Masterpiece. This must be one of the most mistitled songs in history. You often see people refer to it as Teenage Wasteland but it is called Baba O'Riley. Pinball Wizard next, that one's got a great story.
I've never seen pinball wizard so I don't really know the story but now that I know Helen Keller was a complete lie I'm wondering if this was a lie too
The title refers to the band's guitarist Pete Townshend's two leading philosophical and musical inspirations: Maher Baba and Terry Riley. Townshend said the song was about "the absolute desolation of teenagers at Woodstock, where audience members were strung out on acid, and 20 people had brain damage.
Please do more Who. I'd like to give you a list of 33 songs you should hear by The Who ... but I'll content myself with giving 3 songs: "I Can See For Miles," "My Generation" and "Won't Get Fooled Again"
This song was originally meant to be part of a multimedia experience called the Lifehouse project. It was to supposed to be about a dystopian future world where people live in their in their own VR worlds and the rest of the world is left to waste. There was supposed to be a movie/concert/album experience but Pete never got a handle on it. Instead many of the songs ended up on their next album, Who's Next. In the 2000s Pete Townshend released a box set called Lifehouse with all the original demos that he made.
A lot of young fellas intro to learning rock guitar was crunching out power chords and fantasies they were Pete Townshend windmilling away on his SG (my first new guitar; a choice inspired by Townshend one of the ultimate 60s & 70s rock demi-gods
The Who are a rock band that's been around since the 60s. Think around the British Invasion era, like Beatles and Stones, but with a distinct different sound. Their early stuff had more of a near r&b feel, but they started becoming more what would become hard rock. Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey still tour to this day and have got to be near 80. Fun fact: their drummer, Zak Starkey is the son of Ringo Starr and was godson of Keith Moon, who gave him his first set of drums as a kid.
I saw them in concert recently, and my two biggest takeaways were: 1. Roger Daltrey still has the pipes. Him doing the yell in Won't Get Fooled Again was absolutely incredible. My best single moment ever at a concert. 2. Zak Starkey was super impressive. Moon is my favorite drummer ever, so I would've really loved to have seen him, but Starkey certainly didn't miss a beat at all.
The Who is an iconic British classic rock band, right up there with Zeppelin, Rush, Pink Floyd, etc. They have a huge catalog of classic rock n roll. You've probably heard their songs but didnt know it was them. They were more of a psychedelic rock band in the 60's but progressed to a harder rock sound in the 70's. They also basically invented the "Rock Opera" concept with albums "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia". Tommy was produced into a full stage production that has run on and off broadway for decades. Check out "My Generation" or "Magic Bus" for their earlier psychedelic sound. Check out "Won't Get Fooled Again" if you want an iconic hard rock banger.
You said you wanted more, you should check out "Eminence Front". So effing groovy. Reminds me of GTA San Andreas every time I hear it. It played on K-DUST radio while I cruised through the desert 🏜️
The instrument at the beginning is a Lowrey Berkshire Deluxe TBO-1 home organ (1968 model) with Marimba repeat turned on. At least that’s what the internet tells me …
All the CSI programs. Had WHO tracks as their title music The title refers to the band's guitarist Pete Townshend's two leading philosophical and musical inspirations: Maher Baba and Terry Riley. Townshend said the song was about "the absolute desolation of teenagers at Woodstock, where audience members were strung out on acid, and 20 people had brain damage.
This was my dad's all time favourite band. Legendary drummer Keith the loon moon, the coolest bassist John the ox entwhistle, guitarist Pete Townsend and of course one of the best rock voices Roger daltry. They are amazing seen them live 4 times although sadly I am too young to have seen the original line up. If you ever seen CSI you know the who their songs were the title music. They were from London originally and part of the British invasion to the USA. There are so many great songs. Who are you, my generation, won't get fooled again, pinball Wizard. Also check out the 2 rock operas they did Tommy and quadrophenia
So the title is a portmanteau of sorts. The first part of the title comes from Meher Baba, who was Pete Townshend's spiritual guru. The second part comes from Terry Riley, an experimental, minimalist composer Townshend admired - many of the keyboard riffs and sound effects on Who's Next were a result of Riley's influence. According to the Who's Next liner notes, Townshend wrote it as his vision of what would happen if the spirit of Meher Baba was fed into a computer and transformed into music. The result would be Baba in the style of Terry Riley, or "Baba O'Riley", kind of like how Pink Floyd got their name from two blues musicians Syd Barrett admired, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Alice Cooper once said "People have said a lot of things about me and 60-70 percent of it is true. The same people only know about 10 percent of the truth about Keith Moon(The Who's drummer)." He definitely earned the title of Moon the Loon, on and offstage. Also gotta get to My Generation, Pinball Wizard and one of my favorites, The Seeker
Who's Next is literally an album of back-to-back bangers. For my money "The Song Is Over" is the best of the lot, but I can't fault anyone for having a different favorite.
Townshend told Guitar Player, "'Baba O' Riley' is about the absolute devastation of teenagers at Woodstock, where everybody was smacked out on acid and 20 people, or whatever, had brain damage."
