WHO'S NEXT - Track By Track

Prompted by the occasion of the 45^th Anniversary of Who’s Next I have been urged by those who run The Who’s Fan Page on Facebook to post the following track by track run down of the songs on the album from my book The Complete Guide to The Music of The Who, updated in 2004 with help from my pal and fellow Who Archivist Ed Hanel. This relates to the De Luxe edition, released in 2003, on which I’m credited as ‘Executive Producer’ because I played a part in selecting the bonus tracks, arranging the packaging and persuading Pete to write his liner notes. Most of what follows was written by me for the original 1995 edition of the book (Ed chipped in with info about the upgraded editions) and Who scholarship may have advanced in the succeeding 21 years, not least by Pete himself in his book Who I Am.

The original Who’s Next consisted of nine tracks. All songs by Townshend unless otherwise noted.

1. Baba O’Riley

Thirty seconds of a spiralling loop, played on a Lowrey organ and fed through a synthesizer, opens the album with one of its most memorable tracks. ‘Baba’, of course, is Meher Baba, Pete’s spiritual pal, and O’Riley, is Terry Riley, the electronic composer whose work A Rainbow In Curved Air inspired Pete’s use of looping synthesizer riffs. Piano, voice, drums, bass and eventually guitar join in but it’s the cut and thrust between Daltrey’s leonine roar and Pete’s tuneful pleading that gives the song its tension and best moments, though the free-form climax, a souped-up Irish jig featuring Dave Arbus (of the group East Of Eden) on violin and Keith playing as fast as he’s ever played, is quite mesmerising.

          “Teenage Wasteland”, the starting point for Pete’s imaginary generation in their search to find nirvana, became a timeless Who entity in Roger’s hands, and the downright disgust at the way things had turned out (post-Woodstock) was never better expressed in rock.

          Pete: “This was a number I wrote while I was doing these experiments with tapes on the synthesizer. Among my plans was to take a person out of the audience and feed information – height, weight, autobiographical details – about the person into the synthesizer. The synthesizer would then select notes from the pattern of that person. It would be like translating a person into music. On this particular track I programmed details about the life of Meher Baba and that provided the backing for the number.”

          The synthesizer track that dominates ‘Baba O’Riley’ is part of a longer synthesizer piece that Pete released privately on a Meher Baba tribute LP I Am in 1972. Further sections featured on his Psychoderelict solo LP in 1993.

2. Bargain

Most songs addressed to ‘you’ are sentimental love songs but the you Pete addressed in ‘Bargain’ is his avatar, Meher Baba. ‘Bargain’, which stands alongside any of the best tracks on Who’s Next, is about the search for personal identity amid a sea of conformity, with lyrics such as “I know I’m worth nothing without you” giving the Baba slant away, especially when sung by Pete in a keening counterpoint to Roger’s harsher lines.

          Although there’s a low-key synthesizer track in the background, ‘Bargain’ shows off The Who’s ensemble playing at its very best. Block chords abound, there’s a terrific guitar solo, bass lines pop and crackle and Keith’s drumming gives the song a rhythmic foundation that lifts The Who clean out of your speaker cabinets. A terrific live version of ‘Bargain’ can be found on Who’s Missing (see below).

3. Love Ain’t For Keeping

Seriously upfront acoustic guitars feature strongly throughout one of the slighter (and shortest) songs on Who’s Next, but the bouncy tempo, relatively simple compared with the album’s other songs, and understated synthesizer hold this together well, as Roger sings about the difficulty of sustaining relationships in the modern world. This track is sequenced to run almost directly into...

4. My Wife

(Entwistle)

John’s song of marital discontent gets many fans’ vote for the best he ever wrote for The Who and it provided the group with a terrific stage rocker, complete with the kind of block chords that Pete loved to play while spinning his arm windmill-style. Although this version is no slouch, John was dissatisfied with the sound and re-recorded it himself on his third solo album, Rigor Mortis Sets In (1973). On live versions, Pete would stretch out during the song’s solo and end, duelling with John to mesmerising effect. ‘My Wife’ is possibly the most ‘Who-like’ song John ever wrote, certainly the closest to Pete’s style of writing, and the lyrics, evidently about his first wife Alison, are generally hilarious. 

