WHO'S NEXT

Produced by The Who. Associate producer: Glyn Johns [except where listed below]
Violin on 'Baba O'Riley' produced by Keith Moon
Executive producers: Kit Lambert, Chris Stamp & Pete Kameron.

Liner notes by Chris Charlesworth [with additions in brackets by Brian Cady]

Vinyl sleeve design by Kosh. 
Front and back cover photography by Ethan A. Russell. [The front cover was shot at a location discovered as The Who drove back from a gig at the Top Rank Suite in Sunderland May 8th, 1971. John and Keith were talking about Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyseey when they spied the blocks used to hold slag heaps together and noticed their resemblance to the alien monoliths in Kubrick's film.  Russell said it was Pete's idea for the group to urinate on the "monolith" and that the urine was actually water carried over in film cans. Pete has remarked that it was a dig at Kubrick for refusing to direct the Tommy movie, but he may have been kidding. It could also be said to express the idea of Lifehouse as a sort of dystopian version of 2001: A Space Odyssey but this may be reading far too much into it.  Despite having no stated connection to Lifehouse, Pete revived the imagery of the cover in the 1999 radio version.  The back cover photo was shot backstage at DeMontfort Hall in Leicester on May 4th.] 

Who's Next was released as Track 2408 102 on August 25, 1971.
It reached #1 in the U.K.
Released in the U.S. on Decca 79182 on August 14, 1971. [This is the date the album first hit the Billboard charts. It was actually released a week and a half earlier.] It reached #4.

[An expanded one-CD version was released Nov. 7, 1995. A two-CD remixed Deluxe Edition was released March 25, 2003.

Almost all the songs on this album were intended for a movie treatment written by Pete in 1970 called Lifehouse. Some of the songs had a specific place in the movie, some were extras to be dropped as the filming proceeded.

Here's Pete's 1999 recounting of the original plot: "A self-sufficient, drop-out family group farming in a remote part of Scotland decide to return South to investigate rumours of a subversive concert event that promises to shake and wake up apathetic, fearful British society. Ray is married to Sally, they hope to link up with their daughter Mary who has run away from home to attend the concert. They travel through the scarred wasteland of middle England in a motor caravan, running an air-conditioner they hope will protect them from pollution. They listen, furtively, to old rock records which they call 'Trad'. Up to this time they have survived as farmers, tolerated by the government who are glad to buy most of their produce. Those who have remained in urban areas suffer repressive curfews and are more-or-less forced to survive in special suits, like space-suits, to avoid the extremes of pollution that the government reports.

"These suits are interconnected in a universal grid, a little like the modern Internet, but combined with gas-company pipelines and cable-television-company wiring. The grid is operated by an imperious media conglomerate headed by a dictatorial figure called Jumbo who appears to be more powerful than the government that first appointed him. The grid delivers its clients' food, medicine and sleeping gas. But it also keeps them entertained with lavish programming so highly compressed that the subject can 'live out' thousands of virtual lifetimes in a short space of time. The effect of this dense exposure to the myriad dreamlike experiences provided by the controllers of the grid is that certain subjects begin to fall apart emotionally. Either they believe they have become spiritually advanced, or they feel suffocated by what feels like the shallowness of the programming, or its repetitiveness. A vital side-issue is that the producers responsible for the programming have ended up concentrating almost entirely on the story-driven narrative form, ignoring all the arts unrestrained by 'plot' as too complex and unpredictable, especially music. Effectively, these arts appear to be banned. In fact, they are merely proscribed, ignored, forgotten, no longer of use.

"A young composer called Bobby hacks into the grid and offers a festival-like music concert - called The Lifehouse - which he hopes will impel the audience to throw off their suits (which are in fact no longer necessary for physical survival) and attend in person. 'Come to the lifehouse, your song is here'.

"The family arrive at the concert venue early and take part in an experiment Bobby conducts in which each participant is both blueprint and inspiration for a unique piece of music or song which will feature largely in the first event to be hacked onto the grid.

