A Legal Matter

A Legal Matter, Pete Townsend, The Who

Part of their debut album, My Generation. The title track and It's A Legal Matter both made the hit-parade charts. It was recorded on October 12, 1965.

The subject is often thought to have been the lead singer of the Who, Roger Daltrey, who was going through a divorce though only a teenager at the time (19). Maybe for this reason, the song was sung by Pete Townsend instead of Daltrey.

Daltrey has fathered five children from three different women. He married Jacqueline Rickman in 1964 and finalized his divorce in 1968. Still, during that first marriage, he had a child out of wedlock with Swedish model Elisabeth Aronsson (1967).

The song is an anthem of paternal irresponsibility. The reference to baby trousers makes it clear that there is a baby in the crib or on the horizon and yet, still, this loser of whom Townsend complains of child support ("... just to bring my money back to you...") even while he trumpets "I gain and lose my women fast". The whine sounds like the deadbeat's refrain heard too often in family court to which, in ordering fair and just support, the judge gets to whistle back "it's a legal matter, baby!"

I told you why I changed my mind
I got bored by playing with time
I know you thought you had me nailed
But I've freed my head from your garden rails

Now it's a legal matter, baby
You got me on the run
It's a legal matter, baby
A legal matter from now on

My mind's lost in a household fog
Wedding gowns and catalogs
Kitchen furnishings and houses
Maternity clothes and baby's trousers

Now it's a legal matter, baby
Marryin's no fun
It's a legal matter, baby
A legal matter from now on

You ain't the first and you ain't the last
I gain and lose my women fast
I never want to make them cry
I just get bored, don't ask me why

Just wanna keep doing all the dirty little things I do
And not work all day in an office just to bring my money back to you
Sorry, baby

REFERENCES:

• Daltrey, Roger, biography at imdb.com
• Duhaime, Lloyd, Poetic Justice • Law Poems