The Who - Who’s Next
Listen to an audio version of this review by Greg
Released August 14th 1971…CAN WE JUST PAUSE HERE FOR A SECOND AND HAVE A MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR ALL THE ALBUMS THAT CAME OUT IN THE 1970S?? Where did this decade go? I know some of the clothing was hideous but come on! Did a day go by where an amazing, earth-shattering rock album did NOT get released. It’s ridiculous…
Ok…so anyways….
I’ve been doing the podcast for over 2 years and I’ve yet to review a Who album. Why? I’m not certain. A Who fan I was, and today a Who fan I continue to be. A really, really, REALLY big Who fan. Yes, I was actually that guy who, I cannot believe I’m admitting this: The quote in my senior yearbook was “Out of my brain on the train”. This quote will be forever written in blood. I could have chosen, “All good things come to those who work hard”, or “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. But instead, I chose “Out of my brain on the train”. This is what I would call the old-school version of social media….meaning that’s never going to be erased. At the time, it drew big high-fives from fellow Who fans. From others, it drew very, very, very weird stares. I get it. It was kind of dumb. But I can remember how at the time, I had to communicate my love for this band and how they changed life for me. Yes, people. That’s who I was at 18.
So back to it…released on August 14th, 1971, Who’s Next was The Who’s fifth studio album. Recorded over a three-month period, the band would produce the album themselves along with Glyn Johns in London and Hampshire, England. Johns is also well known for producing albums by The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Kinks, Steve Miller Band, The Eagles, The Band, Bob Dylan…..SHALL I KEEP GOING?????????? OH MY!!! WHAT A LIST!
Originally, eight of the nine songs from the album were taken from a scrapped rock opera that band member and guitarist, Pete Townshend wrote called Lifehouse. Prior to this, Townshend wrote and recorded the famous rock opera with his Who bandmates called Tommy in May 1969
Like Tommy, Lifehouse was a fictional story written in the 3rd person of a futuristic time period where people lived in a society where all music was banned, and people were forced by the government to stay indoors at all times. In Townshend’s mind, it was going to play out like a live performance, another rock opera but something different than what The Who had been writing previously. The Who booked free weekly concerts at the Young Vic Theatre in Lambeth outside of London where they were to incorporate the audience’s participation into the rock opera, a plan Townshend had created to take the band in a somewhat different direction.
The performances at the Young Vic Theatre did not go as Townshend had planned. Audiences regularly showed up cheering for The Who to play tracks like My Generation, an older, “poppier” tune, and smash their instruments, the way the band used to. This frustrated Pete, and after some careful thinking, he decided to scrap the project. In unison, producer and friend Glyn Johns had been keeping backup copies of the songs recorded for Lifehouse, and convinced the band to later re-record the songs to change their feel and distance themselves from the opera-like sound they were going for on Lifehouse.
Band manager, Kit Lambert convinced the band to fly to New York and record the songs they’d written for this opera and played live at the Young Vic.
Released on August 14th, 1971, the album cover, (I’ve always wondered this) portrays a photo taken of the band’s 4 members at a coal mining dump, which is a word used in the US for a place where trash, garbage, or waste is taken to be collected and properly (or improperly for that matter) disposed of. In the UK, the term “slag pile” or “slag heap” is more commonly used. Only this trash pile was made up of waste or residue from coal mining, piled up as far as the eye can see. Drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle came up with the idea, inspired by the Stanley Kubrick film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. The band is standing on top of the waste pile, in front of a large concrete structure that portrays the result of urine stains on the structure. It’s clear in the photo what the band members were “just” doing before the photo was taken, as you can see them adjusting their pant zippers. The truth behind the story is that it was only Townshend that actually peed on the concrete slab. The photographer came up with the idea to show all four members in “post pee” glee. Therefore, they took rainwater collected from an empty film canister and poured it onto the slab to create the effect.
One of the 8 songs originally planned for Lifehouse, Baba O’Riley is the album’s opener. I had a conversation recently with fellow musicians and rock n’ roll addicts about what did we all thought were some of the greatest rock songs ever recorded, regardless of taste. Baba O’Riley certainly came up in that conversation as being on this list. I have difficulty arguing this.
Dave Arbus, member of the British prog rock band, East of Eden, played violin on Baba O’Riley. The song's title refers to two of Townshend's major inspirations at the time: Indian spiritual leader, Meher Baba, and the American music composer, best known for introducing his style of “minimal music”, Terry Riley. Where the “O” came from at the beginning of Riley, I am eager to find out.
I was surprised to learn that Townshend did not have deep, deep reasoning for writing “Teenage Wasteland” which is sung throughout this song. For he noted on two occasions during The Who’s shows at the Isle of Wight Festival and Woodstock, he noticed the crowds seemed to be just a never-ending view of a teenage wasteland, referring to a large amount of trash he saw left after each show in addition to the amount of LSD use he witnessed during both shows.
I’ve always wanted to know what Townshend used at the beginning of Baba. It sounds like some sort of funky organ or synth just looped. But then when the piano comes in,….watch out! Then as the bass enters, the song is full in your face and ready to knock you to the ground. That’s what it did to me.
For the intro, Pete uses an electric organ called a Lowrey Organ, named after Fredrick Lowrey, who designed it around 1955. In the 1960s and 70s, Lowrey organs were the most manufactured electric organs in the world. Townshend used a feature in the organ called a marimba repeat that essentially gives it that “looping” sound.
