This was The Who's first single released after their very successful Rock Opera Tommy. The song summed up Pete Townshend's dilemma at the time: how to handle the success that came from Tommy and stay true to the spiritual journey he had been following during the year he wrote and produced the Rock Opera.
Pete Townshend wrote part of the song in a swamp in Florida, drunk out of his mind. The swamp was covered in cockleburs that attached themselves to his hair and clothes, and stumbling along filled with frustration and pain he came up with "I'm looking for me, you're looking for you, we're looking at each other and we don't know what to do." Later on he denounced the song as not being one of his favourites, and said that "It sounded great in the mosquito-ridden swamp I made it up in - Florida at three in the morning, drunk out of my mind. But that's where the trouble always starts, in the swamp."
Roger Daltrey was not a fan of the song. He admitted to Uncut magazine: "I was never ever fond of 'The Seeker.' To sing that song, to me, was like trying to push an elephant up the stairs. I found it cumbersome, the first song we'd ever done where I thought, 'Nah, this is pretentious.'"
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