The Seeker

"The Seeker" is a song written by Pete Townshend and performed by English rock band The Who, and featured on their 1971 compilation album Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy.

"I suppose I like this least of all the stuff", wrote Townshend. "It suffered from being the first thing we did after Tommy, and also from being recorded a few too many times. We did it once at my home studio, then at IBC where we normally worked then with Kit Lambert producing. Then Kit had a tooth pulled, breaking his jaw, and we did it ourselves. The results are impressive. It sounded great in the mosquito-ridden swamp I made it up in, Florida at three in the morning drunk out of my brain with Tom Wright and John Wolf. But that's always where the trouble starts, in the swamp. The alligator turned into an elephant and finally stampeded itself to death on stages around England. I don't think we even got to play it in the States."^{[citation needed]} (Actually, this is not true, as the band did perform it for about two weeks on their 1970 American tour.)^{[citation needed]} Released in the UK as Track 604036 on March 21, 1970, it reached #19 in the charts. Released in the U.S. as Decca 732729, it hit the Billboard charts on April 11, 1970, eventually peaking at #44. The Who revived the song on the 2006-2007 tour for Endless Wire.

Cover versions

• Canadian rock group Rush recorded a cover of the song on their 2004 album Feedback.
• Scottish singer Fish recorded a version for his 1993 covers album Songs from the Mirror.
• The supergroup The Raconteurs performed a version with Pete Townshend on backup vocals for the Attic Jams album.

Use in films, video games

• The song was featured in the 2007 video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and the 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV, as well as the 1999 films American Beauty and The Limey, and the 2008 documentary Religulous.
• A cover by Big Linda featured in the film The Seeker.

References