5. THE Song Is Over

Among the most gorgeous ballads Pete has ever written, ‘The Song Is Over’ again highlights the contrasting vocals of Roger and Pete, as well as some inspired synthesizer work, tasteful piano playing by Nicky Hopkins, and a sumptuous production. Because of its complexity, it was never played live. Doubtless intended as the climax to Lifehouse, it features as a coda the motif from ‘Pure And Easy’ (see Odds & Sods below), another key Lifehouse song that was inexplicably left off the album. The closing passages are enhanced by an almost subliminal top-of-the-scale synthesizer harmonic line that traces the melody with a marvellous undulating counterpoint.

          It is only by listening to this song, in conjunction with others like ‘Pure And Easy’, ‘Baba O’Riley’, ‘Bargain’, ‘Time Is Passing’ (which The Who never released) and ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ that the real potential of Lifehouse, at least from a purely musical point of view, can be truly appreciated. A rock opera, or at least a song cycle, based around material as strong as this would surely have been the rock masterpiece to end all rock masterpieces. When it failed to materialise in the way he envisaged, Pete’s disillusionment led to his first nervous breakdown and almost broke up The Who.

6. Getting In Tune

Using the time honoured tradition of tuning up before a show as an allegory for creating harmony between disparate societies, ‘Getting In Tune’ is another fearless rocker, perhaps not quite so breathtaking as others from the album, but certainly no slouch. Like ‘The Song Is Over’, this is a showcase for Roger at his absolute best.

7. Going Mobile

With its rolling, appropriately ‘mobile’ rhythm and absence of harsh chords, ‘Going Mobile’ lacks the grandeur of many of the other tracks on Who’s Next, but it’s a witty and worthy contender nevertheless, a ‘travelogue’ sung by Pete about the joys of driving around gypsy-style in his newly acquired holiday home. Lines about ‘hippy gypsies’ seem particularly apt in the modern era of New Age travellers.

          Apart from its tricky little acoustic rhythm signature, it’s also notable for the guitar solo in which Pete wired his electric through a device similar to a wah-wah called an ‘envelope follower’, with the result that it sounds like he’s playing underwater.

8.  Behind Blue Eyes

Opening with one of the prettiest melodies Pete has ever written, ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ rightly became a Who classic almost immediately. Crystal clear acoustic guitar, Roger at his melodic best and a fluid bass line take the first verse, velvet three-part harmonies join in for the second, then, finally, in lurches Keith to give ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ its third and final dimension.

          The faster central passage, a plea to the creator for confidence and succour, contains the most moving lyrics on the whole album, before the song reverts back to its gentle opening lines at the close. The choir-like closing vocal harmony, drenched in reverb, is deliberately – and brilliantly – sequenced to contrast sharply with the shrill electronic synthesizer riff that heralds ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’.

9.  Won’t Get Fooled Again

If there is a key song on Who’s Next, it is this lengthy call to arms that became the traditional show closer at Who concerts from this point onwards. Based on a clattering synthesizer riff that locks the group into a tight, rhythmic performance, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ is classic mid-period Who at their very best, Pete’s block chords firmly in place, John swooping up and down his bass, Roger singing his heart out and Keith an almighty presence, albeit slightly more disciplined than usual in view of the song’s inflexible structure.

          With lyrics that address the futility of revolution when the conqueror is likely to become as corrupt as the conquered, the song inspired many a clenched fist, especially when Roger came careering in at the end of the lengthy instrumental passage, declaiming the ‘bosses’ and inciting the kind of scenes that left the Bastille in ruins. His scream before the final verse is one of the most volatile vocal eruptions ever recorded.

          Pete: “It’s really a bit of a weird song. The first verse sounds like a revolution song and the second like somebody getting tired of it. It’s an angry anti-establishment song. It’s anti people who are negative. A song against the revolution because the revolution is only a revolution and a revolution is not going to change anything at all in the long run, and a lot of people are going to get hurt.”

          Edited down from its original eight minutes and thirty seconds, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ as a single reached Number 9 in the UK charts and 10 in the US.

Remixed And Remastered CD version (1995)

This version kept the single disc format, adding the following bonus tracks:

10. PURE AND EASY

This is the original version of ‘Pure And Easy’ recorded at the Record Plant, New York, on March 17-18, 1971. A later version was recorded at Olympic Studios, London, but not released until the Odds & Sods LP in 1974 (although, confusingly, John Entwistle recollected the recording stemmed from the preparatory sessions made at Mick Jagger’s mansion, Stargroves on the Rolling Stones Mobile).