Song Info: The title refers to the band's guitarist Pete Townshend's two leading philosophical and musical inspirations: Maher Baba and Terry Riley. Townshend (the guitarist) said the song was about "the absolute desolation of teenagers at Woodstock, where audience members were strung out on acid, and 20 people had brain damage Roger Daltrey (the singer) said in a recent interview that “‘Teenage Wasteland’ speaks to generation after generation. The bridge - ‘Don’t cry / Don’t raise your eye / It’s only teenage wasteland’ - if that doesn’t say more about the new generation, I don’t know what does.” "The main advice I give youngsters is to be very aware of what you are getting into on social media. Because life is not looking down at screens, it is looking up. We are heading for catastrophe with the addiction that is going on in the younger generation. Your life will disappear if you are not careful. You are being controlled, and that is terrible." Save those screen-time-arguments for another day. Try a new tactic - drill 'Baba O'riley' lyrics into your kids' memories.
Great to see you guys react to The Who, awesome song in general and if you check out more from them, my personal fave is Behind Blue Eyes, which you might be familiar with from a cover by, of all people, Limp Bizkit~ A few fun facts: -The song is named after two people who inspired The Who's guitarist, Pete Townsend, at the time--Spiritualist Meher Baba, and experimental composer Terry Riley. The song is often erroneously called Teenage Wasteland as that is the lyric most people latch onto, and the lyric has two explanations that have been given again by Pete Townsend; After a festival performance in 1969 they saw the whole field covered in leftover garbage from the show, which inspired the line. But in another interview, he explained it was inspired by teenagers at Woodstock, the following is a quote from Townsend. "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!'" Great reaction guys, you should react to Genesis-Jesus He Knows Me
Trash Talkers; The first time I saw The Who around 73, it was dark, the crowd was nervous, and all of a sudden you heard the bang of Townsend pounding his guitar as he slid across the stage on his knees. My hair stood up! At their peak, no one was better. Barbara O'Rielly was off the last album, before the great drummer Keith Moon died. Great, great, band!
You’re typewriting skills are spot on! It reminded me of old cartoons where they would eat corn on the cob really fast across till the end, then slap it back to the next row. 😂😂😂
I've always interpreted this song as a teenager who's sick and tired of the daily grind and wants to go travel with his girl, Sally. Teenage Wasteland, to me, meant the place they come from. It's a wasteland for other teenagers as all they do is work and get by.
@@kenkonwick6660 I think you're both right...whether it's a literal wasteland of teenagers on a battlefield, or a wasteland of teenagers without any hope of a fulfilling life...the songwriter is perhaps commenting on how the young people have the right idea (Put their back into their living, don't fight to prove they're right, don't need to be forgiven, in conclusion: Be yourself and have confidence in yourself) but somehow it seemed like when he looked around all he saw was a teenage wasteland (Which they came up with after they saw the drug use and trash left by fans after the 1969 Woodstock concert according to Pete Townsend)...but for every person at Woodstock, there were 5+ people who were drafted to serve in Vietnam to kill and create that literal teenage wasteland...
I’ve always thought that The Who & The Doors laid the foundation for what becoame punk …..maybe not sonically but attitude wise & their disdain for authority….also check out The Who song “The Seeker”
I was in that first episode of Dukes of Hazzard 1978 when the General Lee slides onto the Covington square chased by Roscoe! Me & my dad were standing in front of Harper's Dime Store {red building} & thats my dad's '72 Plymouth Fury II in front {RUclips video Dukes of Hazzard : Chase From 1st Episode} & I was on the other side of the square when Burt Reynolds landed his plane to get beer in Cannonball Run 1981, I was one of the folks getting out of the way {RUclips video Cannonball Plane}! My 1978 Ttop Z28 was in an episode of Heat of the Night in 1990 but I have watched every episode & never seen it so it was probably edited out! Great times growing up there PEACE LOVE n HIPPYNESS ✌💖☮
What an amazing song, y’all have most likely heard this in some movie or show before that’s why it instantly popped in your head. The drumming on this track is amazing, and of course the iconic riff
Besides what I just posted, people also related these lyrics to the Vietnam War, with lines like "Out here in the fields, I fight for my meals," "I don't need to fight, to prove I'm right," "take my hand, We'll travel south cross land, Put out the fire, and don't look past my shoulder," and referring to it as a "teenage wasteland."
I love your guys' reactions. I've been going through a lot of your catalogue and just realized now that this was actually really recent. You guys HAVE to do Won't Get Fooled Again, also by The Who, as almost every other comment on this page has said. It's super iconic. One of the best rock songs ever.
Baba is Meher Baba, Pete Townshend’s philosophical & spiritual inspiration. Terry is Terry Riley, his other one, he blended the names into Baba O’Riley. Teenage Wasteland was Pete’s observation & commentary about Woodstock: they’re all wasted. Love the channel guys!
I've never known anyone with a first name was Baba, but I worked with a guy who has the last name Baba. This is a great song. Pete Townsend writes great music. The Who is rock music.
Meher Baba was an Indian spiritual leader/mystic who Pete Townshend was influenced by in the late Sixties and early Seventies. Hence, "Baba." Then Townshend added the "O'Reilly" as a way of adding the "everyman" aspect to the song.
