Full transcript
0:00A man who resisted the temptation to
0:02cheat on his wife with a fan wrote a
0:04song about it , and it became a
0:06worldwide hit . Millennials think this
0:09is a 2000s hit , but baby boomers and
0:12Gen Xers know this song was already
0:14popular in the 70s . And every
0:16generation thinks it was born from a
0:19deep , profound feeling , when in reality
0:22, it was just a guy talking about how
0:24hard it was not to cheat on his wife .
0:27The guy who wrote this song was at the
0:29height of his success and had been
0:30married for two years . He played in a
0:33band that caused terror , hooked up with
0:35girls , and trashed hotel rooms , but he
0:37was a different kind of guy . First ,
0:40because he grew up insecure about his
0:42appearance , despite his blue eyes . He
0:45was bullied a lot as a child because of
0:47his big nose . He ended up marrying very
0:50young and had a child at 23 as well .
0:52The other reason he was different from
0:54the rest of the band was religion . He
0:56became a follower of Meher Baba , an
0:59Indian spiritual master who taught that
1:01alcohol , casual sex , and drugs were
1:04distractions on the spiritual path . So
1:06he was living this more " zen " phase of
1:08his life , even though deep down he knew
1:10he was no saint . Then , on June 9 , 1970 ,
1:14after one of their concerts , he stepped
1:16off stage and a fan appeared in the
1:18dressing room devouring him with her
1:20eyes . This woman was persistent and
1:23wanted to make him fall into temptation
1:25no matter what . She cornered him from
1:27every side ; he tried to escape , but the
1:29pressure was so intense that he decided
1:30he was going to cheat on his wife that
1:32day . But just as things started to
1:35escalate , Meher Baba whispered in his
1:37ear , he came to his senses , escaped
1:38from the woman , and ran to his hotel
1:40room alone . When he got to his room , he
1:43decided to write a prayer to Meher Baba
1:45. He was conscious that he wasn't this
1:47" good guy . " Maybe he was actually a bad
1:49guy trapped inside the body of a good
1:51guy trying to hold it all together .
1:54That’s when he started putting that
1:56prayer on paper , asking for help to
1:58resist temptations . Pete Townshend ,
2:11guitarist for the legendary English
2:13band The Who , said he wrote this song
2:15to show how lonely it is to be powerful
2:17. 32 years after The Who recorded it ,
2:30the American band Limp Bizkit covered
2:33it and ended up having more success
2:35than them . What is your generation and
2:37which version of this song have you
2:38heard the most ? Behind Blue Eyes .