Young Man Blues

Stage banter on Deluxe Edition only

[Pete Townshend]
Uh... we'd like to carry on now, and play a song originally recorded by Mose Allison, who's really a jazz musician, and I did read something on one of his record covers which said he was a "jazz sage." And, uh, quite what that means, I don't know, but, uh—

[Keith Moon]
Just play the tune

[Pete Townshend]
(laughing) And, anyway, we've picked up quite a number of his songs, "Eyesight To The Blind," which is on the Tommy album, we picked up from him, and also this song, which I think has got to be one of his best. It's one of his own compositions, which he wrote when he was about forty—

[Keith Moon]
A teenager!

[Pete Townshend]
Just a mere teenager, and he called it, "Young Man Blues."

[Crowd cheering]

[Verse 1]
Well a young man
Ain't got nothin' in the world these days
I said a young man
Ain't got nothin' in the world these days

[Instrumental break]

[Verse 2]
Well, you know in the old days
When a young man was a strong man
All the people they stepped back
When a young man walked by

[Instrumental break]

[Verse 3]
But you know nowadays
It's the old man
Who's got all the money
And a young man
Ain't got nothin' in the world these days, I say
Ain't got nothin'
Ain't got sweet fuck all!

[Instrumental break]

[Ad-Libs over instrumental break]

Everybody knows, everybody knows, everybody knows
He ain't got—

Ooh, yeah!
Oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah!
Yeah
Get it

Everybody knows, everybody knows
In the old days
Everybody stepped back
When a young man walked, walked by

They stepped back!
They stepped back!
They stepped back!

[Outro]
Nowadays, if you're the young man
You ain't got nothin' in the world these days, I said!
They ain't got nothin'
Ain't got sweet fuck all!

[Crowd cheering]

[Pete Townshend]
Thank you