Baba O'Riley
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| “Baba O'Riley” | |||||
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| Single by The Who from the album Who's Next |
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| B-side | "My Wife" | ||||
| Released | November 1971 | ||||
| Format | 45 | ||||
| Recorded | May 1971 at Olympic Studios in London, England | ||||
| Genre | Rock Rock opera |
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| Length | 5:05 | ||||
| Label | Decca (US) Polydor (UK) |
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| Writer(s) | Pete Townshend | ||||
| Producer | The Who Glyn Johns |
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| Who's Next track listing | |||||
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"Baba O'Riley" (often erroneously called "Teenage Wasteland") is a song by the English rock band The Who, written by Pete Townshend, lead guitarist. As with most Who songs, it is sung primarily by Roger Daltrey. However, as usual for Who songs during this era, Townshend sings the middle eight: "Don't cry/don't raise your eye/it's only teenage wasteland". The title of the song is derived from this combination of the song's philosophical and musical influences: Meher Baba and Terry Riley.[1]
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[edit] History
Townshend originally wrote "Baba O'Riley" for his Lifehouse project, a rock opera that was to be the follow-up to The Who's 1969 opera, Tommy. Townshend derived the song from a Lowrey berkshire home organ experimental recording, which the band reconstructed. "Baba O'Riley" was going to be used in the Lifehouse project as a song sung by Ray, the Scottish farmer at the beginning of the album as he gathers his wife Sally and his two children to begin their exodus to London. When Lifehouse was scrapped, many of the songs were released on The Who's 1971 album Who's Next. "Baba O'Riley" became the first track on Who's Next. The song was released as a single in several European countries, but in the US and the UK was only released as part of the album.
Drummer Keith Moon had the idea of inserting a violin solo at the coda of the song, during which the style of the song shifts from crashing rock to an Irish folk-style beat. Dave Arbus, of East of Eden, plays the violin in one of the most recognizable solos in popular music. In concert, lead singer Roger Daltrey replaces the violin solo with a harmonica solo. The Who have produced a live version of the song with a violin, provided by Nigel Kennedy, during their 27 November 2000 concert at the Royal Albert Hall. The intro solo is on the keyboard.
Noted for its innovative fusion of the Who's hard rock sound and early electronic music experimentation by Townshend inspired by minimalist composer Terry Riley, and for its crashing chorus coupled with repeating F-C-Bb power chords, the song has been a perennial favorite on classic rock radio stations as well as a concert staple for the band. It has often been mistakenly called "Teenage Wasteland" by many casual fans. That was in fact the title for a different but similar song by Townshend, which is slower and features more lyrics. (A version of "Teenage Wasteland" is featured on The Lifehouse Chronicles, a six disc set of demos planned for the Lifehouse project.)
Pete Townshend states that the song is not about getting wasted, but about waste in general. He was inspired to write the song when the people around him complained about all of the world's problems but did nothing about them.
[edit] Trivia
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- Many people guessed at what "Baba O'Riley" is actually about, and at a concert on November 25, 2006 in Philadelphia, PA, Pete Townshend said that even he doesn't know.
- Although they never actually did it in concert, The Who considered pulling a person from the audience and programming their vital statistics into a synthesizer that would, in effect, translate that person into a musical theme around which a song could be built (an idea recently resurrected as the Lifehouse Method). Instead, Townshend discussed using the life information of Meher Baba, whose philosophy had been a great personal and artistic influence on the band's chief songwriter. Ultimately, however, the "synthesizer" part was actually created using a Lowrey home organ being run through a VCS3 synthesizer envelope generator set in on-off gate mode.
- During the final concert of U2's Vertigo Tour at Aloha Stadium in Hawaii, lead singer Bono sang the line "Out here in the fields" during the opening chords of their song "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses". He then commented that "that's where he (The Edge) must have ripped it off from."
- Pearl Jam often play a live cover of "Baba O'Riley". At Rock Werchter 2007, Eddie Vedder invited Queens of the Stone Age's singer Josh Homme on the stage to sing the bridge. During several midwestern US shows in 2006, Vedder asked former Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard onstage with Pearl Jam to sing “Baba O’Riley.”
- On the Who's latest DVD "The story of The Who: Amazing journey" it is suggested that the music in the introduction of the song came from putting Meher Baba's birth date into a computer.
[edit] Cover versions
The following groups or singers have covered the song in concert or on record:
- Guided by Voices
- Pearl Jam
- The Slip
- Blue Man Group and Tracy Bonham (featured on The Complex Rock Tour Live DVD and their "How To Be A Megastar 2.0" tour)
- Grateful Dead
- Ils (2006)
- Umphrey's McGee
- Marah
- Matt Nathanson
- Blink
- Dread Zeppelin
- Dropkick Murphys
- Mr. Big
- Racer X
- Waco Brothers
- Cain and Abel
- Nirvana (Featured on Volume 2 of the Outcesticide Bootleg Series)
- They Might Be Giants
- Deluxe
- The Flaming Lips
- The Pickets
- Portable
- Those Darn Accordions on the 1996 album No Strings Attached, with the opening sequencer passage replicated on multiple accordions
- Lt. Dan Band in one of their USO concerts.
- You Am I with Wolfmother at Falls Festival, Lorne, 2006/07.
- The Trews
- Bethnal
- Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers (usually performed as a medley with "Girly")
- Third Eye Blind (live, transitioned from "How's it Gonna Be")
- Nash the Slash (most recently on his album of covers, In-A-Gadda-Da-Nash)
- Xero/G on the album Are You Weightless (2002, Ninthwave Records) [2]
- David Cook (live on American Idol)
[edit] Soundtrack
[edit] Film
- Trailers for American Beauty.
