The Who are often seen as a quintessential 1960s band, but the ’70s were when they really came into their prime.

Sure, they would never have been able to reach that point if it weren’t for the mod celebration that was ‘My Generation’, but by the time that ’71 had rolled around, the landscape had changed entirely: Rock and roll had come to mean something far more than just strumming a guitar and claiming you were the biggest band in the world.

It had to come from some sort of higher power. Of course, spirituality in this area of music was nothing particularly new, as it had been tapped into time and time before by everyone from The Beatles to The Rolling Stones. But in the world of The Who, the turn of the decade meant not just a clean slate, but a whole new outlook on life.

Tommy was obviously the beginning of that novel foray, because nothing says reinvention like a rock opera, but the trouble was, until that point, The Who were a band on the rise. That record then turned them into bona fide superstars, and the train seemed to speed away from them at a faster pace than they would have ever expected.

It was an idea that Pete Townshend struggled to wrap his head around in particular, as the pillars of his spiritual life dictated that wealth and material possession should be at the antithesis of one’s happiness. Suddenly, a guy raking in millions didn’t exactly fit in with that mantra; he felt he was letting Meher Baba down.

And so, perhaps partly in an act of seeking repentance, he set about creating Lifehouse, the rock opera follow-up to Tommy, that would admit the error of his capitalistically sinful ways. It goes without saying that the elephant in the room was that it was only going to dig him deeper into the hole he had dug.

The rest of the band were never exactly on board with the further indulgence of Lifehouse, though, so when the project was eventually shelved, it left some loose threads hanging. One of those was the song ‘Let’s See Action’, the pinnacle of what Townshend felt was the manifestation of his spirit vision in front of his very eyes, in the form of the band’s adoring crowd.

John Entwistle said it was Townshend “trying to talk to the kids in general”, but given how much he relied on the guidance of Meher Baba for any sort of power or comfort in his life at the time, you could say that this was only one side of the coin. Yes, the songwriter was trying to get the masses to join his spiritual journey, but was he also making a wider point?

It was no secret how uncomfortable The Who’s newfound level of fame made him, in terms of what should have been the more reflective and meditative aspects of his life. His spirituality was meant to be the calm against the chaos, but when even that couldn’t work anymore, it felt like he turned to sheer pleading. ‘Let’s See Action’ was not just a call to arms, but a desperate prayer, a plea to be forgiven.