The reason it’s confusing is that Peter Townsend had two pieces of a different songs that were unfinished. He gave them to another guy to finish. The other guy ended up putting the two pieces together and got the song and returned it to Townsend . The first part is about a shaman and the other would have been Teenage Wasteland if the songs weren’t combined but Townsend called it Baba O’Riely.
This was the anthem of many my age growing up and living through this era. Midnight movies showing Tommy, Rust Never Sleeps, Help, Yellow Submarine, Rocky Horror Show and the Wall were the best of times.
Three of their songs were used as the theme songs for the original CSI, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY. They are Who are You, Won’t Get Fooled Again and Baba O’Riley.
UFC always uses this song as their intro at live PPV events. Lights turn off and this starts playing. Goosebumps. Fell in love with this song seeing that intro!
Ah, I recall those signature windmill moves as Townshend blasts those power chords. Moon's sublime chaos contrasting perfectly with "The Ox" standing virtually motionless pounding the bass line, driving you through the song. Daltry has one of the best, most recognizable and influential voices in rock. Last time I saw The Who was in 2000 at The Gorge amphitheater in George (Washington state. Yes there is a George, Washington 💯🙂). Zach Starkey, Ringo's son, was behind the drum kit for that tour.
That instrument that starts the song (and continues all the way through) is a Hurdy Gurdy. They date back at least 900 years and are still played in many parts of Europe in traditional musics. And for the next Who song try ...'The Real Me' ... Entwhistles bass playing will blow your minds.
One of the greatest songs in Rock! The Who is considered Rock and some feel the Fathers of Punk Rock. These guys are in their 70's and still doing concerts.
I feel The Who and many of the bands from the 60's and 70's can be put into one of two categories/genres and they are both pretty much the same: Rock, Rock and Roll or Classic Rock. Okay make that 3. lol
Never got into The Who like other people did… but they have some really good songs! I Can See for Miles, Love Reign O’er Me (which Pearl Jam did a great cover of), I Can’t Explain, Squeeze Box, Young Man Blues (cover of an old jazz song, which in turn was covered by the Foo Fighters) 😊
Answer : The title refers to the band's guitarist Pete Townshend's two leading philosophical and musical inspirations: Maher Baba and Terry Riley. Townshend said the song was about "the absolute desolation of teenagers at Woodstock, where audience members were strung out on acid, and 20 people had brain damage.
The ending of this song always reminded me of the movie spinal tap when the dwarfs are dancing around the monolith of Stonehenge and it's smaller than they are
You’re also absolutely right. It came from Teenage Wasteland which was to be a song on the follow up to Tommy called Lifehouse. That never materialised so Townshend mixed, mashed and put it together as this song called Baba O’Riley.
If you watch crime series you have heard several The Who songs: this was the tune for CSI New York, but all four CSI series have used their songs. As for the intro: guitarist/composer Pete Townshend was a pioneer of using synthesizers in Rock music.
Think we have all commented before all the CSI investigation programmes used The Who as their soundtrack This one being CSI: New York. Love The Who, they were a big influence on emerging indie groups in the UK as well as the punk movement in the late 70s early 80s. However, there are a lot of early 60s/70s UK groups that also became influential. Like Pink Floyd, Queen, The Beatles, etc. I like Behind Blue Eyes. Please review Carter USM - Sheriff Fatman and Faithless - Mass Destruction.
The first part of the title comes from Meher Baba, who was Pete Townshend's spiritual guru. The second part comes from Terry Riley, an experimental, minimalist composer Townshend admired - many of the keyboard riffs and sound effects on Who's Next were a result of Riley's influence. According to the Who's Next liner notes, Townshend wrote it as his vision of what would happen if the spirit of Meher Baba was fed into a computer and transformed into music. The result would be Baba in the style of Terry Riley, or "Baba O'Riley."
Got into the Who late after my 20s, early I was classic rock then high school was hard rock/heavy metal. These guys can really bring some excellent music; Daltrey’s vocals just shock on this one & Keith Moon is power. Freaking banger
The open instrument is an electronic organ, specifically, the Lowrey Berkshire Deluxe TBO-1, which sounds like it was named after an upmarket Star Wars droid
According to Pete Townsend, the song was inspired by “the absolute desolation of teenagers at Woodstock, where audience members were strung out on acid and 20 people had brain damage."
The song was written for the film. 'Quadrophenia' - it's about a young guy that gets into gang violence between Mods and Rockers but ultimately regrets it. He wasn't really a bad guy he just got sucked into it.
Nope. This song was part of an abandoned project called “Lifehouse”, the remnants of which were recorded as “Who’s Next”. The album “Quadrophenia” was recorded two years later in ‘73, had a very different story, and was filmed right at the end of the decade.
Baba was an indian guru who was followed by Pete Townshend. The Riley part is a tribute to Terry Riley who's minimalist works Rainbow in Curved Air and In C were widely recognised as masterpieces
According to Wikipedia, "The song's title refers to two of Townshend's major inspirations at the time: Meher Baba, and Terry Riley." (Baba was an Indian spiritual guru; Riley was a composer/musician.)
Keith Moon played the violin on this track. My buddy Matt thought this song was about running down to Mexico to drink and the wasteland being the highway heading north. I like that.
