1431 - The Who Baba O'Riley 1971

The album "Who´s Next" opened with "Baba O'Riley," featuring piano by Townshend and a violin solo by Dave Arbus. The violin solo was drummer Keith Moon's idea. The song's title pays homage to Townshend's guru Meher Baba and influential minimalist composer Terry Riley (and is informally known by the line "Teenage Wasteland"). Townshend originally wrote "Baba O'Riley" for his Lifehouse project, a rock opera that was to be the follow-up to The Who's 1969 opera, "Tommy". The song was derived from a nine minute demo, which the band reconstructed. "Baba O'Riley" was going to be used in the Lifehouse project as a song sung by Ray, the Scottish farmer at the beginning of the album as he gathers his wife Sally and his two children to begin their exodus to London. When "Lifehouse" was scrapped, many of the songs were released on The Who's 1971 album "Who's Next".