"When the day of the concert arrives a small army force gathers to try to stop the show. They are prevented from entering for a while, the concert begins, and indeed many of those 'watching at home' are inspired to leave their suits. But eventually the army break in. As they do so, Bobby's musical experiment reaches its zenith and everyone in the building, dancing in a huge dervish circle, suddenly disappears. It emerges that many of the audience at home, participating in their suits, have also disappeared."

This plot was completely reworked for the 1999 BBC3 radio production leaving little but the concept of the Lifehouse and the names of some of the principal characters.]
 
 

The title refers to the electronic-transfer device described in the Lifehouse plot synopsis above. Pete wrote a piece of music in the style of American Minimalist composer Terry Riley. Pete wrote it as an example of what might result if the biography of his avatar, Meher Baba, was fed into a computer and turned into music. The music would, therefore, be Meher Baba in the manner of Terry Riley or "Baba O'Riley." The song as The Who recorded it is actually a combination of this music, which Pete called "Baba O'Riley," and a quite different song called "Teenage Wasteland".An edited version of Pete's instrumental demo (9'48) was released in January 1972 on a rare Meher Baba tribute album called I Am. Subsequent demo versions released on bootlegs run longer than 13 minutes.  The edited version also appears on Pete's 1999 solo LP Lifehouse Chronicles along with the demo for "Teenage Wasteland".   In Lifehouse, the song is sung by Ray, the Scottish farmer at the beginning of the film as he gathers his wife Sally and his two children to begin their exodus to London. "Baba O'Riley" was released as a single in February 1972 throughout the world except for the U.S. and U.K. The track, like so many on this album, became a favorite on the new album-oriented Rock radio stations in the U.S. where it received a great deal of airplay. Live versions by The Who appear on The Kids Are Alright (1978), Concerts for the People of Kampuchea (1979), Who's Last (1982), the Who Rocks America video (1982), The Who/Live featuring the rock opera Tommy (1989), The Blues To The Bush (1999) and The Who & Special Guests Live at the Royal Albert Hall video (2000).]

 
BARGAIN (5'32) 
(Pete Townshend) Towser Tunes, Inc.; Suolubaf Music; ABKCO Music, Inc.; Careers BMG Music Publishing (BMI)

The most electrifying of at least nine different takes recorded at Olympic on April 12, and June 5, 18 & 19, 1971. Pete's lead guitar was played on a vintage Gretsch gifted by Joe Walsh. Played at the Young Vic shows and long retained in the stage act.

[Pete: "This song is simply about 'losing' one's ego as a devotee of Meher Baba. I constantly try to lose myself, and find him. I'm not very successful I'm afraid, but this song expresses how much of a bargain it would be to lose everything in order to be one with God." Pete's demo version was later released on his 1983 solo LP Scoop and his 1999 LP Lifehouse Chronicles. One live version from 1971 can be found on Who's Next Deluxe Edition and another live version from 1971 on Who's Missing and in an edited form on the 30 Years Of Maximum R&B boxset and a 2000 version on The Who & Special Guests Live at the Royal Albert Hall video.] 

MY WIFE (3'40) 
(John Entwistle) Hot Red Music (BMI)

John Entwistle's only contribution to Who's Next is unlikely to have been part of Lifehouse and was first played on stage a couple of months after the Young Vic gigs. Recorded at Olympic in May 1971. [The song was written by John after a fight with his wife. He took his dogs for a walk in the woods after the fight and wrote the song in his head during the walk. John said his wife took it good-naturedly and tried to talk him into letting her make a guest appearance on stage wielding a rolling pin! Ultimately, John said, she didn't come after him; her lawyers did. John was dissatisfied with the way this track came out (both he and Roger disliked Glyn Johns' production on this LP) and later re-recorded it with his solo band Rigor Mortis for his 1973 LP Rigor Mortis Sets In. "My Wife" and "Boris The Spider" are the Entwistle songs most often played live. Live versions can be found on The Kids Are Alright (1977), Two's Missing (1971), the 30 Years Of Maximum R&B boxset (1976), a different version on the same-titled video (1979), The Blues To the Bush (1999) and The Who & Special Guests Live at the Royal Albert Hall video (2000).]