- Trailers for A Bug's Life.
- Appears in trailers and at the end of The Girl Next Door.
- Is featured in the 1997 film Fever Pitch.
- An orchestral version is featured at the start of the movie Slackers, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
- The song appears in The Zero Skateboards 1998 skateboarding film Misled Youth in Jamie Thomas' part.
- Trailer for the film Invincible.
- At the start of Luciano Ligabue's 2001 movie Da zero a dieci.
- Plays in the Spike Lee movie Summer of Sam with Adrien Brody's character performing a pornographic stage show that culminates with his destruction of a stuffed mannequin with glimpses of the Son of Sam killer murdering each of his victims.
- Appears in the movie Prefontaine starring Jared Leto.
- Appeared in Shaun Murray's section of Counterfeit This
[edit] TV series and commercials
- Is the opening theme for the hit series CSI: NY
- The instrumental opening of the song featured in the 1993, Series 3 "Heartbeat" episode "Going Home".
- Featured for the opening sequence of the 2004 AFC Championships Game aired by CBS.
- Pre-credit sequence in the Miami Vice episode "Out Where the Buses Don't Run".
- Promo commercial for TNT's series Saved (June 2006).
- In the 2005 episode "Control" of House, House plays air piano and air drums to the song before a verbal standoff with the chairman of the board of his hospital. The song also appears on the official soundtrack for the show.
- Pilot episode of What About Brian (April 2006).
- Used as the soundtrack for HP ad "Constant Change" directed by David Fincher.
- Appears in a Nissan commercial promoting the 2000 Pathfinder.
- In the episode "Kiss" of Dawson's Creek, Jen Lindley (Michelle Williams) is dancing to it.
- Featured in King Of The Hill's episode "Tankin' It To The Streets". In the same episode Bill says how he used to have "hair like Roger Daltrey".
- Appears prominently in the first episode of Life on Mars.
- Sung on Rock Star: INXS by Jordis Unga (during week 1 and also appears on the CD), as well as on Rockstar: Supernova by Dana Andrews (during week 5) and Ryan Star (during week 9).
- Networking company Cisco Systems uses it for one of their Fall 2006 commercials.
- Appears in the Hyperlite wakeskate video for Shawn Murray wakeboard montage.
- Edited version with instrumentals is used in the fourth of four episodes of the miniseries The Drug Years on VH1.
- Featured as the promotional song for the 2006 film Invincible.
- It was mentioned in the short-lived series Freaks and Geeks, wherein Lindsay is corrected by Ken for calling the song "Teenage Wasteland."
- Teenage Wasteland, inspired by this song, was the original title for popular sitcom, That 70's Show. Due to the negativity & inherent drug speculations, the creators were forced to change the title at the behest of the FOX network.
- Featured at the end of the One Tree Hill episode "Pictures of You".
- Featured at the opening of American Idol season 6.
- Is the theme of the 2007 IRL IndyCar Series.
- Featured in the season finale of the second season of My Name Is Earl.
- It is used to introduce the "Teenage Wasteland" feature segment on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
- It was also given a cameo in the children's television show The Wild Thornberrys as the title of Debbie Thornberry's favorite magazine.
- Synthesizer sections and synth/violin "outro" were used in television commercials for Philadelphia's Franklin Institute in the 1970's.
- Was featured in the British trailers for American Inventor
- Featured in The Whitest Kids U'Know sketch "Saturday."
- Performed by David Cook on Season 7 of American Idol during "Songs that influenced Rock and Roll" week (Top 4).
- Performed by Bret Michaels on Don't Forget the Lyrics
[edit] Sports use
- The Boston Red Sox used this song to open the game on April 21, 2008 at Fenway Park.
- The New York Islanders play the song with the montage every game at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
- Hull F.C. rugby league team plays it as the team runs out for home games at the KC Stadium.
- The University of Georgia football team uses it after the coin toss just prior to the opening kickoff of home games at Sanford Stadium.
- The Oakland Athletics use it as the music for a highlight video that is shown before home games at the McAfee Coliseum.
- The New York Yankees would play it as the entrance music as former right fielder Paul O'Neill took at-bats in Yankee Stadium.
- The Toronto Blue Jays play this song during the away team's batting practice session before games at the Rogers Centre.
- The New Jersey Devils used the song to play with the montage on the opening night of the Prudential Center
- The Los Angeles Lakers use the song during the their team's player introductions.
- The UFC uses a video montage with this song prior to the beginning of the televised broadcast, however, the video is only shown to people inside the arena.
[edit] Other
- This was the first song played on two Atlanta radio stations: first on 96 Rock after its sudden flip from easy listening in 1974 (and again for its 10th and 30th anniversaries), then on the station's "reincarnation" in early 2008 on Rock 100.5.
- Baba O'Riley is the opening music to The Zone on Little Rock talk radio station 103.7 The Buzz, co-hosted by former Arkansas Razorback Pat Bradley (basketball). [3]
- "Teenage Wasteland" is the title of a short story written by Anne Tylor.
- This song has been used in several Fighter Fling movies. Fighter Fling movies are a series of self-produced short-movies by US Navy pilots.
[edit] Accolades
- It appears at #340 on the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
- It is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for being one of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ (2002) Album notes for The Who: The Ultimate Collection by The Who, 12. MCA Records.
- ^ Xero/G artist page at Ninthwave Records
- ^ http://www.kabzfm.com/1037thebuzz/mornjustin.htm
- ^ 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll
