Pete Townshend introduces 'Who's Next/Life House' song by song + video "The making of"

By editorial board on October 1, 2023

Who's Next is the fifth studio album by English rock band The Who. It developed from the aborted Lifehouse project, a multi-media rock opera written by the group's Pete Townshend as a follow-up to the band's 1969 album Tommy.

The project was cancelled due to its complexity and conflicts with Kit Lambert, the band's manager, but Townshend was persuaded to record the songs as a straightforward studio album.

The Who recorded Who's Next with assistance from recording engineer Glyn Johns. After producing the song "Won't Get Fooled Again" in the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, they relocated to Olympic Studios to record and mix most of the album's remaining songs.

They made prominent use of the synthesizer on the album, particularly on "Won't Get Fooled Again" and "Baba O'Riley", which were both released as singles. The cover photo was shot by Ethan Russell and made reference to the monolith in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, as it featured group members having urinated against a concrete piling protruding from a slag heap.

The new issue of Uncut Magazine comes with an exclusive Who CD featuring 10 revelatory tracks from  Who’s Next | Life House Super Deluxe Edition box set. Pete Townshend introduces track by track

The set will feature 89 previously unreleased tracks — including songs from the unfinished Life House project-

A press release touts the project as a “complete picture” of Pete Townshend’s songwriting, promising to captivate a new audience with his “visionary description of a future that has, in many ways, come true.”

The set will pack songs from the unfinished Life House project (which started In 1969 as a follow-up to The Who’s Tommy) to the 1971 rock classic that it evolved into, Who’s Next — the band’s fifth studio album.

 

Below excerpts of Pete Townashend 

“One of the interesting things about the demos for Life House was that there were two phases for me. I was right in the middle of producing the Thunderclap Newman album, Hollywood Dream, where I was working with stereo tape machines, bouncing from one to the other. Then the second half of the experiment was on eight-track, which I’d imported in. The two crafts are very different.

So a whole other avenue kind of opened up for me when it came to Life House. My demo process evolved. Listening to those eight-track tapes now – where you’ve got this big, bulky box with a tape in it, then you slam it on – takes you right back. So I think the music on this Uncut CD, with demos and studio sessions and live tracks, is an interesting selection of stuff. It gives a kind of cross-section of the mix-up that’s on the boxset. And you’re getting fucking free music!”

 

PURE AND EASY  
(PETE TOWNSHEND HOME STUDIO DEMO)
For Tommy, the founding song was ‘Amazing Journey’, which told the whole back story, the under story, of it. And ‘Pure And Easy’ did the same for Lifehouse, which is why it’s such a shame it was left off Who’s Next. It was easy to write and it was a pleasure to write. It’s very simple, just three chords, basically. I wrote it on piano.

GOING MOBILE

At the time, pollution was a massive issue, as it still is. Of course, the one thing I didn’t take into account was the amount of shit I would’ve been putting into the air myself with my big V8 American campervan. I’d used it to attend the Isle of Wight Festival, so it was part of my life at the time. And it occurred to me that it was a good theme for a song.

BEHIND BLUE EYES  
(RECORD PLANT NEW YORK SESSIONS, 1971)

This is Brick’s song, one of the villains of the Life House story. I remember I did it at home, went downstairs to the kitchen to get some tea and my wife said, ‘That song’s beautiful.’ I said, ‘Oh dear, is it?’ It’s about a guy who’s treacherous and lies and cheats, then he gets his comeuppance.

next

TIME IS PASSING
(PETE TOWNSHEND HOME STUDIO DEMO)
This would’ve been inspired by me trying to add a song to the Lifehouse story that might fit in. When I was working on demos, I was always thinking that I might have to write another song for when the film gets made, but I’ll do this for now and it will help build a pitch. Time is passing, it’s getting late. It’s not so much a political statement as much as a composer’s device.

 

WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN  
(LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO, 1971)
It’s just a great song to play in big and small venues. I think Roger’s edging towards trying to drop it from the set now, but I don’t know what we’d do to replace it. We’ve reintroduced ‘My Generation’ the way the single was done, with lots of modulations. I think Roger must spend a lot of time listening to old Who singles.

 
TOWNSHEND: I had a room full of synthesizers, where you can sit for four hours and make a nice sort of farting noise. But to actually make music is something else. So this was a device with a Lowrey organ and I found this marimba effect to make this incredible kind of Terry Riley-type sound. I definitely knew this piece was going to work from the off.

SONG IS OVER

TOWNSHEND: This is Roger and I sharing vocals. When we do get together musically in this way, it’s like we both acknowledge that there’s something greater than just the two of us. I love this song. And a lot of people love it too. It’s an aspirational, kind of corny testament to the universe.

Highlights of the 155-track format include Townshend’s demos for Life House; The Who’s 1971 session recordings at the Record Plant in New York; sessions at Olympic Studios in southwest London from 1970-1972; and, for the first time, two newly mixed and complete 1971 concerts from London’s Young Vic Theatre and San Francisco’s Civic Auditorium. Timeless highlights of those sessions and performances include ‘Baba O’Riley’, ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ and ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, on which Daltrey created the most awe-inspiring scream ever heard. Those classics continue to illuminate Who concerts to this day.

The box set also contains a 100-page hardback book with Townshend’s aforementioned introduction and new sleeve notes by Who experts and compilers Andy Neil and Matt Kent. Also included is Life House – The Graphic Novel, a newly commissioned, 172-page hardback book overseen by Townshend that tells the story behind the project. Completing the set are a 20” x 30” poster of a Who gig in Sunderland, England, on 7th May, 1970; a 25.5” x 34.25” poster of a date at Denver Coliseum, Denver, CO on 10th December, 1971; a 20-page concert programme from the Rainbow Theatre in London on 4th November, 1971; a 16-page programme from the band’s October/November 1971 tour of the UK; a collectible four pin button set; and an 8” x 10” colour photo of The Who with printed autographs.

Read more of Pete Townashend from Uncut magazine

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