When the English band The Who had their first hit single with My Generation in 1965, Max Ernst and his wife Dorothea Tanning had recently moved from Paris to the south of France. It is unlikely that the celebrated Ernst paid attention to the single that heralded a new and riotous generation, or was even aware of its existence at the time.
On the other hand, Pete Townshend, who wrote My Generation, must have been aware of the existence of Max Ernst and his works, as he attended art school before joining the band. Through Townshend and his art school friend John Entwistle The Who underwent various influences from artists. For instance, Townhend claims that Gustav Metzger's theories and practice of auto-destructive art inspired him to destroy his guitar during live performances.
My Generation reflects the Mod outlook on life. According to some the stuttering that Townshend added to the lyrics of the song is a reference to the symptoms of an amphetamine overdose, not uncommon among Mods. Townshend himself, however, claims he added the stuttering almost unaware of what he was doing: it just happened by chance. Max Ernst would have appreciated that as a surrealist technique or a Freudian lapse in which the subconscious comes into play.
On the track Degeneration Townshend's conscious or unconscious subversion of his own lyrics has been applied to Max Ernst's account of the revolutionary nature of his work.
Degeneration
(Pete Townshend & Max Ernst)
Er... I was born, or where I was born,
With a very strong (cough) f...feeling of, er... need of f...freedom, er... liberty
And that means also with a very s...strong feeling of (cough) revolt
Er... the... revolt and revolution is not the same thing, and so on
But when you have this really strong er... feeling of er...
This need of revolt, need of f...freedom
Er... and you er... are born into a period (cough)
Where s...so many er... er... events invite you to g...get revolted
And (...) what is going on in the world
And be disg...gusted with it (cough), and so on (cough)
Er... it is absolutely na...natural that (...)
The work you produce is a revolutionary work.
On the recording Max Ernst is talking to Roland Penrose in the 1960s. Roger Daltrey's stutters were isolated from The Who's My Generation (1965).