Pete Tonshend (guitarest and song writer/composer) essentially created the power chord popularized by Zep, Sabath and every heavy metal band that came after (not saying the who was a heavy metal band here). On top of that Pete was experimenting with keyboards and sequencers... in 1971 (as on this song). All of electronic music probably owes a small small degree of gratitude to his experimenting.
BabaOriely is my all time fav!! The name derives from a live practice of Pete Townsend. Pete had a MIDI programmable keyboard on tour with the Who. Each night Pete would invite a member of the audience up to the stage and would enter details of the fans life to the keyboard program and after a few questions, he would ask the keyboard to play a melody based on the fans information. The wild keyboard line in the song is what the computer put together when a fan maned Baba Oriely was chosen one night and told his story. It is an amazing piece of art!!!
Great song and killer reaction! I have a request since I'm here...lol. I'd like to hear Eddie Ojeda featuring Dee Snider doing "Elenore Rigby" originally recorded by The Beatles. Awesome cover tune and you two seem to dig on covers. Thx again for the time. 🤘👍
The reason why it’s confusing is that Peter Townsend had two pieces of unfinished songs that he had no idea how to finish. He handed them to another guy to finish. The other guy just put them together and got one song and then gave it back to Townsend as the song. The first part was about a shaman or spiritual leader and the second part would have been Teenage Wasteland. Which was about teenagers wasting their youth. He just called it Baba O’ Riley . The introduction of this song was made famous in the 80s by NBC when they used it for Friday night videos where they showed music videos late on Friday night.
The who was in the Guinness book of records for being the loudest band based of decibel level, you will never guess what band broke that record i still don't beleive it but it was Hanson, yes Hanson is louder than the who.
Guess Who is Canadian The Who is British Oh boy if you like this song you should be going down their ginormous rabbit hole. Hint: for a song you for sure will recognize: theme song to CSI Vegas. Guys, it’s rock ‘n’ roll plain and simple. Hard rock. Part of the British Invasion with psychedelic elements & sometimes other elements. This song has Indian elements.
Won't Get Fooled Again. One of the best rock songs ever made
The best.
The live version at Shepperton - Rogers primal scream and Petes kneeslide - one of rocks finest moments!!
"Rain On Me."
Absolutely agree!
Masterpiece. This must be one of the most mistitled songs in history. You often see people refer to it as Teenage Wasteland but it is called Baba O'Riley. Pinball Wizard next, that one's got a great story.
You ever see the who movie? I forget what it's called😊lol
H it's called "tommy" right?
@@kristaspecht Yep it's called Tommy
I've never seen pinball wizard so I don't really know the story but now that I know Helen Keller was a complete lie I'm wondering if this was a lie too
@@kristaspecht yes and Quadrophenia is the other movie. They have 2 movies.
The title refers to the band's guitarist Pete Townshend's two leading philosophical and musical inspirations: Maher Baba and Terry Riley. Townshend said the song was about "the absolute desolation of teenagers at Woodstock, where audience members were strung out on acid, and 20 people had brain damage.
You seem to understand the meaning of 'strung out' even less than you understand how LSD works.
@@Redd_Fawkes that was a quote from Townsend, blame him if it's not correct
@@Redd_Fawkes so you can't get "strung out" on LSD? please enlighten us Mr. Timothy O'Leary
@@Redd_Fawkes No, that wasn;t the issue. The issue was they had serious problems with small dosages, many took way too much.
It was the brown acid...it was bad. They warned people about over loudspeaker. I was around then, were you?
Please do more Who. I'd like to give you a list of 33 songs you should hear by The Who ... but I'll content myself with giving 3 songs: "I Can See For Miles," "My Generation" and "Won't Get Fooled Again"
won't get fooled again perfect for the political climate nowadays
"Rain On Me."
The who is iconic they music makes me relax and chill with this song makes so happy
This song was originally meant to be part of a multimedia experience called the Lifehouse project. It was to supposed to be about a dystopian future world where people live in their in their own VR worlds and the rest of the world is left to waste. There was supposed to be a movie/concert/album experience but Pete never got a handle on it. Instead many of the songs ended up on their next album, Who's Next. In the 2000s Pete Townshend released a box set called Lifehouse with all the original demos that he made.
CSI theme songs by 'THE WHO'
CSI - Who Are You
CSI: Miami - Wont Get Fooled Again
CSI: NY - Baba O'Riley
CSI: Cyber - I Can See For Miles
"Just that simple chord..." says Hollywood. Yep, those power chords (and his windmill delivery of them) are a trademark of Pete Townshend.
A lot of young fellas intro to learning rock guitar was crunching out power chords and fantasies they were Pete Townshend windmilling away on his SG (my first new guitar; a choice inspired by Townshend one of the ultimate 60s & 70s rock demi-gods
The Who are a rock band that's been around since the 60s. Think around the British Invasion era, like Beatles and Stones, but with a distinct different sound. Their early stuff had more of a near r&b feel, but they started becoming more what would become hard rock. Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey still tour to this day and have got to be near 80. Fun fact: their drummer, Zak Starkey is the son of Ringo Starr and was godson of Keith Moon, who gave him his first set of drums as a kid.
