Baba O'Riley

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"Baba O'Riley"
Single by The Who from the album Who's Next
Released	1971
Format	45
Recorded	May, 1971
Genre	Rock
Length	05:05
Label	Decca (US) Polydor (elsewhere)
'''Producer(s)	The Who and Glyn Johns
Chart positions
Professional reviews
The Who singles chronology
	Baba O'Riley 1971

"Baba O'Riley" (often mislabeled as "Teenage Wasteland") is a song written by Pete Townshend for his Lifehouse project, a rock opera that was to be the follow-up to The Who's 1969 opera, Tommy. 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.

Noted for its innovative fusion of the Who's hard rock sound and early synthesizer experimentation by Townshend inspired by minimalist composer Terry Riley, and for its crashing chorus coupled with repeating F-C-Bb power chords, the song is a perennial favorite on classic rock radio stations as well as a concert staple for the band.

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. Instead, Townshend used the life information of Meher Baba, whose philosophy had been a great personal and artistic influence on the band's chief songwriter. The name of the song is derived from this combination of the song's philosophical and musical influences: (Meher) Baba O' (Terry) Riley.

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 a klezmer-style beat. Dave Arbus, of East of Eden, plays violin. In concert, lead singer Roger Daltrey replaces the violin solo with a harmonica solo.

Appearances

• Appears in the promo commercial for TNT's new series "Saved" (June 2006)
• A heavily edited version appears as the theme song in
• Appears in 'Control' (Episode 14, Season 1) of 2005's House (House himself very memorably jams to the song), as well as on the official soundtrack
• Appears in the pilot episode of What About Brian (april 2006)
• Appears at #340 on the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
• Also featured on Blue Man Group The Complex Rock Tour Live DVD. The DVD box labels the song "Baba O' Riley", while the actual menu on the disc labels the song Baba O' Reilly, which Blue Man suggests (perhaps in a tongue-in-cheek way) was actually the original name of the song [link]
• Is the soundtrack to trailers of American Beauty.
• Is featured in the film Summer of Sam.
• Appears in 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
• Appears in Misled Youth
• Used as the soundtrack for HP ad "Constant Change" Directed by David Fincher. Also appeared in a Nissan commercial.
• Appeared in an episode of Dawson's Creek with Jen Lindley (Michelle Williams) dancing to it.
• The Grateful Dead performed a cover of this song that stayed very close to the original
• Is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for being one of the 500 Songs that Changed Rock and Roll
• Umphrey's McGee has performed a live cover of it, performing the intro arpeggios on guitar.
• Pearl Jam also has their own version of the song that they cover during live performances. [link]
• New York Yankees' baseball outfielder Paul O'Neill often walked out for plate appearances while this song played over the Yankee Stadium PA.
• The Who performed this at the Concert for New York City on October 20, 2001.
• Contrary to popular belief the background music in this song is not done on Townshend's Arp synthesizer. It is played on a Lowrey Berkshire Deluxe TBO-1 organ, an organ for the home.
• The same organ was used for the background on Won't Get Fooled Again.
• Appears prominently in the first episode of Life on Mars.
• Appears in the trailer for the film "Invincible."
• Dropkick Murphys perform a cover of the song.

External Links

• [http://www.myclassiclyrics.com/the_who/the-who-baba-oriley-lyrics.html Baba O'Riley Lyrics