          A key song from Lifehouse, ‘Pure And Easy’ is a beautiful Townshend composition that should have appeared on Who’s Next but was left off, probably because The Who weren’t 100% satisfied with the versions they’d recorded during the Lifehouse/Who’s Next sessions.  It is hard to find anything wrong with the version included here.

          ‘Pure And Easy’ is Pete’s re-write on the myth of the ‘Lost Chord’, a deeply felt song about the ultimate musical note, the loss of which symbolises mankind’s decaying relationship with the universe. It is a song of yearning, almost a tearful lament, albeit fashioned over Who-style torrents. The guitar solo builds to a tremendous climax, rather like Jimmy Page’s memorable solo in ‘Stairway To Heaven’.

          Pete thought very highly of ‘Pure And Easy’ when he wrote it - so much so that its chorus forms a coda to ‘The Song Is Over’ on Who’s Next, and he included it in demo form on his first solo album Who Came First.

          In the accompanying notes he wrote for Odds And Sods, the album on which this song first appeared in 1974, Pete wrote: “This you might know from my solo album. This is the group’s version. Not all of the group’s versions of my songs are as faithful to the original demo as this one, but as usual The ‘Oo make their terrible mark. Another track from the aborted Lifehouse story.  It’s strange, really, that this never appeared on Who’s Next, because in the context of stuff like ‘Song Is Over’, ‘Getting In Tune’ and ‘Baba O’Riley’ it explains more about the general concept behind the Lifehouse idea than any amount of rap. Not released because we wanted a single album at the time.”

          It’s remarkable to think that at this stage in his evolution as a songwriter (1971) Pete Townshend was able to discard material as strong as this.

          The Who performed ‘Pure And Easy’ on stage briefly during 1971, on stage at the Young Vic and occasionally thereafter.

11. BABY DON’T YOU DO IT

(Holland/Dozier/Holland)

A stage favourite of The Who’s from the 1964-66 era, this Marvin Gaye Motown 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.

12. NAKED EYE

This was recorded live at The Young Vic on April 26, 1971, and first released as part of the 1994 30 Years of Maximum R&B box set. A studio version, recorded at Pete’s Eel Pie Studio in 1970 appeared on the Odds & Sods LP in 1974.

          A superb stage song, ‘Naked Eye’ was developed on stage as part of the improvisation during extended versions of ‘My Generation’ (see Live At Leeds) and, once fully formed, played at virtually every Who concert in the early Seventies. It took on enormous power as Pete and Roger shared verses that contained some of Pete’s most powerful lyrical imagery ever.

          Between oblique references to drugs and guns is a deep sense of frustration and failure, of not knowing where next to run to, yet at the same time realising that to stand still is suicidal, matters uppermost in Pete’s mind as he sought to justify his continued role in The Who and The Who’s continued existence. Meanwhile the band strains at the leash, while a strange nagging riff holds the song together. This is the riff that made its first appearance at concerts during 1969 when the band were jamming at the climax to their shows, and only later did Pete add lyrics to harness it into ‘Naked Eye’.

          Like ‘Pure And Easy’, ‘Naked Eye’ is an essential Who song, far more important than many found elsewhere in the catalogue.

13. WATER

Also recorded at the same Young Vic show as above.

          An overlong, rather heavy-handed rocker, ‘Water’ is another Lifehouse reject, this one mixing a rather lascivious hook line (‘water’ rhymes with ‘daughter’ throughout) into a song in which ‘water’ becomes an allegory for quenching spiritual thirst. Considering the role it played on stage, it seemed destined for inclusion on whatever album that would follow Tommy. Eventually Pete came up with several far better songs, and despite several stage comments at various shows and concerts during 1970/71 introducing it as a possible Who single, ‘Water’ was consigned to the scrap heap, only to resurface as the UK B-side of ‘5.15’in October 1973.

14. TOO MUCH OF ANYTHING

Another Lifehouse outtake, produced by The Who, and associate producer Glyn Johns, at Olympic Studios, London, April 12, 1971.  It was first released in 1974, with Roger’s re-recorded vocal, on Odds & Sods.