I saw them in concert recently, and my two biggest takeaways were: 1. Roger Daltrey still has the pipes. Him doing the yell in Won't Get Fooled Again was absolutely incredible. My best single moment ever at a concert. 2. Zak Starkey was super impressive. Moon is my favorite drummer ever, so I would've really loved to have seen him, but Starkey certainly didn't miss a beat at all.
The Who is an iconic British classic rock band, right up there with Zeppelin, Rush, Pink Floyd, etc. They have a huge catalog of classic rock n roll. You've probably heard their songs but didnt know it was them. They were more of a psychedelic rock band in the 60's but progressed to a harder rock sound in the 70's. They also basically invented the "Rock Opera" concept with albums "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia". Tommy was produced into a full stage production that has run on and off broadway for decades. Check out "My Generation" or "Magic Bus" for their earlier psychedelic sound. Check out "Won't Get Fooled Again" if you want an iconic hard rock banger.
Rush isn't british.
yes, they're an iconic Candadian classic rock band, right up there with Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and The Who
"WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN" Perfect for today's political climate. and you want rock this is the band that put ROCK in rock and roll
You said you wanted more, you should check out "Eminence Front". So effing groovy. Reminds me of GTA San Andreas every time I hear it. It played on K-DUST radio while I cruised through the desert 🏜️
The instrument at the beginning is a Lowrey Berkshire Deluxe TBO-1 home organ (1968 model) with Marimba repeat turned on. At least that’s what the internet tells me …
All the CSI programs. Had WHO tracks as their title music
The title refers to the band's guitarist Pete Townshend's two leading philosophical and musical inspirations: Maher Baba and Terry Riley. Townshend said the song was about "the absolute desolation of teenagers at Woodstock, where audience members were strung out on acid, and 20 people had brain damage.
The drummer was one of the best in the world. Keith Moon ( a.k.a Moon the Loon) R.I.P.
Absolutely love the who! Great reaction as always guys
This was my dad's all time favourite band. Legendary drummer Keith the loon moon, the coolest bassist John the ox entwhistle, guitarist Pete Townsend and of course one of the best rock voices Roger daltry. They are amazing seen them live 4 times although sadly I am too young to have seen the original line up. If you ever seen CSI you know the who their songs were the title music. They were from London originally and part of the British invasion to the USA. There are so many great songs. Who are you, my generation, won't get fooled again, pinball Wizard. Also check out the 2 rock operas they did Tommy and quadrophenia
I love the akaś mentioned, The Who was an impression on my life. You are so fortunate with your grounding in this wonderful music, because of you DAD.
Sadly I have only seen them once.
In 1988.
Was my first concert ever. And remains my best ever as well.
So the title is a portmanteau of sorts. The first part of the title comes from Meher Baba, who was Pete Townshend's spiritual guru. The second part comes from Terry Riley, an experimental, minimalist composer Townshend admired - many of the keyboard riffs and sound effects on Who's Next were a result of Riley's influence. According to the Who's Next liner notes, Townshend wrote it as his vision of what would happen if the spirit of Meher Baba was fed into a computer and transformed into music. The result would be Baba in the style of Terry Riley, or "Baba O'Riley", kind of like how Pink Floyd got their name from two blues musicians Syd Barrett admired, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.
Alice Cooper once said "People have said a lot of things about me and 60-70 percent of it is true. The same people only know about 10 percent of the truth about Keith Moon(The Who's drummer)." He definitely earned the title of Moon the Loon, on and offstage.
Also gotta get to My Generation, Pinball Wizard and one of my favorites, The Seeker
This was used for the theme tune to CSI New York, all CSI series use a Who track
Who's Next is literally an album of back-to-back bangers. For my money "The Song Is Over" is the best of the lot, but I can't fault anyone for having a different favorite.
Townshend told Guitar Player, "'Baba O' Riley' is about the absolute devastation of teenagers at Woodstock, where everybody was smacked out on acid and 20 people, or whatever, had brain damage."
Song Info: The title refers to the band's guitarist Pete Townshend's two leading philosophical and musical inspirations: Maher Baba and Terry Riley. Townshend (the guitarist) said the song was about "the absolute desolation of teenagers at Woodstock, where audience members were strung out on acid, and 20 people had brain damage
Roger Daltrey (the singer) said in a recent interview that “‘Teenage Wasteland’ speaks to generation after generation. The bridge - ‘Don’t cry / Don’t raise your eye / It’s only teenage wasteland’ - if that doesn’t say more about the new generation, I don’t know what does.”
"The main advice I give youngsters is to be very aware of what you are getting into on social media. Because life is not looking down at screens, it is looking up. We are heading for catastrophe with the addiction that is going on in the younger generation. Your life will disappear if you are not careful. You are being controlled, and that is terrible."
Save those screen-time-arguments for another day. Try a new tactic - drill 'Baba O'riley' lyrics into your kids' memories.
Great to see you guys react to The Who, awesome song in general and if you check out more from them, my personal fave is Behind Blue Eyes, which you might be familiar with from a cover by, of all people, Limp Bizkit~
A few fun facts:
-The song is named after two people who inspired The Who's guitarist, Pete Townsend, at the time--Spiritualist Meher Baba, and experimental composer Terry Riley.
