Psychedelic Lunch

Welcome to our “Psychedelic Lunch” series, “Spooktober Edition” where we find out how deep the rabbit hole really goes and explore music from the 60’s to today. Weekdays At Noon EST. Enjoy the trip!

The Who, ‘Boris the Spider’

John Entwistle’s demented genius fueled a number of the Who’s most offbeat early tracks, including this — a creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly ode to a spider named Boris ofc the album A Quick One 1966. The dark, descending bass line makes it sound like horror-movie soundtrack fare, and Entwistle’s voice on the chorus is particularly creepy. By the final verse, he’s gone from merely observing the spider to fearing the spider to beating the spider to death with a book. As the late, great bassist puts it, “He’s come to a sticky end.”

Entwistle was afraid of spiders as a kid. He wrote this about seeing a spider crawling from the ceiling and squishing it. Entwistle wrote this as a joke, but it became a concert favorite. After he wrote this, Entwistle started wearing a spider medallion at concerts. It is a fun song that offset many of the more serious Who songs.

This was the only song from the album that they continued to play live.