“ Baba O'Riley ” (from the English - “ Baba O'Riley ”) is the song of the British rock band The Who , the first track of their 1971 studio album Who's Next . In some European countries, the song was released in October 1971 as a separate single (with “ My Wife ” on the flip side.)
| Baba O'Riley | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single The Who from Who's Next album | |||||||
| Side B | " My Wife " | ||||||
| Released | October 23, 1971 [1] | ||||||
| Format | 7 " | ||||||
| Recorded by | May 1971, Olympic Studios , London , England [2] | ||||||
| Genre | hard rock [3] | ||||||
| Duration | 5:08 | ||||||
| Producer | |||||||
| Songwriter | Pete Townsend | ||||||
| Label | Polydor | ||||||
| The Who's Singles Timeline | |||||||
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| R s | Position # 349 in the list 500 greatest songs of all time according to Rolling Stone magazine |
Most of the song is sung by Roger Daltry . Pete Townsend sings 8 measures in the middle - “Don't cry / don't raise your eye / it's only teenage wasteland”.
The name of the song is a combination of the names of two people who influenced Townsend philosophically and musically - Meher Baba and Terry Riley [4] .
Creation History
Townsend originally wrote the song “Baba O'Riley” for the rock opera Lifehouse , which was supposed to be the next rock opera of Who after “ Tommy ”, which was released in 1969. In the Rockhouse Lifehouse, a song would have been performed by a Scottish farmer named Rey at the very beginning when he is gathering his wife and two children to leave for London. When the project was canceled, eight songs from it were used on Who’s Next’s 1971 album, Baba O'Riley became its opening (first) track.
In an interview, Townsend said that “Baba O'Reilly” is about the desolation of teenagers in Woodstock , where viewers were under acid and 20 people suffered brain damage. The irony was that the listeners mistook the song for a teen jubilant hymn: “Teen desert, yes! We are all stoned “” ( 'Baba O'Riley' is about the absolute desolation of teenagers at Woodstock , where audience members were strung out on acid and 20 people had brain damage. The irony was that some listeners took the song to be a teenage celebration: 'Teenage Wasteland, yes! We're all wasted!' ) [5] .
Prizes and recognition
In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine placed the song “Baba O'Riley” performed by The Who on the 340th spot on its list of “ 500 Greatest Songs of All Time ” [6] . In the 2011 list, the song is on 349th place [7] .
In addition, the song “Baba O'Riley” performed by The Who along with three other songs - “ Go to the Mirror! ”,“ I Can See for Miles ”and“ My Generation ”- is included in the list of 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll compiled by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame [8] .
Charts
| Chart (1972) | Naive. pos. |
|---|---|
| Netherlands | 11 [1] |
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Baba O'Riley . ung Medien / hitparade.ch. Date of treatment November 28, 2011.
- ↑ Who's Next 1995 Remastered Liner Notes Page 17
- ↑ John Atkins. The Who on Record: A Critical History, 1963-1998 . - McFarland, February 1, 2000. - P. 158. - ISBN 978-0-7864-4097-9 .
- ↑ Notes on The Who: The Ultimate Collection , pp. 12. MCA Records, 2002.
- ↑ Guitar World Vol. 30 No. 9 pg. 76
- ↑ The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time :: Rolling Stone (English) (2004). Date of treatment April 12, 2017. Archived February 8, 2008. (page 4)
- ↑ The Who, 'Baba O'Riley' | 500 Greatest Songs of All Time | Rolling Stone . Rolling Stone (April 7, 2011). Date of appeal April 12, 2017.
- ↑ Experience The Music: One Hit Wonders and The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll . The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum . Date of treatment April 12, 2017. Archived June 24, 2016.