'' is an album by
The Who . It was released on
July 31 ,
1971 in the
United States and
August 25 ,
1971 in the
United Kingdom .
Initially seen by the band as a compromise release following the collapse of a more ambitious
Rock Opera , ''Who's Next'' was a major success, reaching the top five on the ''
Billboard '' charts in the US, spawning several hit singles, and remaining in print and continuing to sell well in many editions for over three decades.
The album had its roots in the flotsam of the disastrous ''
Lifehouse '' project, which Who bandleader
Pete Townshend has variously described as intended to be a futuristic
Rock Opera , a live-recorded concept album and as the music for as a scripted film project. The project proved to be intractable on several levels and caused stress within the band as well as a major falling out between Townshend and The Who's producer
Kit Lambert . Years later, in the liner notes to the
Remastered ''Who's Next'' CD, Townshend wrote that the failure of the project led him to the verge of a suicidal nervous breakdown.
After giving up on the recording some of the ''Lifehouse'' tracks in New York, The Who went back into the studio with new producer
Glyn Johns and started over. Although the ''Lifehouse'' concept was abandoned, scraps of the project remained present in the final album. The introductory line to "Pure and Easy" — which Townshend has described as "the central pivot of ''Lifehouse''" — shows up in the closing bars of "The Song is Over". An early concept for ''Lifehouse'' -- feeding personal data from audience members into the controller of an early analog
Synthesizer to create musical tracks -- was recycled as Townshend used the vital statistics of
Meher Baba as random input to generate a backing track on "
Baba O'Riley ". A primary result of the abandonment of the original project, however, was a newfound freedom: the very absence of an overriding musical theme or storyline (which had been the basis of previous Who projects) allowed the band to concentrate on maximizing the impact of individual tracks.
The album was immediately recognized for its dynamic and unique sound. The album fortuitously fell at a time when great advances had been made in sound engineering over the previous decade, and also shortly after the widespread availability of music synthesizers. The result was a sound that was absolutely stunning at the time, and rather unprecedented in rock music (although disliked by some traditional Who fans of the time). However, as full and brash as the sound is on most of the album there are contrasts with finger-picked acoustic guitar, and
Roger Daltrey 's swaggering vocals alternate with quieter introspective moments.
Townshend used the early synthesizers and modified keyboard sounds in several modes: as a
Drone effect on several songs, notably "
Baba O'Riley " and "
Won't Get Fooled Again ", and, elsewhere, in a more delicate role as in the introductory notes to "
Bargain ", or as a playful noisemaker, sounding almost like a boiling teapot on "The Song is Over". Townshend also used an
Envelope Follower to modulate the spectrum of his guitar on "
Going Mobile ", giving it a distinctive squawking sound that degenerates into a bubbling noise at the end of the song.
The album opened with the innovative "
Baba O'Riley ", featuring piano by
Nicky Hopkins and a violin solo by
Dave Arbus . Titled in honor of Townshend's guru
Meher Baba and influential minimalist composer
Terry Riley (and informally known by its chorus line "Teenage Wasteland"), the track brought together Townshend's experimental synthesizer work and exotic textures with the Who's traditional hard-rock sound. Other signature tracks include the hard-edged ballad "
Behind Blue Eyes " and the album's closing song, the epic rock juggernaut "
Won't Get Fooled Again ".
The album cover shows a photograph of the band having just urinated on a large concrete piling protruding from a heap of mining refuse; the photo is often seen to be a reference to the monolith discovered on the moon in the film , which had been released only about three years earlier. The featured structure was actually at the Easington District
Colliery in
County Durham . In
2003 , the
United States Cable Television channel
VH1 named ''Who's Next'''s front cover the 2nd greatest album cover of all time.
An earlier cover design had featured photos of grotesquely obese nude females and has been published elsewhere, but never actually appeared on the album. An alternate cover featured drummer
Keith Moon dressed in black
Lingerie , holding a leather
Whip , and wearing a blonde
Wig (this image can be found behind the CD tray in the remastered version).
