The Who Drops New ‘Beads On One String’ Remix

Pete Townshend's new remix of the Who's “Beads On One String” has been released, dubbed the “Yaggerdang Remix” referencing “Towser's” Instagram handle. The revamped track will be featured on the 2020 deluxe edition of last year's WHO album coming on October 30th, which includes The Who Live At Kingston, a special acoustic performance recorded on February 14th, 2020 — 50 years to the day since the band's legendary Live At Leeds show.

Pete Townshend said in a statement:

The “Beads On One String” remix was an adventure to try to recapture some of the subtleties of my first solo demo. I love the studio version, but this remix by Myles Clarke and myself returns to the original synthesizer demo shared with me by my co-writer Josh Hunsacker. I also play bass rather than the genius Pino Palladino (I’ve got some nerve) and we removed the real drums and returned to computer drum tracks programmed by my co-producer Myles Clarke.

We also restored Roger’s vocal track to its first incarnation, which is more heartfelt. This is a gentler version of this song, less demanding perhaps, less bullying about our need to cut each other space, each on our own path.

Why does it need to be more gentle than the album version? Because it must stand alone in a period when each of us is tempted to blame someone else for our troubles, maybe even God whoever we take her/him/both to be. I’m hoping it sounds less rock, and more modern indie-pop to new listeners.

Roger Daltrey self-admittedly had a tough time finding his voice in the last batch of Pete Townshend's songs. When we last caught up with Daltrey, he told us that he would like to take a more hands on approach to how Townshend crafts the songs for the band: “I'll work with Pete any time, but I would like to do an album where we work together. Not necessarily in the studio together, but, the project. And it seems to me that Pete cooks up projects on his own that are narratively tricky for the general public to get into, and I think if we work together, and by workin' together some of those problems might be solved.”