Meet the New Boss

Why “Won’t Get Fooled Again” Still Hits Home

By Andrew Crowley, Rock The Vote NZ Party Leader

When my older brother asked me to record a track, I was introduced to “The Who” …just after they’d broken up!

When The Who released “Won’t Get Fooled Again” in 1971, it was more than a rock anthem—it was a warning. A howl of disillusionment wrapped in power chords and synthesizers. And over 50 years later, its message feels as urgent as ever.

The song opens with revolution in the air—“We’ll be fighting in the streets / With our children at our feet”—but quickly turns sceptical. The very people who stirred the uprising now sit in judgment, and the promised change begins to look suspiciously familiar. The final line, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” lands like a punchline and a gut punch all at once.

In today’s world of political churn, social media activism, and performative change, the song’s cynicism feels prophetic. We’ve seen movements rise with hope and collapse under the weight of bureaucracy or co-optation. We’ve watched leaders promise transformation, only to replicate the very systems they vowed to dismantle. The slogans change, the faces rotate, but the machinery often grinds on.

Pete Townshend, who penned the track, wasn’t condemning revolution outright—he was challenging blind faith in it. He saw how easily idealism could be manipulated, how quickly power could corrupt. And in an era where outrage is monetized and “change” is a branding strategy, that scepticism is more relevant than ever.

But the song isn’t just a critique—it’s a call for vigilance. It urges us to look past the banners and speeches, to ask harder questions, to resist being hypnotized by charisma or novelty. It reminds us that real change isn’t just about replacing one leader with another—it’s about transforming the structures beneath them.

So yes, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” still rocks. But more importantly, it still warns. And in a world that keeps recycling its mistakes, that’s a message worth cranking up.