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White City Fighting Lyrics
The White City, that's a joke of a name
It's a black violent place if I remember the game
I couldn't wait to get out but I love to go home
To remember the White City fighting
The White City Fighting, remember, remember
The White City Fighting, remember, remember
Down to the refuge, near QPR
I drive to committees in my German car
Prone to violence, prone to shame
I glide in silence, my pride in vain
For no one remembers, not that I can see
That we were defenders, we were the free
The White City, blood was an addiction
Now it is analyzed just as though it were fiction
That battles were won and battles were blown
At the height of the White City fighting
The White City Fighting, remember, remember
The White City Fighting, remember, remember
No one remembers, not that I can see
That we were defenders, we were the free
The White City, I finally grew up
To resist the temptation the gutters all threw up
But I have to go back, I guess I'm violence prone
To remember the White City fighting, yeah
The White City Fighting, remember, remember......(fade)
It's a black violent place if I remember the game
I couldn't wait to get out but I love to go home
To remember the White City fighting
The White City Fighting, remember, remember
I drive to committees in my German car
Prone to violence, prone to shame
I glide in silence, my pride in vain
For no one remembers, not that I can see
That we were defenders, we were the free
Now it is analyzed just as though it were fiction
That battles were won and battles were blown
At the height of the White City fighting
The White City Fighting, remember, remember
That we were defenders, we were the free
To resist the temptation the gutters all threw up
But I have to go back, I guess I'm violence prone
To remember the White City fighting, yeah
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I had always heard this song and thought the guitar solo sounded like Pink Floyd's "Hey You" - and was shocked to find out that was because it was David Gilmour playing! Amazing how sometimes a guitar can sound as distinctive as a voice.
@EmeraldFox - the parts where it is just acoustic guitar and bass are a direct lift from "Hey You", down to the exact tone of the bass.
@EmeraldFox - the parts where it is just acoustic guitar and bass are a direct lift from "Hey You", down to the exact tone of the bass.
White City is the name of a specific area in London, and a particular housing development within that. The lyrics are narrated by a man who is now doing quite well for himself but had a rougher, violent youth in White City, and he considers the contrast between his past and present as well as the ironic name of a place where reality was quite dark.
Pete Townshend is not actually from there, and the album as a whole was conceived as a novel telling the story of a fictional man; the lyrics describe a portion of that character's past and present.
I always liked the imagery of this song. Co-Produced with David Gilmour, this entire album was fantastic. Some of Pete Townsends' best stuff since the Who. (Interestingly enough, just a year earlier, Pete had co-produced David Gilmours' album "About Face").
The music is driving and engaging, and the lyrics paint a vivid picture of a City; perhaps no city in particular, since this could be any number of places in the U.K. , The U.S.A., or whereever there are big White Cities.
Pete Townshend is from White City. It's that simple