          ‘Too Much Of Anything’ is a rather pedestrian rock ballad, with Nicky Hopkins on piano, that deals with greed and its consequences, but the song meanders along indifferently without the punch of other Lifehouse tracks. The Who occasionally played it on stage in 1971 but soon dropped it.

15. I DON’T EVEN KNOW MYSELF

This is a 1970 Eel Pie recording that was part of a planned EP project. Instead, it appeared as the B-side to the ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ single in June 1971, credited as ‘Don’t Know Myself’. A Lifehouse reject which wasn’t quite up to the standard of the other songs Pete was writing in 1970, ‘I Don’t Know Even Know Myself’ blends a fierce verse and chorus with a strange, country and western style middle eight which features Keith tapping a wooden block. Often played live in 1970/71, but dropped when Who’s Next provided the band with better stage material.

16. BEHIND BLUE EYES

This original version of ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ was recorded at the Record Plant, New York, on March 17-18, 1971, and features Al Kooper on organ.

Deluxe Edition (2003), also available on vinyl.

The first CD contains the nine tracks off the original album and the following bonus tracks from the Record Plant Sessions, New York, March 1971.

10. BABY DON’T YOU DO IT

(Holland/Dozier/Holland)

While the remixed and remastered CD featured a 5:13 edit with Keith’s barely audible comment, “put away your girlie magazines” at the start, the Deluxe Edition featured a new 8:20 remix of the complete version, with Roger’s barked “a bit of quiet please” command before starting and an outbreak of laughter when the track finally winds down.

11. GETTING IN TUNE

An alternative version from the Record Plant sessions, recorded March 18, 1971. Previously unreleased.

12. PURE AND EASY

This is the same take as on the remixed and remastered CD, except it has been freshly remixed and has a full ending instead of fading at 4:19.

13. LOVE AIN’T FOR KEEPING

Originally produced by Kit Lambert, this version of ‘Love Ain’t For Keeping’ was recorded on March 17, 1971.  It features a live vocal from Pete, and Leslie West on second guitar. Previously available on the revamped Odds & Sods CD in 1998, the Who’s Next version was recorded with Glyn Johns at Olympic Studios in London two months later.

14. BEHIND BLUE EYES

This is the same track as on the remixed and remastered CD. 

15. WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN

This is an early version of the song from the Record Plant sessions, recorded on March 16, 1971, featuring a different synthesizer pattern than 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 memorable 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.”

Deluxe Edition Disc 2

Pete had anticipated using live material from a number of small concerts before a specially invited audience to help develop the Lifehouse project. The Young Vic Theatre, a venue close to Waterloo Station with a reputation for the avant garde, was booked each Monday and the Rolling Stones Mobile was hired for what appears to have been the final Lifehouse show on April 26, 1971 (where the tracks on the second disc emanate from).

          Also recorded at this show but left off because of space restrictions were: ‘Baby Don’t You Do It’, ‘Pinball Wizard’, ‘See Me, Feel Me’, and ‘Boney Maronie’ (see 30 Years Of Maximum R&B).

          By all accounts, the Lifehouse experiment was physically and mentally frustrating for Pete, and the tapes were quietly shelved as he failed to bring the concept into a format his fellow band members and audience could understand.

1.  LOVE AIN’T FOR KEEPING

As informal an introduction a Who concert could ever produce, this was the electric version of ‘Love Ain’t For Keeping’ the Who used to open their UK and US concerts over the summer of 1971. Considering that this (and the majority of the Young Vic material) were working versions of what were then unreleased songs, The Who clearly show they were masters of their craft, if somewhat mystified at what Pete was trying to produce. Entwistle and Moon’s interlocking playing is particularly noteworthy.

2. PURE AND EASY

A very good version with Pete’s guitar solo not quite as developed as the recorded take, but with John’s trebly bass figures well to the fore. The additional verse from Pete’s demo (lopped off for the recorded version) is still intact. The transition to “There once was a note, Listen!” is well handled in the latter part of the performance with more fine Townshend soloing.

3. YOUNG MAN BLUES 

(Allison)

The band begin aggressively enough, if not with quite the flair as at Live At Leeds, but Pete’s guitar goes dead at 1:40 (one can only imagine the stage demonstration in anger management that Pete is not exercising!). While his guitar gets seen to, Entwistle and Moon carry on a breathless display of interplaying for 30 seconds without the slightest need for a lead guitarist or vocalist. Pete kicks back in and vents his frustration in a great guitar run until he peels off into a very beautiful blues orientated solo. 

