I Feel Safe Hearing Them. I Feel Liberated.

"You will always remember your first love," a friend of mine once said to me. She was explaining what I all ready knew about my zodiac sign of Aquarius. I smiled when I heard that as a freshman. I never thought much of that after that day until yesterday. I was listening to Tommy, by the Who on my boyfriend's record player and I couldn't help but notice the smell of the emerging summer wafting through the wide open windows of my boyfriend's apartment.

That smell of fresh summer air always brings me back to the summer before seventh grade, when I didn't even know my boyfriend existed... when I for sure thought that I was going to marry Pete Townshend. I couldn't help but smile when Roger Daltrey then belted out "See Me, Feel Me," I could only remember the months I spent listening only to the Who. Everything else was obsolete back then. Nothing else mattered except Pete Townshend and his guitar, everything else was useless to me.

When I listen to the Who, I feel liberated. I feel like I am back to being twelve and wild and carefree. I still feel flutters when I listen to "Blue, Red, and Grey." I felt liberated that day too. I held onto the record cover as I snuggled with my boyfriend. He was ranting about how everyone teases him about saying Patti Smith was sexy. I rolled my eyes and said, "Excuse me, I agree that Patti Smith is sexy, but I think Tommy and his cure is more important." He made a face and said, "I swear you'll leave me for Pete Townshend." I laughed and started to sing along to the album. All I could remember was Pete's guitar.

I know this is useless, but the Who mean something to me. They always have. I have formed strange little friendships with old men (whom I think are total horndogs) because I love the Who. I had a Pete Townshend look-a-like for a boyfriend at one point. The Who was the first really important band that I obsessed over.They were my first love. They were my first soulder to cry on. They were the first band that thaught me to rebel and to defy expectations. They taught me to be myself, just as every other group has. Yet the Who constantly continue to make me smile. I can't help myself... I always go back to my first love.

...You always go back to your first love...