The Who — Lyric Analysis

LyricScope analyzed the lyrics of 158 songs across 12 albums by The Who. They use 3,372 unique words out of 15,599 (lexical richness MATTR 0.68), with an average of 99 content words per song. Emotional tone: 54% of songs positive, 3% neutral, 43% negative.

Most used words by The Who

1. know (212)
2. love (178)
3. see (171)
4. one (163)
5. say (112)
6. man (102)
7. want (96)
8. better (87)
9. feel (85)
10. run (81)
11. time (80)
12. right (80)
13. take (79)
14. let (78)
15. back (73)
16. old (71)
17. enough (70)
18. come (69)
19. long (67)
20. day (67)

Signature phrases

• “beads one string” (28)
• “talkin bout generation” (26)
• “cry want cry” (25)
• “want cry want” (25)
• “magic bus” (23)
• “better better bet” (17)
• “let coat let” (17)
• “see miles miles” (17)
• “eminence front” (17)
• “one time” (17)

Colors in the lyrics

• blue (14)
• black (10)
• white (7)
• purple (6)
• red (6)
• grey (5)
• brown (3)
• silver (3)

Albums analyzed

• My Generation (1965)
• A Quick One (1966)
• The Who Sell Out (1967)
• Tommy (1969)
• Who’s Next (1971)
• Quadrophenia (1973)
• The Who by Numbers (1975)
• Who Are You (1978)
• Face Dances (1981)
• It’s Hard (1982)
• Endless Wire (2006)
• WHO (2019)

Artists with lyrics similar to The Who

• David Bowie
• Elton John
• Deep Purple
• The Rolling Stones
• Queen
• Foo Fighters
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• The Killers