Teenage Wasteland

Baba O'Riley (often mistakenly called "Teenage Wasteland") is the opening track of The Who's 1971's album Who's Next, written by guitarist Pete Townshend. Lead singer Roger Daltrey takes the vocals for most of the song, while Townshend sings the middle eight: "Don't cry/don't raise your eye/it's only teenage wasteland". The title of the song is derived from this combination of the song's philosophical and musical influences: Meher Baba and Terry Riley. 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's rock opera Tommy. Townshend derived the song from a Lowrey Berkshire home organ experimental recording, which the band reconstructed. Drummer Keith Moon had the idea of inserting a violin solo at the coda of the song, during which the style of the song shifts from crashing rock to an Irish folk-style beat. Dave Arbus, of East of Eden, plays the violin in the solo heard during this section. "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. Although the Lifehouse project was later scrapped, many of the songs were released on The Who's 1971 album Who's Next. The song was released as a single in several European countries, but in the US and the UK was only released as part of the album. It has been a concert staple after its release. A remixed version is used in the title credits of the popular drama CSI:New York.

"As I enter your body, the spirit of Satan will flow through my scalp! Fill your body .. his spirit." "You have kissed the cock of Satan." "Satan is our savior..." Feared by the locals, the dead around me vocal Around the dead my focal When I would go outside of my house the crows drew Tablet hatched, capsule cracked I'm swimming in pools of ovals Double dose you, styrofoam cup doze you I think I took both brews Black and gold shrooms I thought my clothes grew on my bed Head in the clouds now, my house got no roof Dragging a dead teenager through a wasteland in front of the whole youth Stomach sinker, a thinker til bulb blew Revolt, black chaplet cult brood You want a calling from God? I'ma phone you I got a green thumb for corpse disposal Escorts are home schools Filet knife, lay pipe and debone you In the dark before stage light show I global On the outskirts of the city, violent hippy Clip beef, stoned dude Dripping paint patterns in opal At K parties in snowshoes Choking a green fairy sipping Absinthe in the back of a smoked room I'm dope use, suck like syringes in addicts who roast spoons I'm bummy, you'll get shot in the tummy like Sonny at the toll booth Punches voyage and land then dull moons Like stadium tops I burn life forms and any radio crops Anti-pop, Anthropophagous Created Oppenheimer bomb radius drop Melting corpse in palladium rock My head full of worms like when craniums rot Drop powerful mid 90's NYC palladium blots Slay succubi, thrust the blade into the marrow Suffocate sleepers like paralysis in a room of shadows