Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere

Written by: Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend
Recorded: July 1973
Producers: Ken Scott, David Bowie
Engineer: Dennis MacKay

Released: 19 October 1973

Available on:
Pin Ups

Personnel

David Bowie: vocals
Mick Ronson: guitar, vocals
Trevor Bolder: bass guitar
Mike Garson: piano
Aynsley Dunbar: drums
Geoff MacCormack: backing vocals

Released by the Who as their second single in 1965, ‘Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere’ was covered by David Bowie for his 1973 album Pin Ups.

The song was the only one co-written by guitarist Pete Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey. Townshend’s feedback-laden guitar solo was particularly influential, predating the Yardbirds’ ‘Shapes Of Things’ by six months.

It was the second Who song recorded for Pin Ups, after ‘I Can’t Explain’. ‘Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere’ was the more successful of the pair, and included some ferocious Keith Moon-esque drumming from Aynsley Dunbar, and a stop-start ending from Mick Ronson that recalled ‘John, I’m Only Dancing’.

The lyrics’ proclamation of freedom was a fitting manifesto for Bowie in the Seventies. In his vocals, meanwhile, there were hints of the soulful excursions to come in Diamond Dogs and Young Americans. Almost all of Bowie’s albums contained a song which acted as a stepping stone to his next move, and this was Pin Ups’.

During Bowie’s performance at the Bridge School benefit concert on 19 October 1996, he sang the opening line of ‘Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere’. Townshend had performed his own set earlier that evening at the show.

This is one I wrote a long, long time ago.

“I can go anywhere…”

Oh, I’ve got Pete Townshend’s songbook here, sorry. Could have been mine. He was good, weren’t he?

You don’t know what a big influence Pete and the boys were on us next generation acts. We just idolised that guy. I even got a jacket made like his. It took me thirty years, but I eventually got one made just like his.

Townshend performed on ‘Because You’re Young’ on Scary Monsters, and on the Heathen song ‘Slow Burn’. Bowie also recorded the Who’s ‘Pictures Of Lily’ during the Toy sessions in October 2000.

Lyrics

I can go anyway (way I choose)
I can live anyhow (win or lose)
I can go anywhere (for something new)
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere I choose

Do anything (right or wrong)
I can talk anyhow (and get along)
I don’t care anyway (I never lose)
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere I choose

Nothing gets in my way
Not even locked doors
Don’t follow the lines that been laid before
I get along anyway I care
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere

I can go anyway (way I choose)
I can live anyhow (win or lose)
I can go anywhere (for something new)
Anyway, anyhow, anywhere I choose

(oh oh oh) Anyway,(oh oh oh) anyway I choose
(oh oh oh) I wanna go
(oh oh oh) Do it myself, do it myself,(oh oh oh) do it myself, do it myself
Anyway, (oh oh oh) anyway I choose