thebuzzr Iconic Albums
The Who ‘Who’s Next’ Album
First UK Number One Hit
“Who’s Next” went to No. 1 in the UK on September 18, 1971, the band’s fifth album release. This was the first and only UK number one LP, which featured a standout track ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’.
Released in August 1971, “Who’s Next” is one of the Who’s best albums. The lyrics and live performances earned itself a name as an iconic album in rock.
Most Cohesive Song Collection of The Who
The song collection is one of The Who’s most cohesive, and illustrated the thoughts of Pete Townshend’s mind. “Who’s Next” was to be a futuristic rock opera, called Lifehouse project. Pete Townshend has said they intended it as the music for a scripted film project.
Tommy Tour Inspired The Album
Townshend’s experiences on the “Tommy” tour inspired the album. They abandoned the project as a rock opera in favor of creating a more traditional rock album. The project’s intention was to explore elements of science fiction, electronics, and mysticism. Today is it known as virtual reality.
One forward-looking idea was The Grid, a way of connecting everyone in the world via the Internet. No one understood that at the time.
Iconic Album Cover
The album’s closer, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ was an epic eight and a half minute track. It became popular on classic rock radio and a concert staple for the band.
The track showcases all four members of the Who at their peak of fame. The band earned fans for Townshend’s guitar solos, and Keith Moon’s wild drumming. Fans would line up to hear Daltrey’s famous scream and the top notch bass playing of ‘The Ox’, John Entwistle.
The cover artwork was a photograph of a concrete piling with urine stains. The location was Easington Colliery, United Kingdom.
According to account by photographer Ethan Russell, urinating on cue didn’t happen. Rainwater from an empty film canister achieved the desired effect of urination. Previous to this idea, the band thought to feature obese women nudes. Another scrapped idea was Keith Moon donned in black lingerie and a brown wig holding a rope whip.
They used some photographs taken during these sessions as part of Decca’s US album promotion.
The original sky was rather gray. They stripped in the bright blue background in from an earlier idea. You could see Pete Townshend’s motorhome on an unobstructed hillside.
‘The Lifehouse’ Was A Glimpse of The Future
‘The Lifehouse’ was the future. It was a comment on a totalitarian society devoid of rock music. Oppressed youth discover embraced rock to purify and free themselves. The ‘Lifehouse’ was the place where the music happened. Young people gathered there to worship rock, almost as a religious cult.
‘Who’s Next’ is one of the best albums of all time. A comprehensive rundown on their chart history is on Billboard. Rolling Stone ranks it a twenty-eight and Guitar World at number 3 in their Classic Rock Albums list.
Who’s Next went to No. 1 in the UK on September 18, 1971, the bands’ fifth album release. This was the first and only UK No. 1 LP, which featured standout track ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’.
The project intention was to explore elements of science fiction, electronics, mysticism, and what was to become known as virtual reality.
One forward-looking idea, which at the time no-one understood as ‘The Grid’, a way of connecting everyone in the world, via the Internet.
The album’s closer, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ was an epic eight and a half minute track that became a perennial favorite on classic rock radio stations and a concert staple for the band.
The track showcases all four members of the Who at their peak, from Townshend’s crashing guitar chords, Keith Moon’s frantic drumming, Daltrey’s famous scream, and the rock-solid bass of ‘The Ox’, John Entwistle.
The cover artwork shows a photograph, taken at Easington Colliery, of the band having just urinated on a large concrete piling.
According to photographer Ethan Russell, most of the members could not urinate, so they tipped rainwater from an empty film canister to achieve the desired effect. The earlier cover design was to feature photographs of obese nude women but never appeared on the album. An alternative cover featured drummer Keith Moon dressed in black lingerie, holding a rope whip, and wearing a brown wig.
They used some photographs taken during these sessions as part of Decca’s US album promotion.
The original sky was rather grey, so they stripped in the bright blue background in from an earlier idea, depicting Pete Townshend’s motorhome on an unobstructed hillside.
People often see the photograph to be a reference to the monolith discovered on the moon in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, released about three years earlier. In 2003, VH1 named the Who’s Next album cover one of the greatest of all time.
Released in August 1971, Who’s Next is one of the Who’s best albums, and considered as one of the best written and performed rock albums of all time.
The song collection is one of The Who’s most cohesive, and phrases like ‘Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss’ from ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ illustrated the prescience of Pete Townshend’s mind.
‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ preceded the album in July 1971, peaking at #9 in the UK, and reaching #15 in the US. The album hit #1 in the UK, their first chart-topper in their homeland, and #4 in the US, who released the follow-up single ‘’Behind Blue Eyes’ in December, which reached #34.
Who’s Next was to be a futuristic rock opera, called Lifehouse project. Pete Townshend has said they intended it both recorded live, and in session, as the music for a scripted film project.
Townshend’s experiences on the Tommy tour inspired the album. They abandoned the project as a rock opera in favor of creating a more traditional rock album, which became Who’s Next.
According to the sleeve notes of the expanded CD reissue of Who’s Next, the script of Lifehouse was futuristic concerning a totalitarian society devoid of rock music. Oppressed youth discover that rock had a purifying, liberating effect upon themselves. The ‘Lifehouse’ was the place where the music happened, where young people would collect to discover rock music as a powerful, almost religious cult.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifehouse_(rock_opera)
During the recording of the album, Pete Townshend developed an infatuation with synthesizers and used the early synths and changed keyboard sounds in several modes. ‘Baba O’Riley’ and ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ have this feel.
Townshend used an envelope follower to modulate the tone spectrum of his guitar on ‘Going Mobile. This gave it a distinctive squawking sound, similar to an automatic wah-wah pedal, that degenerates into a bubbling noise at the end of the song.
Townshend’s spiritual leader Meher Baba and electronic musician Terry Riley inspired the album’s opener, ‘Baba O’Reilly’.
It set the pace for the album, with lead singer Roger Daltrey laying down authoritative vocals, joined by Townshend’s more plaintive middle eight for: ‘Don’t cry / Don’t raise your eye / It’s only teenage wasteland’.
It was Keith Moon who had inserted a violin solo at the end of the song, during which the style of the song shifts from crashing rock to an Irish folk-style beat, hence the album credit ‘violin produced by Keith Moon’. Dave Arbus, a friend of Moon’s from British progressive rock band East Of Eden, who was a popular live act on the college circuit played the violin part. In fact, East Of Eden had their only hit, the unrepresentative folk-rock ‘Jig A Jig’, in April 1971.
The Who tapped into the genuine folk-rock movement, which was a force spearheaded by Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, and Lindisfarne. Townshend and Moon are thought to be inspired in ‘Baba O’Riley’ by the ending of the song ‘Jig A Jig’.
Townshend later claimed in an interview that ‘Baba O’Riley’ was about what he witnessed during the Who’s performance at Woodstock. ‘Baba O’Riley’ was about the absolute desolation of teenagers at Woodstock, with many of the audience incapacitated by LSD or other drugs. The contradiction was that it had become a celebration: ‘Teenage Wasteland / We’re all wasted!’
Who’s Next is one of the best albums of all time by VH1 (#13) and Rolling Stone (#28) and was also ranked #3 in Guitar World’s Greatest Classic Rock Albums list.