The song is often erroneously called Teenage Wasteland as that is the lyric most people latch onto, and the lyric has two explanations that have been given again by Pete Townsend; After a festival performance in 1969 they saw the whole field covered in leftover garbage from the show, which inspired the line. But in another interview, he explained it was inspired by teenagers at Woodstock, the following is a quote from Townsend. "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!'"
Great reaction guys, you should react to Genesis-Jesus He Knows Me
Trash Talkers; The first time I saw The Who around 73, it was dark, the crowd was nervous, and all of a sudden you heard the bang of Townsend pounding his guitar as he slid across the stage on his knees. My hair stood up! At their peak, no one was better. Barbara O'Rielly was off the last album, before the great drummer Keith Moon died. Great, great, band!
You’re typewriting skills are spot on! It reminded me of old cartoons where they would eat corn on the cob really fast across till the end, then slap it back to the next row. 😂😂😂
I've always interpreted this song as a teenager who's sick and tired of the daily grind and wants to go travel with his girl, Sally.
Teenage Wasteland, to me, meant the place they come from. It's a wasteland for other teenagers as all they do is work and get by.
Ive always considered teenage wasteland as battlefields where young teenage soldiers lives were wasted in combat, either thru fighting or dying
@@kenkonwick6660 I think you're both right...whether it's a literal wasteland of teenagers on a battlefield, or a wasteland of teenagers without any hope of a fulfilling life...the songwriter is perhaps commenting on how the young people have the right idea (Put their back into their living, don't fight to prove they're right, don't need to be forgiven, in conclusion: Be yourself and have confidence in yourself) but somehow it seemed like when he looked around all he saw was a teenage wasteland (Which they came up with after they saw the drug use and trash left by fans after the 1969 Woodstock concert according to Pete Townsend)...but for every person at Woodstock, there were 5+ people who were drafted to serve in Vietnam to kill and create that literal teenage wasteland...
I’ve always thought that The Who & The Doors laid the foundation for what becoame punk …..maybe not sonically but attitude wise & their disdain for authority….also check out The Who song “The Seeker”
This song came out in 1971!
💜💫✌🏼🎵
We were all teenagers, at some point! 😉
I was in that first episode of Dukes of Hazzard 1978 when the General Lee slides onto the Covington square chased by Roscoe! Me & my dad were standing in front of Harper's Dime Store {red building} & thats my dad's '72 Plymouth Fury II in front {RUclips video Dukes of Hazzard : Chase From 1st Episode} & I was on the other side of the square when Burt Reynolds landed his plane to get beer in Cannonball Run 1981, I was one of the folks getting out of the way {RUclips video Cannonball Plane}! My 1978 Ttop Z28 was in an episode of Heat of the Night in 1990 but I have watched every episode & never seen it so it was probably edited out! Great times growing up there PEACE LOVE n HIPPYNESS ✌💖☮
What an amazing song, y’all have most likely heard this in some movie or show before that’s why it instantly popped in your head. The drumming on this track is amazing, and of course the iconic riff
😂😂😂😂 The typewriter is the dance move we all can do. Love it 😍
The elevator is the easiest dance. It has no steps.
Take note from The WHO for next Halloween, some creepy stuff: "Boris the spider" and "Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
You remember that song from the CSI:New York tv show,MR.Hollywood six!👍🏻
Besides what I just posted, people also related these lyrics to the Vietnam War, with lines like "Out here in the fields, I fight for my meals," "I don't need to fight, to prove I'm right," "take my hand, We'll travel south cross land, Put out the fire, and don't look past my shoulder," and referring to it as a "teenage wasteland."
I love your guys' reactions. I've been going through a lot of your catalogue and just realized now that this was actually really recent.
You guys HAVE to do Won't Get Fooled Again, also by The Who, as almost every other comment on this page has said. It's super iconic. One of the best rock songs ever.
The solo at the end is by Dave Arbus (on the violin or fiddle), when they do it live Roger Daltrey plays the solo on harmonica, he's pretty good.
Baba O’Riley, ‘Who Are You’, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ and ‘I Can See For Miles’ we’re all used as the theme songs for some of the CSI tv shows.
They are rock/hard rock. Won’t get fooled again will hook you
Baba is Meher Baba, Pete Townshend’s philosophical & spiritual inspiration. Terry is Terry Riley, his other one, he blended the names into Baba O’Riley. Teenage Wasteland was Pete’s observation & commentary about Woodstock: they’re all wasted. Love the channel guys!
I've never known anyone with a first name was Baba, but I worked with a guy who has the last name Baba. This is a great song. Pete Townsend writes great music. The Who is rock music.
Baba is a title.
Meher Baba was an Indian spiritual leader/mystic who Pete Townshend was influenced by in the late Sixties and early Seventies. Hence, "Baba." Then Townshend added the "O'Reilly" as a way of adding the "everyman" aspect to the song.
The name of the song is never mentioned in the song
Actually, the O'Reilly refers to Terry Riley, a composer of avant-garde music.
I like how many decades it's been since this song came out and we're still finding new ways to say that Pete Townshend is a pretentious dick.
The reason it’s confusing is that Peter Townsend had two pieces of a different songs that were unfinished. He gave them to another guy to finish. The other guy ended up putting the two pieces together and got the song and returned it to Townsend . The first part is about a shaman and the other would have been Teenage Wasteland if the songs weren’t combined but Townsend called it Baba O’Riely.