SONG IS OVER (6'13) 
(Pete Townshend) Towser Tunes, Inc.; Suolubaf Music; ABKCO Music, Inc.; Careers BMG Music Publishing (BMI)

Nicky Hopkins plays piano. This was never played onstage due to its complexity, and it quotes from 'Pure and Easy' in its final bars. Completed at Olympic on May 11, 1971. [In 1967, Pete wrote a song for the never-finished rock opera Rael called "Party Piece For Rael." The opening line of the song is "She was the first song I ever sang." "The Song Is Over" was to be the finale to the Lifehouse movie, beginning as Bobby and the crowd vanish and continuing through the end credits. Pete's original demo was released on his 1999 solo album Lifehouse Chronicles.]

GETTIN' IN TUNE (4'50) 
(Pete Townshend) Towser Tunes, Inc.; Suolubaf Music; ABKCO Music, Inc.; Careers BMG Music Publishing (BMI)

Nicky Hopkins plays piano. Initially recorded in New York on March 18, 1971, as 'I'm In Tune,' and featured at the Young Vic shows. The final retitled version was completed at Olympic on June 7, 1971. This was dropped from The Who's act soon after. [But was revived in 1999 at the House Of Blues shows. Pete's original demo was released on his 1999 solo album Lifehouse Chronicles. A live version from 1971 can be found on Who's Next Deluxe Edition and a live version from 1999 can be found on The Blues To The Bush.]

Pete's demo version was later released on his 1983 solo LP Scoop and his 1999 LP Lifehouse Chronicles. Live versions can be found on Who's Next Deluxe Edition (1971), The Who By Numbers 1996 CD (1976), Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea (1979), the 30 Years Of Maximum R&B video (1979), Who's Last (1982), Join Together (1989), The Who/Live featuring the rock opera Tommy video (1989), The Blues To The Bush (1999) and The Who & Special Guests Live at the Royal Albert Hall video (2000).]

The U.S. single said the song was "From The Motion Picture 'Lifehouse'." It was later released on the 1984 LP The Who: The Singles. In the U.S. Cash Box charts, it reached #9.  Pete's original demo was released on his 1999 solo album Lifehouse Chronicles. Live versions appear on Who's Next Deluxe Edition (1971), King Biscuit - Best Of The Best (1973), The Kids Are Alright (1978), Who's Last (1982), The Who Rocks America video (1982), Join Together (1989), The Who/Live featuring the rock opera Tommy video (1989), The Blues To The Bush (1999) and The Who & Special Guests Live at the Royal Albert Hall video (2000). According to R. Rowley the background sequence was played on a Lowrey Berkshire Deluxe TBO-1 electric organ played through a VCS3 synthesizer. Click here for more information.]

BONUS TRACKS FOR 1995 EDITION
 
PURE AND EASY (4'19) 
(Pete Townshend) Towser Tunes, Inc.; Suolubaf Music; ABKCO Music, Inc.; Careers BMG Music Publishing (BMI)

This is the original version of 'Pure and Easy' recorded at the Record Plant on March 17-18, 1971. A later version was recorded at Olympic but not released until the Odds and Sods LP in 1974 (although, confusingly, John Entwistle recollected the recording stemmed from the preparatory Stargroves sessions). Played onstage at the Young Vic and occasionally thereafter. [A different mix is included on the Who's Next: Deluxe Edition at length 4'31. Called "The Note" at the time this was recorded, "Pure and Easy" is the central pivot of Lifehouse as "Amazing Journey" is of Tommy. An edited, overdubbed version of Pete's demo can be found on his solo album Who Came First while a different mix of the demo appears on his 1999 Lifehouse Chronicles collection and the 2000 Lifehouse Elements CD. A live version from 1971 appears on Who's Next Deluxe Edition and a live version from 1999 is on The Blues To The Bush CD.]

