"Baba O'Riley" is a song by the English rock band The Who, written by guitarist and principal songwriter Pete Townshend. It is the opening track to the Who's fifth studio album, Who's Next (1971). In Europe, it was released as a single in October 1971, coupled with "My Wife". Performances of "Baba O'Riley" appear on several Who live albums.
Townshend wrote "Baba O'Riley" for his Lifehouse project, a rock opera intended as the followup to the Who's 1969 opera Tommy. In Lifehouse, a Scottish farmer named Ray would have sung the song at the beginning as he gathered his wife Sally and his two children to begin their exodus to London. When Lifehouse was scrapped, eight of the songs were salvaged and recorded for the Who's fifth studio album Who's Next (1971), with "Baba O'Riley" as the lead-off track.[citation needed] The song title refers to two of Townshend's major inspirations at the time: Indian spiritual master Meher Baba and American minimalist composer Terry Riley.[4]
According to Townshend, at the end of the band's gig at the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival, the field was covered in rubbish left by fans, which inspired the line "teenage wasteland".[5] In another interview, Townshend said the song was also inspired by "the absolute desolation of teenagers at Woodstock, where audience members were strung out on acid and 20 people had brain damage. The irony was that some listeners took the song to be a teenage celebration: 'Teenage Wasteland, yes! We're all wasted!'"[6]
The repeating set of notes (ostinato) in "Baba O'Riley" that opens and underlies the song was derived from the Lifehouse concept, where Townshend wanted to input the vital signs and personality of Meher Baba into a synthesiser, which would then generate music based on that data. When this idea fell through, Townshend instead recorded a Lowrey Berkshire Deluxe TBO-1 organ using its marimba repeat feature to generate them.[7] This modal approach was inspired by the work of minimalist composer Terry Riley.[citation needed]
The song was derived from a nine-minute demo, which the band reconstructed.[2] "Baba O'Riley" was initially 30 minutes in length, but was edited down to the "high points" of the track for Who's Next.[8] The other parts of the song appeared on the third disc of Townshend's Lifehouse Chronicles as "Baba M1 (O'Riley 1st Movement 1971)" and "Baba M2 (2nd Movement Part 1 1971)". Dave Arbus, whose band East of Eden was recording in the same studio, was invited by Keith Moon to play the violin solo during the outro. In most live performances, this part is played instead by Daltrey on harmonica.[citation needed]
Release
"Baba O'Riley" was released in November 1971 as a single in several European countries. However, in the United Kingdom and the United States, it was released only as part of the album Who's Next. The song became one of the band's most popular songs, as well as a popular staple of AOR radio, and remains on the classic rock radio canon.
Critical reception and legacy
The Who performing "Baba O'Riley" live at Manchester Arena in 2014. Roger Daltrey, left, is playing harmonica during the song's climactic outro. Pete Townshend, right, is playing guitar.
"Baba O'Riley" appears at No. 159 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[9] The song is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.[10] The band Pearl Jam regularly plays a cover of the song during concerts, and a readers' poll in Rolling Stone awarded this cover as #8 in their "Greatest Live Cover Songs".[11] In 2012, Paste ranked the song number two on their list of the 20 greatest Who songs,[12] and in 2022, Rolling Stone ranked the song number six on their list of the 50 greatest Who songs.[13]
The song's "Teenage Wasteland" line displayed electronically at a Who concert in 2015.
"Baba O'Riley" was used as the theme song for the popular television series CSI: NY (2004–2013); with each CSI series using a Who song as its theme.[14] The song was also used in the One Tree Hill episode "Pictures of You" (season 4, episode 13). The live version of the song from the album Who's Last (1984) plays in the opening segment of the Miami Vice episode "Out Where the Buses Don't Run" (season two, 1985).[15] One of the working titles of That '70s Show (1998–2006) was "Teenage Wasteland", a reference to the repeated lyric in the song.[16] The song was also used in the trailers for the films A Bug's Life (1998), American Beauty (1999), Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), Jobs (2013), The Peanuts Movie (2015),[17]Free Guy (2021) and season 3 of Stranger Things.[18] "Baba O'Riley" was included in the soundtrack for the 1997 film Prefontaine and the 1999 film Summer of Sam. The song was used in the 10th episode of the 2010 Fox show The Good Guys.[19] The song was featured heavily in the 2004 romantic comedy film The Girl Next Door, and was also used in the beginning of, and the end credits of, the 2012 movie Premium Rush. The song has also been used in episode 14 of season one in the TV series House and in episode 10 of season one in the TV series The Newsroom. It was also used in episode one of the UK version of Life on Mars. A remixed version of this song, re-done by Alan Wilkis, appears in the 2012 remake of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, as well as the Family Guyseason 13 episode "Quagmire's Mom", the third Robot Chicken: Star Wars special and episode 11 of season one of Superstore. The song is featured in an episode of Joe Pera Talks with You, "Joe Pera Reads You the Church Announcements", in which Pera is unable to contain his excitement after hearing the song for the first time in his life. The song is also sung in the first season Sense8 episode "W. W. N. Double D?" by Riley's dad at the airport.[20]
In October 2001, the Who gave a much lauded performance of the song at the Concert for New York City.[21] Since 2003, "Baba O'Riley" has been played during player introductions for the Los Angeles Lakers during home games at the Staples Center.[22] The song is played before live UFC events during a highlight package showing some of the most famous fights in the mixed martial arts company's history.[23] The song was used for the trailer of the EA Sports UFC 4 game. It is also the official theme song of competitive eater Joey Chestnut.[24]
At both the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics, the 120 BPM dance track "The Road Goes on Forever" by the Welsh electronic music producer High Contrast, which samples "Baba O'Riley", is used during the countdown at the start of the proceedings.[25] "Baba O'Riley" was then performed by the Who as their first number during the last musical segment at the closing ceremony, with Roger Daltrey singing a changed lyric of "Don't cry/Just raise your eye/There's more than teenage wasteland".[26] "Baba O'Riley" is also used as the pregame music at Sanford Stadium and is played right before kickoff at every University of Georgia home football game. In addition, the Boston College Marching Band have featured a rendition of the song at football and hockey games. It is also played at halftime of most New England Patriots home games, leading up to the second-half kickoff. It is also the entrance music for the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden for every Rangers home playoff game.
In the course of a debate on Twitter, it was noted that "Best Song Ever" (2013) by One Direction bore a strong resemblance to the basic structure of "Baba O'Riley". Pete Townshend responded to the claims by denying that the Who were pursuing legal action, and stated that he was a fan of One Direction's single and was happy that One Direction appeared to have been influenced by the Who, just as he had been influenced by earlier musicians such as Eddie Cochran.[27]
Personnel
The Who
Roger Daltrey – lead vocals; harmonica (live versions only)
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