Unusual guitar tunings can inspire some great songs. It was certainly the case with The English Beat's "Save it for Later" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bM0wVjU2-k) which was written as a result of the singer Dave Wakeling's experiments with the concept. Open tuning is a better name for it, actually, and it's been integral to the sound of artists as various as the Rolling Stones, Nick Drake and the Velvet Underground. One reason for it leading to creativity is that it can turn the guitar into a stranger, technically speaking, because the notes on some of the strings have changed places. Therefore the guitarist has almost no choice but to be creative, because all of his or her stock phrases, voicings, licks, and so forth are no longer accessible. (I remember hearing one guitarist say that a big danger for those who play the instrument is that by constantly going back to familiar places, "the guitar can end up playing you".) Another related idea is the fact that some writers compose using an instrument with which they're relatively unfamiliar to avoid the cliches that are the inevitable result of learning music. Perhaps cliches is too strong a term, maybe vocabulary is better, because I don't want to sound like I'm denigrating memorized patterns - serious playing is impossible without them, but for the purpose of writing, they can be, and usually are, counter-productive.

Back to the tune in question. I think it's safe to say that you'd know you'd written a good song when Pete Townshend wants to cover it, which was the case here, but apparently he had to phone Dave Wakeling to get help with the tuning first. (It's D-A-D-A-A-D, by the way.)

In the summer of 1968, The Who were touring America for the second time that year. For one thing, they needed the money - they hadn't really had a hit recording in the U.S. to that point, despite releasing The Who Sell Out in 1967, which is now considered a classic. After one of the shows on that tour, at San Francisco's Fillmore West, Pete Townshend gave a fascinating interview to Rolling Stone magazine wherein he discussed everything from the instrument-smashing ("It doesn't get to be a drag to talk about it. Sometimes it gets to be a drag to do it..."), to the fact that a lot of his songwriting was done on airplanes. And it is interesting to note that the best songs on Sell Out feature aerial imagery: "I Can't Reach You", "Our Love Was", "Sunrise", and "I Can See for Miles", and that they are meant to contrast with the advertisements, jingles and mundane concerns of commerce and daily life that are so brilliantly parodied on the rest of the album. He was obviously looking for some kind of transcendence in the clouds.
Something else is happening, as well - certain themes, both musical and lyrical, point to what was to be their next record: "We've been talking about doing an opera... called Deaf, Dumb and Blind Boy," said Townshend, and he goes on to talk about it in great detail. It's one of the few interviews I've ever read where an artist discusses a work-in-progress without reservation. As I mentioned earlier, it's fascinating, and I wish more artists would do it. Maybe it's superstition or something. Anyway, the album he was talking about turned out OK; as a matter of fact it's one of the greatest works of art that rock and roll has ever produced. I'll be writing about it tomorrow.