BABY DON'T YOU DO IT (5'13) 
(Edward Holland, Jr./Lamont Dozier/Brian Holland) Stone Agate Music (BMI)

[Recorded at the Record Plant, New York March 16, 1971. Additional guitar by Leslie West recorded during a two-day warm up session in Studio Two of the Record Plant and produced by Felix Pappalardi.]

A stage favorite of The Who from the 1964/65 era, this Marvin Gaye classic was perhaps an unusual choice for revival for Lifehouse. Played at the Young Vic and in the concert act for the remainder of 1971, this version was recorded at the Record Plant, New York on March 16, 1971. Leslie West guested on lead guitar. Previously unreleased. [This is edited down from the original which ran 8'41. An 8'14 version appears on the 2003 Deluxe Edition. A live version from December 1971 was released on the B-side of the "Join Together" single June 17th, 1972 and a 1964 studio recording is on the 1998 Odds and Sods CD.] 

[edited down to 5'00.  The original performance ran 6'26. A 6'21 version appears on the 2003 Deluxe Edition CD]. A studio version was completed at Olympic on June 7, 1971, and released in 1974 on Odds and Sods. [This 1971 version was finished from an original take recorded at Pete's Eel Pie studio in May 1970. Another live version appears on the Who Rocks America video (1982).]

WATER (6'25) 
(Pete Townshend) Towser Tunes, Inc.; Suolubaf Music; ABKCO Music, Inc.; Careers BMG Music Publishing (BMI)

Recorded live at the Young Vic on April 26, 1971. Although 'Water' made regular appearances in The Who's stage act in 1970 and '71, it remained unreleased until a studio version of the song appeared on the B-side of '5:15' in September 1973. This live version is previously unreleased. [This version is edited from the original performance which ran 8'32. A 8'19 version appears on the 2003 Deluxe Edition CD. In the U.S. the studio version appeared on the B-side of "Love, Reign O'er Me", the now-deleted Two's Missing album and the 1998 Odds and Sods. The song refers to the fire that broke out on the surface of the Cuyahoga River near Cleveland, Ohio June 22, 1969. The fire was fueled by the heavy amount of pollution in the river. "Put The Money Down," another song intended for Lifehouse, refers to Columbus, Ohio and Cleveland is directly mentioned in Pete's song "Sheraton Gibson." More live versions appear on the 30 Years Of Maximum R&B video (1970) and Live at the Isle Of Wight 1970.]

TOO MUCH OF ANYTHING (4'24) 
(Pete Townshend) Towser Tunes, Inc.; Suolubaf Music; ABKCO Music, Inc.; Careers BMG Music Publishing (BMI)

Although played onstage at the Young Vic, this studio version wasn't released until 1974's Odds and Sods. Completed at Olympic on April 12, 1971. Nicky Hopkins played piano. [This is the original version of the track as recorded and mixed in 1971. For the 1974 Odds and Sods LP a different vocal was used, the guitar part was expanded and the channels reversed. The original studio version appears only on the 1995 Who's Next reissue CD. The song was originally known as "Bit Too Much". Pete's original demo was released on his 1999 solo album Lifehouse Chronicles.]

BEHIND BLUE EYES (3'25) 
(Pete Townshend) Towser Tunes, Inc.; Suolubaf Music; ABKCO Music, Inc.; Careers BMG Music Publishing (BMI)

The original version of 'Behind Blue Eyes' was recorded at the Record Plant on March 17-18, 1971. Al Kooper on organ. [Leslie West added a guitar part to this track that appears only on the bootleg From Lifehouse To Leeds. It was mixed out for both the 1995 Who's Next and 2003 Who's Next Deluxe Edition CD's. Humorous banter that precedes this take on the original From Lifehouse To Leeds bootleg appears on disc three of Thirty Years Of Maximum R&B.]

