The Meaning Behind “I Can See for Miles” by The Who and the Jealousy that Inspired It

The Who had exactly one top 10 hit in America. It wasn’t “My Generation,” which peaked at No. 74 here in the States. “Substitute” and “I’m a Boy” both reached top five in England and ultimately failed to chart in the U.S. “Pictures of Lily,” No. 4 in the UK, peaked at No. 51 here. 

The one big success? “I Can See for Miles,” which soared all the way to No. 9 in 1967. All of this to say, you can’t go by the charts alone. Let’s examine the meaning behind “I Can See for Miles” by The Who.

I know you’ve deceived me, now here’s a surprise

“Paranoid, Unhinged Thinking”

I know that you have ’cause there’s magic in my eyes. Pete Townshend wrote those sinister words from a place of jealousy. 

He shared the story in his 2012 memoir Who I Am, “On one of The Who’s many trips away, I began imagining that my fabulous new girlfriend Karen was deceiving me.”

Drummer Keith Moon’s wife had once been followed to her home by singer Rod Stewart, and it made Townshend’s mind race. “It was this kind of paranoid, unhinged thinking that spurred me to write ‘I Can See for Miles,’ one of my best songs from this period,” he said.

I can see for miles and miles
And miles and miles and miles
Oh, yeah

“The new swinging Sixties ethos—free love, girls on the pill, and everyone in our new London crowd behaving as though they were suddenly beautiful—played directly into my intense fear of being abandoned by Karen,” Townshend continued. “One day, I returned late after a gig to find a man talking to Karen in her bedroom. There was an air of intimacy between them, and she looked especially pretty and flushed. After I shooed him out, I felt jealous and old-fashioned: Everyone else was sharing their partner with whomever they fancied.

“One night, I listened again to the demo of ‘I Can See for Miles.’ There wasn’t much more I could do to improve on it,” he related. “I was ashamed of the jealousy that had inspired it, but I regarded the song as a secret weapon. When it was recorded properly and released as a Who single, I believed we would flatten all opposition.”

If you think that I don’t know about the little tricks you’ve played
And never see you when deliberately you put things in my way
Well, here’s a poke at you
You’re gonna choke on it too
You’re gonna lose that smile
Because all the while

Shockingly Slow Start

The slow start in record sales surprised Townshend, who wrote, “I Can See for Miles’ wasn’t shooting up the charts as a single, which was a shock to me; I really had expected my masterwork to sweep us to eternal glory.”

I can see for miles and miles
I can see for miles and miles
I can see for miles and miles
And miles and miles and miles
Oh, yeah

“I don’t know if you know the story about Kit Lambert, who was our manager and my songwriting and composing mentor back then,” Townshend told Rolling Stone in 2021. “His godfather was William Walton, the English classical composer. And when he heard “I Can See for Miles,” he wrote Kit a letter thinking that Kit had written the song, of course, because he didn’t think any of us goons could have done anything like that, praising him for the adventurous harmonies.

“Kit graciously shared that letter with me and I went off to tool up on William Walton,” he continued. “I don’t know. Maybe I just got carried away with how clever I thought I was. I was disappointed. It wasn’t just disappointed that we didn’t get a hit. It was that I was worried that I couldn’t do any better.”

“Ace in The Hole”

You took advantage of my trust in you when I was so far away
I saw you holding lots of other guys, and now you’ve got the nerve to say

Townshend was certainly more than a goon when it came to composition. He had penned “I Can See for Miles” in 1966 but held it back as an “ace in the hole,” thinking it would surely define The Who’s legacy. When it failed to be the dominant smash hit, he looked at it as his own failure as a composer. 

That you still want me
Well, that’s as may be
But you gotta stand trial
Because all the while
I can see for miles and miles

The Who were being described as the “loudest band on earth.” It was becoming part of their identity. The song inspired Paul McCartney to come up with “Helter Skelter.” He wrote about it in his 2023 book The Lyrics: 1956 to The Present: “Pete Townshend had been talking in the music press about how The Who had just recorded the loudest, the dirtiest, the rockiest thing ever. I loved that description, so I came into the studio and said to the guys, ‘Let’s just see how loud we can get and how raucous. Let’s try to make the meters peak.’”

The Eiffel Tower and the Taj Mahal are mine to see on clear days
You thought that I would need a crystal ball to see right through the haze

Even though he talks of seeing landmarks in faraway countries, I don’t take the song to be about literally being able to spy on someone from a different land. I see it as a warning to be able to see through a person’s actions and understand their motives. The song asserts warnings, but not of physical violence. It’s all about karma.

Well, here’s a poke at you
You’re gonna choke on it too
You’re gonna lose that smile
Because all the while
I can see for miles and miles

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Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images