Aging gracefully is one of the great challenges in the life of a rock’n’roller. Many artists have pissed away their maturity chasing the tail of their youth. Just as many have gone to an early grave without having to confront the challenge. Then there are the few who tackle it head-on.
Pete Townshend was a great help to me when I was a teenager. He found words for thoughts I was too inarticulate to express. His band’s Quadrophenia was blaring in the background of my first kiss. And as he got older he found words to express the bittersweet nature of aging.
Slit Skirts, from Townshend’s 1982 album All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes takes on the subject with his usual musical bravado and some unusually literary lyrics.
Can’t pretend that growing older never hurts…
I was wondering why everyone I met seemed like they were
Lost in a maze
Divine right to the blues
It’s sympathy not tears people need when they’re the
Front page sad news.
And lovers now estranged avoided catching each others’ eyes
And men not fit for marriage took their refuge in the oil
No one respects the flame quite like the fool who’s badly burned
From all this you’d imagine that there must be something learned
I don’t ever wear no ripped shirts
Can’t pretend that growing older never hurts.
Have to be so drunk to try a new dance
So afraid of every new romance
Jeanie isn’t wearing those slit skirts, slit skirt
She wouldn’t dare in those slit skirts, slit skirt
Wouldn’t be seen dead in no slit skirt
Jeanie isn’t wearing those slit skirts, slit skirt
She wouldn’t dare in those slit skirts, slit skirt
Wouldn’t be seen dead in no slit skirt
Why can’t we drink it up true heart romance
Just need a brief new romance
The big events of the day are passed
I’m number one in the home team, but I still feel unfulfilled.
A silent voice in her broken heart complaining that I’m unskilled.
But, unlike me, she don’t work off her frustration in the gym.
A woman’s expectations run from both ends of the range
Now he’s cooled and stifled and it’s she who has to beg
And I don’t ever wear no ripped shirts
Can’t pretend that growing older never hurts
We have to be so drunk to try a new dance
So afraid of every new romance
Jeanie isn’t wearing those slit skirts, slit skirt
She wouldn’t dare in those slit skirts, slit skirt
Wouldn’t be seen dead in no slit skirt
Jeanie isn’t wearing those slit skirts, slit skirt
She wouldn’t dare in those slit skirts, slit skirt
Wouldn’t be seen dead in no slit skirt
Why can’t we drink it up true heart romance
Just need a brief new romance
Words & Music by Mike Power 
3 responses to “Slit Skirts”
A very moving piece ! Amazing
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Thanks for the kind words, Rupika.
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Most welcome !
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