According to the 1985 Pete Townshend "My Generation" radio special, the song came out different than intended when Roger Daltrey sang it. Townshend said the song became a prayer from a destitute man. The man is on the street, looking up to the sky and asking God, "Who are you?"
I know there's a place you walked
Where love falls from the trees
My heart is like a broken cup
I only feel right on my knees
I spit out like a sewer hole
Yet still recieve your kiss
How can I measure up
to anyone now
After such a love as this?
Well, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
Tell me, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)'
Cause I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
I know there's a place you walked
Where love falls from the trees
My heart is like a broken cup
I only feel right on my knees
I spit out like a sewer hole
Yet still recieve your kiss
How can I measure up
to anyone now
After such a love as this?
Well, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
Tell me, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)'
Cause I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
A prayer from a destitute man asking God "Who are you" Such a cry if we are honest comes from all of us from time to time, especially in the dark tortured moments of life. In those dark time a few of the bravest of people can say "I have come to know God" You can understand what is being said but who among us really can lay claim to know God fully.
This is a deep subdued cry in the human heart to know the creator of the universe and at the same time to truly know who you are as well. To seek for something out side of ourselves that is more powerful, more awesome, more wonderful than we have experienced up till know. It's like an experience of looking in the mirror and discovering who you really are and also discovering that you are coming face to face with a power that is greater than you.
There are some of those God seekers in the old book that come face to face with something greater than themselves and also come face to face with their own dark destitute identity.
There are some of those God seekers in the old book that come face to face with something greater than themselves and also come face to face with their own dark destitute identity.
Paul in Romans 7:24 comes to the same conclusion. He was a destitute man who was seeing himself and his life in the mirror.
"What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?"
"What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?"
Isaiah another destitute man comes to a conclusion like Paul in Isaiah chapter
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
Both of these destitute men were seeking something outside of themselves and in the process came face to face with who they were.
To know God and to know who you really are is the deepest prayer that can be engaged with. In the lyrics of "Who are you" the line "My heart is like a broken cup, I only feel right on my knees" Brings us to the place of humble recognition. Oh that we could all get to that point.
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
Both of these destitute men were seeking something outside of themselves and in the process came face to face with who they were.
To know God and to know who you really are is the deepest prayer that can be engaged with. In the lyrics of "Who are you" the line "My heart is like a broken cup, I only feel right on my knees" Brings us to the place of humble recognition. Oh that we could all get to that point.
