Eminence Front

"Eminence" is high power or fame, so an "Eminence Front" is the illusion of such, as Pete Townshend indicates with the line, "It's a put-on." He said the song is about "the absurdity of drug-fueled grandiosity," possibly related to the Ativan detox program he went through shortly before writing the song. "Whether I was pointing the finger at myself or at the cocaine dealers of Miami Beach is hard to recall."

Townshend created the distinctive keyboard sound using a Yamaha E70 organ with the Auto Arpeggio setting turned on. He used the same effect on "You Better You Bet."

This song criticizes the excess of the wealthy, including stockbrokers who work with other people's money("shares crash, hopes are dashed"). It foreshadowed how the 1980s progressed, becoming known as "The 'Me' Decade" or "The Decade of Greed."