Soon after its release, ''Who's Next'' was hailed as a commercial and critical success. "With its acoustic guitars and drumless bits, this triumph of hard rock is no more a pure hard rock album than ''
Tommy ''," wrote
Robert Christgau in his ''Consumer Guide'' column. "It's got more juice than ''
Live At Leeds ''. And...it uses the synthesizer to vary the power trio format, not to art things up. Given Peter Townshend's sharpness and compassion, even his out-front political disengagement - 'I don't need to fight' - seems positive. The real theme, I think, is 'getting in tune to the straight and narrow,' and comes naturally to someone who's devoted a whole LP to the strictures of hit radio. Another sign of growth: the love songs." Christgau gave the album an 'A' rating.
When the first-ever
Pazz & Jop Critics Poll was held at the end of 1971, ''Who's Next'' easily won first place, outdistancing its nearest rival by 208 points, a lead of 65 percent. In an essay analyzing the results, Christgau wrote, "Everyone calls ''Who's Next'' a great hard rock album, even though it contains several ballads and some arty-type violin and synthesizer stuff. Whatever else, it was clearly the only popular masterpiece of the year." ''Who's Next'' has also been named one of the best albums of all time by
VH1 (#13) and ''
Rolling Stone '' (#28).
(All songs by Peter Townshend except as noted)
# "
Baba O'Riley " – 4:59
# "
Bargain " – 5:34
# "
Love Ain't For Keeping " – 2:11
# "
My Wife " (
John Entwistle ) – 3:41
# "
The Song Is Over " – 6:16
# "
Getting In Tune " – 4:50
# "
Going Mobile " – 3:43
# "
Behind Blue Eyes " – 3:39
# "
Won't Get Fooled Again " – 8:38
The remastered CD features these additional tracks:
# "
Pure And Easy "
# "Baby Don't You Do It" (
{Link without Title} )
# "Naked Eye"
# "Water"
# "Too Much of Anything"
# "I Don't Even Know Myself"
# "Behind Blue Eyes"
Disc One
#"Baba O'Riley"
#"Bargain"
#"Love Ain't For Keeping"
#"My Wife"
#"The Song Is Over"
#"Getting In Tune"
#"Going Mobile"
#"Behind Blue Eyes"
#"Won't Get Fooled Again"
#"Baby Don't You Do It"
#"Getting In Tune" (''previously unreleased'')
#"Pure And Easy"
#"Love Ain't For Keeping"
#"Behind Blue Eyes"
#"Won't Get Fooled Again" (''previously unreleased'')
Disc Two
#"Love Ain't For Keeping"
#"Pure and Easy"
#"Young Man Blues"
#"Time Is Passing"
#"Behind Blue Eyes"
#"I Don't Even Know Myself"
#"Too Much of Anything"
#"Getting In Tune"
#"Bargain"
#"Water"
#"My Generation"
#"(I'm A) Roadrunner"
#"Naked Eye"
#"Won't Get Fooled Again"
After track nine on the first disc (Won't Get Fooled Again) all following tracks are outtakes. Disc Two consists of a live show at London's
Young Vic theatre during the ''Lifehouse'' sessions. (All of the tracks from the Young Vic show were previously unreleased except for "Water" and "Naked Eye".)
- "Baba O'Riley" is sometimes lovingly but incorrectly referred to as "Teenage Wasteland".
- "My Wife", composed and sung by bassist John Entwistle, became a concert standard.
- The repeated titles of the remastered tracks are from the earlier New York session with Kit Lambert .
- "Baby Don't You Do It" was first made popular by Marvin Gaye , who was a favorite of The Who from the beginning of their career.
- Further remasters (such as the Deluxe Edition) have contained the entire live concert at the Young Vic Theatre , and the original album (without the extra tracks) has been mastered at half speed and released on 250g virgin (unrecycled) vinyl.
- Recently, "Won't Get Fooled Again" and "Baba O'Riley" have been used as the theme songs for , respectively.
- Baba O'Riley appeared in episode 14, season 1 ('Control') of House
- "Won't Get Fooled Again" also formed part of The Who's July 2 , 2005 Live8 line-up; they performed in Hyde Park, London to over two hundred thousand cheering onlookers.
- Blue Man Group Covered "Baba O'Riley" on their 2003 Complex Rock Tour with Tracy Bonham singing lead & playing violin.
- Until the advent of democracy in South Korea in the early 1990s , "Won't Get Fooled Again" was banned and pressings of ''Who's Next'' omitted the song.
-
Billboard (North America)
- Billboard (North America)