Sorry I forgot to back out of your post.
This was the anthem of many my age growing up and living through this era. Midnight movies showing Tommy, Rust Never Sleeps, Help, Yellow Submarine, Rocky Horror Show and the Wall were the best of times.
Three of their songs were used as the theme songs for the original CSI, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY. They are Who are You, Won’t Get Fooled Again and Baba O’Riley.
UFC always uses this song as their intro at live PPV events. Lights turn off and this starts playing. Goosebumps. Fell in love with this song seeing that intro!
Madison Square Garden uses it for Rangers hockey games also.
"Baba" is the Slavic term for grandmother - referencing the turbo folk synth beat and the violin at the end.
the singer roger daltrey did a solo album call (under a raging moon) on that song,there;s 8 drummers,sick sequence,🎤🥁
" TEENAGE WASTELAND! "
(* " Baba O'Riley " )
- The Who 🇬🇧
✌🏻😸✌🏻
Hollywood, you may recognize this from the CSI TV franchise. All the show used The Who’s music for their intros. This was used for CSI NY.
From same album, Behind Blue Eyes. Hauntingly Beautiful
Ah, I recall those signature windmill moves as Townshend blasts those power chords. Moon's sublime chaos contrasting perfectly with "The Ox" standing virtually motionless pounding the bass line, driving you through the song. Daltry has one of the best, most recognizable and influential voices in rock.
Last time I saw The Who was in 2000 at The Gorge amphitheater in George (Washington state. Yes there is a George, Washington 💯🙂). Zach Starkey, Ringo's son, was behind the drum kit for that tour.
That instrument that starts the song (and continues all the way through) is a Hurdy Gurdy. They date back at least 900 years and are still played in many parts of Europe in traditional musics. And for the next Who song try ...'The Real Me' ... Entwhistles bass playing will blow your minds.
One of the greatest songs in Rock! The Who is considered Rock and some feel the Fathers of Punk Rock. These guys are in their 70's and still doing concerts.
I feel The Who and many of the bands from the 60's and 70's can be put into one of two categories/genres and they are both pretty much the same: Rock, Rock and Roll or Classic Rock. Okay make that 3. lol
Such a good song! Love the who! Next "pinball wizard"please!( Oh ya,This song plays in the beginning of CSI NY. LOL)🙂🤓
Never got into The Who like other people did… but they have some really good songs! I Can See for Miles, Love Reign O’er Me (which Pearl Jam did a great cover of), I Can’t Explain, Squeeze Box, Young Man Blues (cover of an old jazz song, which in turn was covered by the Foo Fighters) 😊
Answer : The title refers to the band's guitarist Pete Townshend's two leading philosophical and musical inspirations: Maher Baba and Terry Riley. Townshend said the song was about "the absolute desolation of teenagers at Woodstock, where audience members were strung out on acid, and 20 people had brain damage.
When Pete Townsend looked out on the crowd at Woodstock, he thought "This is teenage wastelland."
The ending of this song always reminded me of the movie spinal tap when the dwarfs are dancing around the monolith of Stonehenge and it's smaller than they are
You’re also absolutely right. It came from Teenage Wasteland which was to be a song on the follow up to Tommy called Lifehouse. That never materialised so Townshend mixed, mashed and put it together as this song called Baba O’Riley.
If you watch crime series you have heard several The Who songs: this was the tune for CSI New York, but all four CSI series have used their songs. As for the intro: guitarist/composer Pete Townshend was a pioneer of using synthesizers in Rock music.
Think we have all commented before all the CSI investigation programmes used The Who as their soundtrack
This one being CSI: New York.
Love The Who, they were a big influence on emerging indie groups in the UK as well as the punk movement in the late 70s early 80s. However, there are a lot of early 60s/70s UK groups that also became influential. Like Pink Floyd, Queen, The Beatles, etc.
I like Behind Blue Eyes.
Please review Carter USM - Sheriff Fatman and Faithless - Mass Destruction.
The first part of the title comes from Meher Baba, who was Pete Townshend's spiritual guru. The second part comes from Terry Riley, an experimental, minimalist composer Townshend admired - many of the keyboard riffs and sound effects on Who's Next were a result of Riley's influence. According to the Who's Next liner notes, Townshend wrote it as his vision of what would happen if the spirit of Meher Baba was fed into a computer and transformed into music. The result would be Baba in the style of Terry Riley, or "Baba O'Riley."
I remember listening to this in the late 80s driving around drunk with my buddies. Good time's.
Two great songs to check out, which might not have been mentioned by others, include "Bargain" and "Love, Reign O'er Me." Great energy & passion.
Got into the Who late after my 20s, early I was classic rock then high school was hard rock/heavy metal. These guys can really bring some excellent music; Daltrey’s vocals just shock on this one & Keith Moon is power. Freaking banger
But as teenagers in the 70's we were all wasted.😂😂 2 rock operas Tommy & Quadrephenia are masterpieces. Pete Townsend is a genius.
You probably recognize it as the theme song for CSI New York.
