Pondering - Baba

Baba O'Riley




So last night I was sitting here with Casey and Chantel who were watching some MTV special about the greatest hard rock songs and the Who's song "Won't be fooled again" came on the list and we were talking about the song Baba O'Riley (Teenage Wasteland is what a lot of people think its titled) and it got me to thinking... how on earth did the song end up with that name?



Turns out the song was orginally written to be in The Who's second rock opera "Lifehouse" (following the success of Tommy), but the Lifehouse project was scrapped and we never got to experience that masterpiece in which Baba O'Riley would have been the opening song sung by a Scottish farmer! But alas it was not to be and the song was placed into The Who's album "Who's Next"



So anyway where did the name come from? Some Scottish farmer you ask? Nope it is a combination of Meher Baba and Terry Riley... so if you are like me you are wondering who the heck are those dudes? Well here is the answer....



Meher Baba was an Indian Mystic (from Indian not Native American), of all things and actually spent the last 34 years of his life in a vow of silence communicating only through hand gestures and writing. Weird guy to name a song that was to be sung by a Scottish farmer after... apparently the crazy systhesizer part of the song is a musical repersentation of his life.... I wonder what my lifes sounds like?



Terry Riley was an American minimalist composer whose work inspired the technique that was used to create the systhesizer track that repersents Meher Baba



So there you have it... how the song Baba O'Riley got its name