BONUS TRACKS FOR 2003 DELUXE EDITION:

[The Lifehouse project, to put its convoluted history very simply, was built around an offer made around June 1969 by Universal Pictures to fund two movies centered around The Who, one a film version of Tommy, the other a concert film. Pete, not content to make just another visually boring concert film, devised the idea of building a fictional construct around the concert which would express the feeling of unity he and many Who fans felt during Who shows.

For this reason, Pete set up the concerts at the Young Vic Theatre via artistic director Frank Dunlop. Pete originally wanted to house The Who on stage at The Young Vic for long periods of time. Exactly whether he was intending to use the theatre to workshop his idea of whether he was actually trying to create a non-stop, communal experience between The Who and an audience is a matter of controversy. In any case, Pete only succeeded in acquiring the theatre on Mondays and the occassional Sunday. The Who first began performing on the Young Vic stage January 4, 1971 with weekly concerts beginning February 14. The performances were unannounced and the audiences were invited from youth clubs and a few members of the general public.

GETTIN' IN TUNE (6'19 with '14 intro) 
(Pete Townshend) Towser Tunes, Inc.; Suolubaf Music; ABKCO Music, Inc.; Careers BMG Music Publishing (BMI)

An alternative version from the Record Plant sessions, recorded March 18, 1971.
[Edited from the complete version that appears on the From Lifehouse To Leeds bootleg. That version runs 7'04.]

LOVE AIN'T FOR KEEPING (4'03) 
(Pete Townshend) Towser Tunes, Inc.; Suolubaf Music; ABKCO Music, Inc.; Careers BMG Music Publishing (BMI)
[Lead vocal by Pete Townshend]

An alternative version from the Record Plant sessions on March 17, 1971. Previously released only on the revamped Odds and Sods CD in 1998. [Unedited from original tape appearing on From Lifehouse To Leeds bootleg.]

WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN (8'46) 
(Pete Townshend) Towser Tunes, Inc.; Suolubaf Music; ABKCO Music, Inc.; Careers BMG Music Publishing (BMI)

An early version from the Record Plant sessions recorded March 16, 1971, featuring a different synth pattern recording to the released version, with the famous lyric, 'Meet the new boss, same as the old boss,' occurring before the final synthesizer break and drum pattern, and lacking Roger's distinctive scream.

Pete: "No tape was used. What we did was play an organ through a VCS3 live with the session. So we had to keep in time with the square wave, but the shape was moveable. It was an experiment initiated by Roger and was fairly successful."
[Additional guitar by Leslie West. Organ played by Al Kooper. On the version that appears on From Lifehouse To Leeds, the ending features a continuation of the synthesized organ that is mixed out on the Deluxe Edition version.]

LOVE AIN'T FOR KEEPING (2'50 with '07 intro) 
(Pete Townshend) Towser Tunes, Inc.; Suolubaf Music; ABKCO Music, Inc.; Careers BMG Music Publishing (BMI)

YOUNG MAN BLUES (4'37 with '10 outro) 
(Mose Allison) Jazz Editions, Inc. (BMI)

Originally performed by jazz pianist Mose Allison on his Prestige album Back Country Suite, and credited as 'Blues'. The song was performed during The Who's early incarnation as The High Numbers in 1964 and was resurrected as 'Young Man Blues' in 1968.

TIME IS PASSING (3'31 with '28 outro) 
(Pete Townshend) Towser Tunes, Inc.; Suolubaf Music; ABKCO Music, Inc.; Careers BMG Music Publishing (BMI)

This song was first heard on Pete's solo album Who Came First released in September 1972. Originally recorded during the Olympic sessions, a remastered Who studio version from a damaged master tape was released on the upgraded edition of Odds and Sods in 1998. [See the liner notes to Odds and Sods for more information on the studio version of "Time Is Passing." Pete states in the outro that the next song "Behind Blue Eyes," would shortly be released as the first single from the Lifehouse material. This would not happen until October 1971 and then only in the U.S. and a few continental European countries.]

