Baba O'Riley

From Freepedia

"Baba O'Riley" is a song written by Pete Townshend for his Lifehouse project, a rock opera which was to be the follow-up to The Who's 1969 opera, Tommy. When Lifehouse was scrapped, many of the songs were released on The Who's 1971 album Who's Next. Baba O'Riley became the first track on Who's Next. The song is sometimes lovingly but incorrectly referred to as "Teenage Wasteland". Noted for its innovative fusion of the Who's hard rock sound and early synthesizer experimentation by Townshend inspired by minimalist composer Terry Riley, and for its crashing chorus, the song is a perennial favorite on Classic Rock radio as well as a concert staple for the band. Although they never actually did it in concert, The Who considered pulling a person from the audience and programming their vital statistics into a synthesizer which would, in effect, translate that person into a musical theme around which a song could be built. For this song Townshend used the life information of Meher Baba, whose philosophy had been a great personal and artistic influence on the band's chief songwriter. The name of the song is derived from this combination of the songs' philosophical and musical influences; (Meher) Baba O' (Terry) Riley.