4. TIME IS PASSING

This version highlights the great mix on the Deluxe Edition’s second disc, best heard in the contrast between Pete’s and Roger’s vocals. ‘Time Is Passing’ was first widely heard on Townshend’s solo album Who Came First, which was released in September 1972. Originally recorded during the Olympic Who’s Next sessions, a remastered Who studio version from a damaged master tape was released on the upgraded edition of Odds & Sods in 1998. 

5. BEHIND BLUE EYES

Introduced as “probably a single”, this live version is unusual in that Keith is still seated behind his drums during the opening verses (playing cymbal flourishes) when traditionally he was banished from the stage. He comes in on the beat with impeccable timing.

6. I DON’T EVEN KNOW MYSELF

Pete first rebukes a fan that dared to stand up and ‘idiot dance’ during the previous song. Pete explains that he normally wouldn’t care, but it is distracting as The Who are playing “a whole new show”. An excellent version as is to be expected for a song The Who had played live for the past year.

7. TOO MUCH OF ANYTHING

Pete introduces the song by smoking a cigar to celebrate the recent birth of his second daughter, Aminta. When a heckler pipes up, Pete retorts with “because I’ve had more fucks than you’ve had mate… Many more… When you catch up, come round”. Although Roger starts off in a key that is comfortable for his range, as the song progresses, he strains to hit the high notes. A good attempt, nevertheless and fascinating to see what worked well on stage for the band while developing what came to be known as Who’s Next.

8. GETTING IN TUNE

This sounds faster than the album version, and lasts for over six and a half minutes. John’s bass line doesn’t sound fully developed yet, and at 4:10, the bass and guitar cut out as Roger, John and Pete repeatedly sing the pay-off line “Getting in tune to the straight and narrow”.

9. BARGAIN

Pete apologises that the new songs are “sounding a wee bit lame, but they’ll come together”. This version is played a little slower – the tempo throws Moon into some confusion - but is noteworthy primarily for the lack of synthesizer that dominates the album version. The song was refined and went on to be one of the exhilarating highlights of the Who’s 1971/72 shows (check out the live version on Who’s Missing and 30 Years Of Maximum R&B) for confirmation, so why it wasn’t retained in the act remains a mystery.

10. WATER

In a live context, The Who often dragged this slight song out to an inordinate length – no exception here at 8:19 (this Young Vic version first appeared in edited form on 30 Years Of Maximum R&B and the remastered Who’s Next [1995]). While it’s debatable whether it merited such an approach, it was a cornerstone of Who shows throughout 1970/71. A studio version eventually appeared on the B-side of ‘5.15’ in October 1973.

11. MY GENERATION

“Not trying to cause a b-b-bloody big sensation,” as Rogers sings. This is a straightforward treatment of the classic and is terminated by Pete sliding his pick up the strings to herald…

12. ROAD RUNNER

(Ellas McDaniel)

Originally written and recorded by blues master Bo Diddley (a.k.a. Ellas McDaniel) in 1959, a song subsequently covered by many artists during the British R&B boom of the early to mid-Sixties, among them 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 Seventies The Who often lurched into this medium paced rocker during lengthy jams within the ‘My Generation’ framework.

          Pete: “It was an afterthought to play this, probably not a good idea.  It was a chaotic evening and I think that during this song some young boys started to fiddle around with some older women who were present, one of whom was Roger’s ex, Cleo. We lost concentration as there were no bouncers.”

          At the end if segues into the riff from…

13. NAKED EYE

Sharp-eared Who aficionados can pinpoint that this song (and certainly the middle break) had its genesis in parts of Pete’s guitar work played during the ‘My Generation’ finale of The Who’s set at Woodstock.

          A long-standing concert favourite, this version is slightly marred by Roger forgetting the lyrics during the final verse. A studio version was recorded at Eel Pie Sound in 1970 (completed at Olympic on June 7, 1971) and released in 1974 on Odds & Sods.

14. WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN

The Who’s second epic single (after ‘I Can See For Miles’) was pretty well worked out at this stage (possibly because it had already been recorded). There are some interesting guitar runs played over the synthesizer, with Roger’s definitive rock and roll scream at the conclusion, but the recorded version has a little extra drive and aggression.