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How did The Who's "Teenage Wasteland" also become known as "Baba O'Riley"?

Question #68955. Asked by GoodVibe.
Last updated Jul 03 2021.

gdec1
Answer has 7 votes
gdec1
21 year member
485 replies

Answer has 7 votes.
"Baba O'Riley" is sometimes incorrectly referred to as "Teenage Wasteland", which is, however, the title of Townshend's original demo, as included in The Lifehouse Chronicles box set. "Baba O'Riley" is informally known by its chorus line "Teenage Wasteland".
link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_Next

Jul 28 2006, 1:46 PM
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zbeckabee
Answer has 6 votes
zbeckabee
Moderator
19 year member
11752 replies avatar

Answer has 6 votes.
"Baba O'Riley" (often mislabeled as Teenage Wasteland) is a song written by Pete Townshend for his Lifehouse project, a rock opera that was to be the follow-up to The Who's 1969 opera, Tommy.

answers.com/Baba%20O'Riley webpage no longer exists




Response last updated by gtho4 on Jul 03 2021.
Jul 28 2006, 2:38 PM
BungeeAZ
Answer has 5 votes
BungeeAZ
23 year member
338 replies

Answer has 5 votes.
The song is known as Baba O'Riley. Nobody remembers that correct title, so they mistakenly refer to it by it's most memorable lyrics..."Teenage Wasteland." The name Baba O'Riley does not appear in the lyrics.

Jul 28 2006, 3:17 PM
benriehm
Answer has 5 votes
benriehm

Answer has 5 votes.
The band members of The Who were putting character traits into a computer/synthesizer to see how the computer would transform the information into musical notes. When they put in the information for Meher Baba they got the intro musical line in the beginning of the song....then put the rest of the song together.

Jul 28 2006, 4:08 PM
Allergic2Life
Answer has 7 votes
Allergic2Life

Answer has 7 votes.
What I've been told is that the group asked their guru Baba O'Riley what he thought of the Vietnam War, he replied that it was a "teenage wasteland".

Thus the song is really about the Vietnam War, not drugs as most people assume.

Jul 28 2006, 7:49 PM
Von1212
Answer has 8 votes
Currently Best Answer
Von1212

Answer has 8 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
The title of the song is derived from this combination of the song's philosophical and musical influences: Meher Baba and Terry Riley. Parts of the rock-opera Tommy were inspired by Townshend's study of Meher Baba, to whom the album was dedicated.

Terry Riley is a composer and musician asscicated with the Minimalist school. In the 1960s he gave famous "all night concerts" during which Riley performed mostly improvised music from evening until sunrise, using an old organ harmonium ("with a vacuum cleaner motor blower blowing into the ballasts") and tape-delayed saxophone. When he finally wanted a break, after hours of playing, he played back looped saxophone fragments recorded throughout the evening.

I got all of the above from googling baba o'riley. Then I went to Wikipedia and looked up Meher Baba and Terry O'Riley. What you see is copied & pasted from Wikipedia. Don't be afraid to use your search engine...it is your friend ;)

Mar 08 2009, 10:02 PM
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