |date=1966-11-11 |accessdate=2016-09-29}}</ref>
| recorded   = 12–13 October 1965
| studio     = [[IBC Studios|IBC]] in [[Central London]]
| genre      =
| length     = 2:12
| label      = [[Brunswick Records|Brunswick]] 05968 (UK)
| writer     = [[Pete Townshend]]
| producer   = [[Shel Talmy]]
| prev_title = [[I'm a Boy]]
| prev_year  = 1966
| next_title = [[Happy Jack (song)|Happy Jack]]
| next_year  = 1966
}}
"'''La-La-La-Lies'''" is the fourth track on [[the Who]]'s debut album ''[[My Generation (album)|My Generation]]''.  It was written by lead guitarist [[Pete Townshend]].<ref name=numbers/>
==Background==
Townshend wrote the song during the summer of 1965, and the band recorded it consistently with his home demos.<ref name=atkins/>  According to Townshend, the song "wasn't as good as this before I did it with [[Keith Moon|Keith]] [Moon]. It's not my favourite one on the LP. It reminds me a bit of [[Sandie Shaw]]."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thewho.net/linernotes/MyGeneration.htm |title=The Hypertext Who › Liner Notes › My Generation |accessdate=2015-01-22 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150123012540/http://www.thewho.net/linernotes/MyGeneration.htm |archivedate=2015-01-23 }}</ref>  Music journalist, Chris Charlesworth calls the melody "attractive".<ref name=complete/>  Charlesworth particularly highlights Moon's unusual drumming, in which Moon uses only his [[tom-tom]]s during the [[verse (music)|verses]] and [[refrain]] and incorporates [[cymbals]] only for the [[bridge (music)|bridge]] and the solo.<ref name=complete/>  [[Allmusic]] critic [[Richie Unterberger]] calls it one of the "highlights" of ''My Generation''.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Who Sings My Generation|author=Unterberger, R.|author-link=Richie Unterberger|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-who-sings-my-generation-mw0000020578|publisher=[[Allmusic]]|accessdate=2016-06-23}}</ref>  But [[Steve Grantley]] and [[Alan G. Parker]] describe the song as being "so-so" and "pretty conventional".<ref name=numbers/>  But they too acknowledge the power of Moon's "intermittent controlled" drum patterns and remark that it contains a preview of some elements of later Who songs, such as Townshend's "tentative crash [[chord (music)|chords]]".<ref name=numbers/>  Who biographer John Atkins concurs that the song is rather conventional and describes it as a "straight [[pop music|pop]] song".<ref name=atkins>{{cite book|title=The Who on Record: A Critical History, 1963-1998|author=Atkins, John|pages=51, 54–60, 67|year=2000|publisher=MacFarland|isbn=9781476606576}}</ref>
[[Nicky Hopkins]] joins the band on piano for the song, and author Mike Segretto claims that his "hyper piano runs contribute much [[amphetamine]] fuel to it.<ref name=faq/>  Segretto also believes that the "[[swing note|shuffling]] [[rhythm]]" was influenced by [[Martha and the Vandellas]]' "[[Heat Wave (Martha and the Vandellas song)|Heat Wave]]".<ref name=faq/>  Segretto claims that like "[[The Kids Are Alright (song)|The Kids Are Alright]]," also from ''My Generation'', "La-La-La-Lies" "transform[s] the romantic song into something defiant", in this case by declaring that his love is strong enough to withstand the "slander of jealous parties".<ref name=faq/>
In common with several songs off ''My Generation'', a theme of "La-La-La-Lies" is the "illusion of identity".<ref name=marsh>{{cite book|title=Before I Get Old|author=Marsh, D.|author-link=Dave Marsh|pages=196–197, 216|year=1983|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=0312071558}}</ref>  ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' critic [[Dave Marsh]] called it "as personal as anything Pete Townshend ever wrote".<ref name=marsh/>  The lyrics criticize a friend who lies about the singer.<ref name=marsh/>  This makes the song a little different from other similarly themed Who songs, as in many of the band's songs about lying their complaint is that someone is lying to them; in "La-La-La-Lies" the complaint is that someone is lying about them.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Who and Philosophy|author=Fallis, D.|editor=Gennaro, R.J. |editor2=Harison, C.|page=142|year=2016|publisher=Lexington Books|chapter=Who Can You Trust: The Paradox of Listening to The Who|isbn=9781498514484}}</ref> Christopher Ketcham sees "La-La-La-Lies" as representing a related theme common to several Who songs: the difficulty of seeing "the [[Other (philosophy)|other]]".<ref name=ketcham>{{cite book|title=The Who and Philosophy|author=Ketcham, C.|editor=Gennaro, R.J. |editor2=Harison, C.|page=83|year=2016|publisher=Lexington Books|chapter=Fiddling About Becoming a Man|isbn=9781498514484}}</ref>  Ketcham sees this as also being a theme of ''[[Quadrophenia]]'' and songs such as "[[My Generation]]" and "[[Who Are You (The Who song)|Who Are You]]".<ref name=ketcham/>
==Single release==
In November 1966, the song was released in Britain as the fourth single from the ''[[My Generation (album)|My Generation]]'' album without the permission of the Who.<ref name=complete>{{cite book|title=The Complete Guide to the Music of the Who|author=Charlesworth, C.|page=5|year=1995|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=0711943060}}</ref><ref name=numbers/>  This was done by the song's producer [[Shel Talmy]], who owned the rights to the song, in the midst of his legal dispute with the band, in order to compete with the singles the band wanted to release.<ref name=atkins/><ref name=faq>{{cite book|title=The Who FAQ|author=Segretto, M.|pages=77–78, 190, 229|year=2014|publisher=Backbeat Books|isbn=9781480361034}}</ref> The single reached the top 20 in Sweden, but did not chart in the United Kingdom.<ref name=numbers>{{cite book|title=The Who by Numbers|author=Grantley, S. |author2=Parker, A.G.|page=22|year=2010|publisher=Helter Skelter Publishing|isbn=9781905139262}}</ref> Charlesworth suggests that the song would have performed better on the chart had it not been competing with The Who's own "[[Happy Jack (song)|Happy Jack]]".<ref name=complete/> It was backed with "[[The Good's Gone]]".
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{My Generation (album)}}
{{The Who singles}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:1965 singles]]
[[Category:Songs written by Pete Townshend]]
[[Category:The Who songs]]
[[Category:Song recordings produced by Shel Talmy]]
[[Category:1965 songs]]
[[Category:Decca Records singles]]
[[Category:Brunswick Records singles]]