Lon­don in the Six­ties was, famous­ly, “swing­ing”, with much of the music and fash­ion influ­enced by the Mod sub­cul­ture. Mods had their roots in the Lon­don of the late Fifties where a small group of fash­ion­able young guns came to be known as mod­ernists because of their pen­chant for mod­ern jazz. By the Six­ties, the move­ment had become the dom­i­nant, and now plu­ral­ist, cul­tur­al force of the times, had broad­ened its hori­zons, and had accu­mu­lat­ed cer­tain iden­ti­fy­ing sym­bols such as the tai­lored suit, the Par­ka, and the motor scoot­er. Mod music, mean­while, had become a diverse mix of soul, R&B, ska, and blues-root­ed British rock.

The ear­ly six­ties had seen a clash of this new cul­ture with the so-called “rock­ers”, a rival sub­cul­ture cen­tred on motor­cy­cling, leather and 1950s rock and roll, which led to the infa­mous South Coast brawls of “mods and rock­ers”, and the ensu­ing “moral pan­ic” of the Estab­lish­ment. But by the mid-six­ties, British rock bands, such as the Small Faces and the Who, were adopt­ing mod fash­ion and atti­tude.

This week, I give you a sub­lime dose of mod sound in the form of the Who’s Sub­sti­tute. Nat­ty threads, swanky atti­tude, and above all a killer song from the band’s one true song­writer, gui­tarist Pete Town­shend. Town­shend wrote the song hav­ing being inspired by a line in Smokey Robinson’s Tracks of my Tears: “Although she may be cute, She’s just a sub­sti­tute”.

The song has a great bassline, amply sup­plied by John Ent­whis­tle and assist­ed on drums by ami­able loon Kei­th Moon, gui­tar chops cour­tesy of Town­shend and a suit­ably louche vocal from Roger Dal­trey. The lyrics are clev­er­ly wrought, though it’s no sur­prise that the line “I look all white but my dad was black” was altered for the more racial­ly sen­si­tive Amer­i­can mar­ket (to “I try walk­ing for­ward but my feet walk back”, which was pre­sum­ably thrown togeth­er at the last minute to cries of “yeah, that’ll do”).

What­ev­er, the fin­ished prod­uct is a great exam­ple of styl­ish mod sound from the orig­i­nal “cool Britannia”…enjoy!

You think we look pret­ty good togeth­er
You think my shoes are made of leather

But I’m a sub­sti­tute for anoth­er guy
I look pret­ty tall but my heels are high
The sim­ple things you see are all com­pli­cat­ed
I look pret­ty young, but I’m just back-dat­ed, yeah

Sub­sti­tute your lies for fact
I can see right through your plas­tic mac
I look all white, but my dad was black
My fine-look­ing suit is real­ly made out of sack

I was born with a plas­tic spoon in my mouth
The north side of my town faced east, and the east was fac­ing south
And now you dare to look me in the eye
Those croc­o­dile tears are what you cry
It’s a gen­uine prob­lem, you won’t try
To work it out at all you just pass it by, pass it by

Sub­sti­tute me for him
Sub­sti­tute my coke for gin
Sub­sti­tute you for my mum
At least I’ll get my wash­ing done

But I’m a sub­sti­tute for anoth­er guy
I look pret­ty tall but my heels are high
The sim­ple things you see are all com­pli­cat­ed
I look pret­ty young, but I’m just back­dat­ed, yeah

I was born with a plas­tic spoon in my mouth
The north side of my town faced east, and the east was fac­ing south
And now you dare to look me in the eye
Those croc­o­dile tears are what you cry
It’s a gen­uine prob­lem, you won’t try
To work it out at all you just pass it by, pass it by

Sub­sti­tute me for him
Sub­sti­tute my coke for gin
Sub­sti­tute you for my mum
At least I’ll get my wash­ing done

Sub­sti­tute your lies for fact
I can see right through your plas­tic mac
I look all white, but my dad was black
My fine-look­ing suit is real­ly made out of sack