The instrument at the end is a violin. Townsend is evoking the feel of gypsy music, a mad dance around a campfire.
The open instrument is an electronic organ, specifically, the Lowrey Berkshire Deluxe TBO-1, which sounds like it was named after an upmarket Star Wars droid
its an ARP
theme to CSI:NY
also the instrument in the beginning was a keyboard
According to Pete Townsend, the song was inspired by “the absolute desolation of teenagers at Woodstock, where audience members were strung out on acid and 20 people had brain damage."
I was hearing the O’Reilly’s jingle in my head before Hollywood even gave the clue. Yes, I watch too much tv. LOL
The Golden Age of rock - mid 60s to mid 70s.
The song was written for the film. 'Quadrophenia' - it's about a young guy that gets into gang violence between Mods and Rockers but ultimately regrets it. He wasn't really a bad guy he just got sucked into it.
Nope. This song was part of an abandoned project called “Lifehouse”, the remnants of which were recorded as “Who’s Next”. The album “Quadrophenia” was recorded two years later in ‘73, had a very different story, and was filmed right at the end of the decade.
The opening instrument is the Moog synthesizer.
Baba was an indian guru who was followed by Pete Townshend. The Riley part is a tribute to Terry Riley who's minimalist works Rainbow in Curved Air and In C were widely recognised as masterpieces
According to Wikipedia, "The song's title refers to two of Townshend's major inspirations at the time: Meher Baba, and Terry Riley." (Baba was an Indian spiritual guru; Riley was a composer/musician.)
One of the top tier musical productions ever.
Pete said it wasn’t about drugs but wasted youth.
Keith Moon played the violin on this track. My buddy Matt thought this song was about running down to Mexico to drink and the wasteland being the highway heading north. I like that.
Pete Tonshend (guitarest and song writer/composer) essentially created the power chord popularized by Zep, Sabath and every heavy metal band that came after (not saying the who was a heavy metal band here). On top of that Pete was experimenting with keyboards and sequencers... in 1971 (as on this song). All of electronic music probably owes a small small degree of gratitude to his experimenting.
BabaOriely is my all time fav!! The name derives from a live practice of Pete Townsend. Pete had a MIDI programmable keyboard on tour with the Who. Each night Pete would invite a member of the audience up to the stage and would enter details of the fans life to the keyboard program and after a few questions, he would ask the keyboard to play a melody based on the fans information. The wild keyboard line in the song is what the computer put together when a fan maned Baba Oriely was chosen one night and told his story. It is an amazing piece of art!!!
Dude, I have no idea where you got that story, but it's way off base.
@@Serai3 from Pete Townsend, so you may want to rethink your baseball analogy
@@kenbeckett8613 Source?
Great drumming here. Moon.
Masterpiece ❤
Us old people had the best stuff!!!
The who is one of the greatest bands of all time, this song and your reaction was awesome. But my all-time favorite is “love rein O’er me”
Such an amazing song!!
Great band
This was the theme tune to CSI:NY
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Great song and killer reaction! I have a request since I'm here...lol. I'd like to hear Eddie Ojeda featuring Dee Snider doing "Elenore Rigby" originally recorded by The Beatles. Awesome cover tune and you two seem to dig on covers. Thx again for the time. 🤘👍
In my 55 yrs on this rock, I know of only 3 baba's. Baba O'Reilly, Baba Yega(JohnWick), and Baba Booey from the Howard Stern show. 😂
The reason why it’s confusing is that Peter Townsend had two pieces of unfinished songs that he had no idea how to finish. He handed them to another guy to finish. The other guy just put them together and got one song and then gave it back to Townsend as the song. The first part was about a shaman or spiritual leader and the second part would have been Teenage Wasteland. Which was about teenagers wasting their youth. He just called it Baba O’ Riley . The introduction of this song was made famous in the 80s by NBC when they used it for Friday night videos where they showed music videos late on Friday night.
they used parts of this song on the tv show CSI;NY starring Gary Sinse
Everybody calls it Teenage Waste Land, it's been that way since 1971 when it came out.
An absolute gem of a song....The Who were so unique.....🤘👍
The Who is touring the UK this spring and summer and planning to record a new album and tour the US in 2024.
Love this song
"Out here in the fields, I fought for my meals" "I don' need to fight to prove I'm right" -- the Teenage Wasteland is the battle field
The who was in the Guinness book of records for being the loudest band based of decibel level, you will never guess what band broke that record i still don't beleive it but it was Hanson, yes Hanson is louder than the who.
hey yaall, cud u do Mayhem - Pagan Fears, or at least Freezing Moon live.
i thought u wud get round to the black metal pioneers already😄
Will be too intense for these guys taste, but My Death live in Wacken is a good song to do... Hellhammers drumming and Maniac on vox nevr dissapoint.
The title refers to the band's guitarist Pete Townshend's two leading philosophical and musical inspirations: Maher Baba and Terry Riley.
Guess Who is Canadian
The Who is British
Oh boy if you like this song you should be going down their ginormous rabbit hole. Hint: for a song you for sure will recognize: theme song to CSI Vegas.
Guys, it’s rock ‘n’ roll plain and simple. Hard rock. Part of the British Invasion with psychedelic elements & sometimes other elements. This song has Indian elements.