"Teenage Wasteland" is maybe the best two-word phrase in rock history and frickin Pete Townshend had to name the song "Baba O'Riley"
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But then Wussy resurrected the title for a different banger!
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Thank god he did. So many karaoke disasters have been averted when some drunk dude can’t find Teenage Wasteland on the playlist.
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Fair point. 🤣
Interestingly, i think there was an actual reason, he had to very prominently acknowledge the influence of composer Terry Riley on the piece or it would have been perceived to just be flagrant plagiarism.
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So what ⁉️ It’s an amazing song and that doesn’t change with the title 🙄
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Anne Tyler borrowed it for a short story!
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But we won't get fooled again.
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He was citing two of his heroes at the time: Meher Baba (a spiritual master) and Terry Riley (an American minimalist composer).
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Eminence Front is up there too.
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When you listen to this, the title makes much more sense!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy3W...
Terry Riley - A Rainbow in Curved Air - Full CD (HQ)
YouTube video by kademan13
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Let's go Rangers!
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Pretty sure the music paper of record (Napster and Limewire) called it "Teenage Wasteland" so that's all it'll ever be for me
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Okay so this is weird, but I refreshed my feed about 30 seconds into Baba O'Reilly, and your post was at the top.
Synchronicity
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"Can never thank you enough, Pete." --Thurston
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YEAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
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Have you seen the Joe Pera episode on this? Maybe my favorite 10 minutes of TV www.adultswim.com/videos/joe-p...
Joe Pera Talks With You
A teacher (Joe Pera) in Michigan's Upper Peninsula explores of variety of subject matters.
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I love this song so much.
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It makes a great double play along with Bowie's Teenage Wildlife.
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That's like calling Mac and Cheese, "Noodle Casserole".
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Maybe, since "dazed and confused" is 3 words
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LMAO! That is so insane.
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It's a tribute to two people that were huge inspirations to Pete.
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I will refer you to “Joe Pera Reads You The Church Announcements” (season 1 episode 6) to answer all questions about this song.
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Basically I think he knew the phrase was too powerful and could destroy us all.
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Solid point. I never thought about this before. But maybe at the time, Baba O Riley was the more marketable name? Idk.
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Nah. I downloaded TeenageWasteland.mp3.exe from Limewire 20 years ago.
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He had lots of good titles, but
they’re all wasted
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He has another song called Teenage Wasteland, you can find it on Who’s Next :Lifehouse deluxe edition and Pete’s Lifehouse Chronicles.
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It's a curious one isn't it? Most of his other Who songs are named after a part of the lyrics. Apart from instrumentals I can't offhand think of another Who song that doesn't include the title somewhere in the lyrics
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Counterpoint:
It was a far better name for the bar I worked at. “Teenage Wasteland” just would not have gone over well…
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He did say he was wasted.
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In my MP3's that song was never 'Baba', I always named it 'Teenage Wasteland'. Never knew the real title until very recently.
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This is literally the “Teenage Wasteland” referenced in the lyrics
The trash left behind at the Isle of Wight festival in 1969.
Don't cry Don't raise your eye It's only teenage wasteland
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Drugs were involved
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On my iPod it was “Teenage Wasteland” thanks to Limewire
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Wow you are so right. Why tf did I not think of that?
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Truth
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Oh the days of Napster and not knowing the name.
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He was quite interesting on Colbert last night. Quite articulate and somewhat surprising. Do stream his interview if you can
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Well, it's that keyboard lick inspired by Riley's Rainbow in Curved Air. He had to acknowledge that. You don't want to seem a thief like Rod Stewart.
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Daltry's vocals on that are absolutely amazing. For me one of the best sung rock songs ever.
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I used to have this organ, left it somewhere when I moved because it was way too heavy 🤦♂️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgPt...
Baba O'Riley (sort of) on the Lowrey TBO-1 organ with bass pedals. Teenage Wasteland
YouTube video by Bill Blake
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"Teenage Wasteland" is a great Wussy song though.
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Genius!
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Teenage Wasteland and Baba O'Riley were originally two different songs, but Pete took lyrics from the first (which had a different tune) and had Roger sing them over the music from the second (which had no lyrics) and this post is bait for autistic Who fans to info dump on and it totally worked.
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Watch Pete Townsend on Colbert if you are a Who 🇬🇧 fan. YouTube
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I call it Teenage Wasteland anyway, try and stop me, we all must follow our North Star
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😂
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Love the Who but I get the feeling that Townsend had pretentious vibes sometimes
