"Well, for the My Generation album, there was nothing to be nervous about in them days. We used to take every day as it came. Every day was just a gig and I think we did the recording between gigs literally"

Roger Daltrey’s recollection about working on The Who’s "My Generation" album offers a window into the mindset and realities of a young band in the 1960s, living moment to moment as their career unfolded. The absence of nervousness he describes is telling, suggesting a raw openness and spontaneity to their work, rather than anxiety over outcomes or reception. Daltrey’s description indicates that, at the time, the band approached music and recording with a sense of routine and immediacy, each day was treated as simply the next challenge, neither burdened by expectation nor paralyzed by self-consciousness.

This attitude reflects the era’s spirit, when rock bands were navigating uncharted territory and the pressure of legacy or extensive commercial stakes hadn’t fully taken hold. "Every day was just a gig", he says, underlining the relentless pace of live performances that characterized musicians’ lives. Concerts were the norm, and studio recording had to be squeezed into whatever gaps the schedule allowed. That the tracks for "My Generation" were laid down between live performances isn’t just a logistical detail; it speaks to the album’s urgent, kinetic energy, music shaped by a band constantly on the move, drawing directly from the adrenaline of the stage.

Rather than being meticulously plotted, the creative process was fluid and lived-in, forged in the heat of daily experience. The casual tone conveys a pioneering innocence, a lack of jadedness that may be rare in today’s highly scrutinized music industry. Daltrey’s words capture a time before image, career longevity, or critical interpretation became foreground concerns, allowing music to be a direct extension of life and work, not an isolated, anxiety-filled project. Their youthful approach, embracing each day, recording between gigs, infuses "My Generation" with authenticity and immediacy, qualities which remain striking decades later.