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The Who rocker Pete Townshend has issued a statement stating he is a fan of One Direction after a review of the boyband's generously-named single 'Best Song Ever' stated it had plagiarised The Who classic 'Baba O'Riley'.
The review was posted on Click Music and has somewhat predictably resulted in a disportionately intense backlash against the singer from Directioners the world over on Twitter.
Using the microblogging site, One Direction fans been venting their overenthusiastic teen angst at the rumour that 'Best Song Ever' would be removed from the internet. Using the hashtag '#donttouchbestsongever' fans have bestowed the Twitter realms with golden nuggets of insanity such as:
who the actual f*** is The Who?! #DontTouchBestSongEver (or i will slap u silly/have u unable to have babies in da future,The Who)
— Allison Payne (@Allison_Payne27) August 16, 2013
#DontTouchBestSongEver IF YOU DELETE BSE I WILL DELETE YOU FROM THIS WORLD
— Ami (@harryspudding) August 14, 2013
Amid such arguably ridiculous backlash, poor unsuspecting Pete Townshend has issued the following statement to try and calm the Directioners down:
"No! I like the single. I like One Direction. The chords I used and the chords they used are the same three chords we've all been using in basic pop music since Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and Chuck Berry made it clear that fancy chords don't mean great music – not always. I'm still writing songs that sound like 'Baba O'Riley' – or I'm trying to!
It's a part of my life and a part of pop's lineage. One Direction are in my business, with a million fans, and I'm happy to think they may have been influenced a little bit by The Who. I'm just relieved they're all not wearing boiler suits and Doc Martens, or Union Jack jackets. The funniest thing is that in Canada this year I met with Randy Bachman, once the leader of The Guess Who, who told me that he not only copied 'Baba O'Riley' for [Bachman-Turner Overdrive's] hit 'You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet', but he even called his band after us. Why would I not be happy about this kind of tribute?"
Have a listen to both tracks below and see if you can hear any similiarities:
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