Joe Walsh gifted Pete a Gretsch 6120 hollow-body electric guitar in 1971, which became Pete’s main guitar during the recording of Who’s Next.
Who’s Next is a rock album. It consists of heavy guitar and drumming that characterizes what bipolar disorder would sound like in the form of percussion but built with precise timing. The bass playing is clean, upfront in your ear (not drowned out in the back like most rock albums) and Roger Daltrey’s mountaintop “DRAGO – like” Rocky screams with harmony.
In addition to the stripped-down rock sound, the synthesizer was used as a vital piece of the overall sound. In addition to his “Rock God” style electric guitar sound, Pete Townshend also plays acoustic guitar on several songs. Producer Glynn Johns heard the 8 songs and played a large role in convincing the band to re-record the songs and put out a power rock album. The Who trusted Johns to the extent they gave him permission to place the tracks in the order he felt was best. Later, a 9th song was added, the only song that was NOT from the Lifehouse project, which was bassist John Entwistle’s track, My Wife. Entwistle had originally planned My Wife for a later solo album but was convinced to add it to Who’s Next.
Songs like Bargain continues the rock n’ roll stroll, only it slows down to become more of a love song. Despite the fact it sounds as if Townshend wrote about a woman’s love, this song is actually about finding God, or Meher Baba, for that matter, who Townshend was heavily studying and practicing his teachings at the time.
Pete noted that Bargain 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 at one with God”.
The album continues with rockier, upbeat tracks like Love Ain’t for Keeping and My Wife. Pete’s acoustic guitar on top of the rock n’ roll sound gives Love Ain’t for Keeping a unique sound that is present on many of the songs on this record.
Things start to get slow and heartfelt with The Song is Over, Getting in Tune and Behind Blue Eyes. Session musician, Nicky Hopkins was invited to play piano on The Song is Over and Getting in Tune. Hopkins played live or in the studio for virtually every big rock band through the 60s and 70s, including The Stones, Steve Miller Band, Peter Frampton, Jerry Garcia, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and the list goes on and on.
Getting in Tune might be my favorite track on this album after Baba, but I don’t know. I don’t feel there is one, NOT ONE “dud” on this album. That is what makes this among the best and very much in my hall of fame. Forever.
Minus the track, My Wife Roger Daltrey’s singing is also hall of fame worthy. He’s in there of course but I had to give him his props while I’m doing this review. Pete wrote the lyrics (a mad, mad scientist he was), Keith had an organized panic attack all over the drum set, John very carefully added his bass lines that in many ways, well let’s just say it, it really is the lead instrument in most of the tracks on this album. It’s so present. With all of this, Daltrey’s vocals are on top, making you raise your fist in the air and wave ‘em like you just don’t…….well you know what I mean.
The closing track Won't Get Fooled Again, was written by Pete as a criticism of overwhelming power and rising revolutions. He had mixed feelings about revolutions, although they have done some good, almost 100% of the time during a revolution people are going to get hurt.
Won't Get Fooled Again was also the planned closing track on Lifehouse. Pete’s original plan was to play the song during the Lifehouse opera after the main character, Bobby is killed and the government is left to fight with the army. After digging into this, it was a little confusing, but I think overall Pete was just frustrated and was rebelling against violence, writing, “Pick up my guitar and play, just like yesterday, and I’ll get on my knees and pray, we don’t get fooled again”.
Townshend also admitted he wrote the song after playing at Woodstock in 1969. He said in an interview he wanted to jump into the crowd at times and shake the concertgoers, the kids who had all wound up there to spend the weekend listening to music and holding out hope that world peace could really happen. Pete thought this was a ridiculous way of thinking and not the reality. He admits it’s cynical but backs it up with realistic facts.
Won't Get Fooled Again may be most famous for the repeating organ/synthesizer sound during the beginning and end of the song. The Lowrey organ is used again, but this time it was connected to a portable analog synthesizer, called a VCS 3, which was made by Electronic Music Studios (or EMS). The way Pete created this sound in Won't Get Fooled Again, bewilders me. I’m not sure I quite understand it but what I learned was Pete interviewed several people in this random survey, asking them health questions. He hooked each person up to a device that doctors use to monitor patients’ heartbeats, brain activity, or brainwaves. When he was finished, he converted the heartbeats and brainwaves into a series of audio pulses. Are you following me so far?
He then took the Lowrey and the VCS 3 and hooked them up to the audio pulses. The Lowrey organ and the VCS 3 played the pulses back and were later modified into “input signals”. This is what you hear in the song, and at the end, it’s mixed with the bass, drums, a heavy power chord from Pete’s Gretsch guitar, and Daltrey’s ever-so-famous scream, which will go down in the history books as probably the greatest scream on a rock album. The song has been performed as a main part of the band's setlist since 1971, often as the set closer. Won’t Get Fooled Again was also the last song drummer Keith Moon played live before he died in 1978.
I can remember exactly, and I mean exactly where I was when I first heard this album. The first track Baba O’Riley came on my buddy Zack’s, who I’ve had on the podcast a few times, car stereo in his White Toyota Camry from 1986 or 87. Zack’s face was filled with delight as he watched me lose my mind as we drove up Cliff Road on the way back to my house. I will never forget it. And this album is one that you also will never forget once you’ve heard it. I’ll have to review Quadrophenia at some point, but in terms of a non-concept album, straight and narrow right in your face rock album, this one is up there, way up there. Way, way up there.
So like Tommy said to Johnny in Karate Kid, “Take a Right, Check it out”!
