The album Pete Townshend called the “first proper” Who album
It’s often the case that the best ideas come from other discarded ideas. Pete Townshend can attest to this, as the record he called the “first proper” Who album only came about because of another project which fell through.
When you speak to fans of The Who, it becomes evident that they’re a band frequently celebrated for their versatility. In their initial stages as an outfit, they were keen on writing singles, creating radio-friendly songs that appealed to listeners on a wide scale. You can hear this clearly on records such as My Generation.
However, after albums such as The Who Sells Out, the band realised that they were also interested in creating drawn-out concept albums. This meant developing a story and sticking to it. They had a loose concept on The Who Sells Out, and this structure was perfectly refined on Tommy, which created a story that is still told today. The album has since been adapted into a film and Broadway musical, while the album continues to be enjoyed by fans worldwide to this day.
The band’s ability to pair a story and a piece of music was inspired. Concept albums were starting to become more popular around this period, but never had one been executed so perfectly. Steve Van Zandt once discussed the magnitude of Tommy and shared an opinion held by many people in music: “The Who’s Tommy is the highest pinnacle of the art form.”
Because of the success of Tommy, The Who were keen to make a follow-up. This was due to come in the form of Lifehouse. The plan was that this album was going to be a science fiction rock opera, which was a direct sequel to the so-called “pinnacle”. There were several songs created which formed the foundation for the opera, but the band realised the project wasn’t going anywhere, and so opted instead to make a different album.
The result was the record Who’s Next, which is considered by many to be one of the band’s greatest albums. It is laced with hard-hitting and powerful music, completely unapologetic in its magnitude. Some of the big songs which are on the album include the likes of ‘Baba O’Riley’, ‘My Wife’ and ‘The Song Is Over’.
When discussing the album, Townshend said that he was happy when Lifehouse fell through; it gave rise to such a dominant piece of music. He also said that he believes Who’s Next is the band’s first proper album, due to the fact that it comes with so few restrictions. They didn’t feel the need for it to be full of hits because they had already made a name for themselves, plus, they didn’t need to stick to a specific structure because this wasn’t a concept album.
“I was delighted with it,” Townshend concluded. “I was relieved to have anything at all, and it felt like The Who’s first proper album. It felt uncomplicated and simple, and I didn’t care that the story had been lost. And I just loved the way the songs sat together.”
