MARCH/APRIL 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM

BEHIND THE CLASSICS

7878

IN 1967, WHO GUITARIST AND PRINCIPAL

songwriter Pete Townshend was looking for

answers. Like many artists, he had discovered

that actually achieving the fortune and fame

he had sought did not fill the spiritual void in

his life. “I was bitter, cynical and angry most

of the time,” he once recalled of this period.

“But most of all I was really very stupid.”

He sought answers in psychedelic drugs

before friend Mike McInnerney suggested he

read the teachings of an Indian guru named

Meher Baba. Unlike many of the spiritual

guides pop stars seem drawn to, Baba

asked his followers for no money and

welcomed adherents from all faiths. He

taught simple values of love and compassion.

“Baba only asked people for their love,

not their possessions or even their lives,”

Townshend wrote in 1970, the year after

Baba died (or “dropped His body,” as his

followers prefer).

As the ’70s dawned, Townshend was

also cooking up Lifehouse, a projected

concept album and film about an imaginary

future in which many people spend their lives

inside a virtual “grid” that keeps them happy

and pliant. Among those who resist this

comfortable conformity is a farmer named

Ray, who travels south to London with his

wife, Sally, to find their runaway daughter and

take part in a subversive musical experiment

in an abandoned theater. Townshend wrote

of their journey in “Teenage Wasteland,” a

song he intended to open Lifehouse.

At around the same time, he was at

work on another piece of music heavily

influenced by American Minimalist composer

Terry Riley (in particular his piece “A Rainbow

in Curved Air”). Townshend at first had the

notion of inputting numerical biographical

information about Meher Baba into the

modular ARP 2500 synthesizer with which

he had been writing—giving him, as it were,

Baba in the manner of Riley. He eventually

played the part on a Lowrey TBO-1 home

organ on the “marimba repeat” setting (and

a wah-wah-style preset called “Wow-Wow”),

constructing a 13-minute demo he cheekily

dubbed “Baba O’Riley.” Eventually he grafted

the lyrics of “Teenage Wasteland” onto the

main body of this track, which nonetheless

retained its original title.

When it became clear that all the

facets of the ambitious multimedia Lifehouse

project weren’t going to come together,

Townshend and his bandmates elected to

at least record the songs that had been

written for it. The Who set up shop with

co-producer Glyn Johns, first at Stargroves

(Mick Jagger’s Berkshire home) and then at

Olympic Studios in London. The sessions

produced enough material for a double

album, but Johns convinced them they’d be

better off slimming it down to a hard-hitting

single record.

Kicking off that album, now dubbed

Who’s Next, was the audacious “Baba

O’Riley.” Beginning with a full 30 seconds of

what seemed to be synthesized bleeps and

bloops (really the Lowrey organ, transferred

directly from Townshend’s demo), the track

proceeded through thunderous power chords.

Daltrey howled a lyric that once carried a

specific piece of plot—Ray’s journey to

London, “south ’cross land”—but now spoke

more abstractly of optimism in the face of

disillusionment. “Baba O’Riley” came to a

climax with a skittering solo from violinist Dave

Arbus of the English progressive rock band

East of Eden, added at Moon’s suggestion.

Meher Baba has remained a spiritual

guidepost for Townshend. “I have been

through periods of intense engagement

and immense doubt,” he said in 2007.

“At the moment I am uncertain what

I feel, but my faith in Meher Baba as

a genuinely gifted teacher full of

extraordinary insight is capable of surviving

some uncertainty.”

— Chris Neal

“Baba O’Riley”THE WHO

Written by: Pete townshend

recorded at: olymPic studios,

london, may 1971

Produced by: the who

associate Producer: Glyn Johns

Violin solo Produced by: Keith moon

Vocals: RoGeR daltRey

Guitar, orGan, Piano, Vocals:

Pete townshend

bass: John entwistle

drums: Keith moon

daVe arbus: Violin

First released on: who’s next (1971)

BEHIND THE CLASSICS

Keith Moon, Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle

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