BEHIND BLUE EYES (3'22 with 1'27 outro) 
(Pete Townshend) Towser Tunes, Inc.; Suolubaf Music; ABKCO Music, Inc.; Careers BMG Music Publishing (BMI)

I DON'T EVEN KNOW MYSELF (5'03 with '39 outro) 
(Pete Townshend) Towser Tunes, Inc.; Suolubaf Music; ABKCO Music, Inc.; Careers BMG Music Publishing (BMI)

Dating from 1970, this was considered for an EP before finally appearing on the B-side of the "Won't Get Fooled Again" single in June 1971. First recorded at Pete's own Eel Pie Studio in 1970. Often played in concert during 1970-1971. [Around 1993, a bootleg version of this concert appeared on CD in Germany under the title Lifehouse Live. It came from tapes thrown into the garbage by Olympic Studios. Before throwing the tapes out, Olympic called The Who's management to come pick them up but they failed to do so. Other hands rescued these tapes from the skip and hence the bootleg. The Who had to pay to recover the tape that once could have had for free. The Lifehouse Live bootleg begins with the outro on this track. This outro has Pete noting that the next track was then being called "Too Much." Pete also announces the birth of his second daughter, Aminta. She was born two days earlier on April 24th.]

GETTIN' IN TUNE (6'23 with '09 outro) 
(Pete Townshend) Towser Tunes, Inc.; Suolubaf Music; ABKCO Music, Inc.; Careers BMG Music Publishing (BMI)
[Edited. Some bootlegs have an unedited version that runs 6'53.]

BARGAIN (5'38 with '08 outro) 
(Pete Townshend) Towser Tunes, Inc.; Suolubaf Music; ABKCO Music, Inc.; Careers BMG Music Publishing (BMI)

[Following this track on the bootleg version is "Pinball Wizard" (2'45) seguing into "See Me Feel Me" (5'17) seguing into an instrumental jam (1'58) seguing into "Baby Don't You Do It." 5'31 of that song plays before the tape abruptly ends in mid-song.

After this comes the live version of "Water" (see above notes for 1995 CD edition).]

MY GENERATION (2'58)
(Pete Townshend) Devon Music, Inc. (BMI)

ROAD RUNNER (3'14) 
(Ellas McDaniel) ARC Music Corp. (BMI)

Originally written and recorded by blues master Ellas McDaniel (a/k/a Bo Diddley) in 1959. During the British R&B boom of the early to mid '60's many groups covered Bo's song including The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Pretty Things, The Zombies, and The Who. (In fact, it was this very song that the group played during Keith Moon's drum-damaging audition at the Oldfield Hotel, Greenford, in April 1964.) During tours in the '70's The Who often lurched into this medium paced rocker during lengthy jams within the 'My Generation' framework. [The Bo Diddley song from which Pete stole his guitar string glissando (see "Magic Bus" as well as many other Who songs for examples). Another live version from 1975 appears on the The Kids Are Alright soundtrack album. This track is misidentified on the Who's Next Deluxe Edition CD as "(I'm A) Roadrunner" which is a completely different instrumental by Junior Walker & The All-Stars.

"Naked Eye" appears next in the concert and on the Who's Next Deluxe Edition. See above liner notes for the 1995 Who's Next edition for information on this track. On the bootleg version "Naked Eye" segues directly into "Boney Maronie." An edited verison of "Boney Maronie" can be found on the Thirty Years Of Maximum R&B boxset and a different mix on the b-side of the 1988 European single version of "Won't Get Fooled Again." It also appears on the 12" and CD-single versions issued at that time. The ending of "Naked Eye" here has the applause and screams for "Summertime Blues" from the end of "Boney Maronie" mixed into the ending.]

WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN (8'34 with '16 sec outro) 
(Pete Townshend) Towser Tunes, Inc.; Suolubaf Music; ABKCO Music, Inc.; Careers BMG Music Publishing (BMI)

If you want to contact me about something on this page, click on my name. I want corrections! Brian Cady

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