Who's Next

Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Good article Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates {{safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst-infobox||$params=italic_title,name,type,longtype,artist,cover,border,alt,caption,released,recorded,venue,studio,genre,length,language,label,director,producer,compiler,chronology,prev_title,prev_year,year,next_title,next_year,misc|$extra=italic_title,longtype,border,caption,language,director,compiler,chronology,year,misc|$aliases=italic title>italic_title,Italic title>italic_title,Name>name,Type>type,image>cover,Cover>cover,Border>border,Alt>alt,Caption>caption,Longtype>longtype,Artist>artist,Released>released,Recorded>recorded,Venue>venue,Studio>studio,Genre>genre,Length>length,Language>language,Label>label,Director>director,Producer>producer,Compiler>compiler,Chronology>chronology,Misc>misc|$flags=override|$B={{#ifeq:{{#invoke:Is infobox in lead|main|[Ii]nfobox [Aa]lbum}}|true|{{#if:Template:Has short description | |Template:Short description|noreplace}}}}{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox album with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y|italic_title |type |name |image |cover |border |alt |caption |longtype |artist |released |recorded |venue |studio |genre |length |language |label |director |producer |compiler |prev_title|prev_year|next_title|next_year|chronology|year|misc}}{{#if:{{#invoke:String|match|error_category=Music infoboxes with Module:String errors|A|1=Live at Leeds1970Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy1971studioWho's NextWhosnext.jpgA photograph of the Who walking away from a stone monolith and zipping up their pants, with visible streaks of urine on the structurethe WhoTemplate:Start date<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>April–June 1971* Olympic, London, EnglandTemplate:Sfn

• Stargroves, East Woodhay, England (Rolling Stones Mobile Studio)Template:Sfn* Hard rock
• arena rock<ref name= "Pitchfork Staff 2004">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name= "EW Staff 2019">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name= "RS 2004">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Duration* Track (UK)

• Decca (US)* The Who
• Glyn Johns (associate producer)
• Kit Lambert (tracks 10, 11, 16)x|2=</?t[drh][ >]|nomatch=}}|Template:Main other}}Template:Main other}}

Who's Next is the fifth studio album by the English rock band the Who, released on 2 August 1971, by Track Records in the United Kingdom and on August 2, 1971 by Decca Records in the United States. It developed from the aborted Lifehouse project, a multi-media rock opera conceived by the group's guitarist Pete Townshend as a follow-up to the band's 1969 album Tommy. The project was cancelled owing to its complexity and to conflicts with Kit Lambert, the band's manager, but the group salvaged some of the songs, without the connecting story elements, to release as their next album. Eight of the nine songs on Who's Next were from Lifehouse, with the lone exception being the John Entwistle–penned "My Wife". Ultimately, the remaining Lifehouse tracks would all be released on other albums throughout the next decade.

The Who recorded Who's Next with assistance from recording engineer Glyn Johns. After producing the song "Won't Get Fooled Again" in the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, they relocated to Olympic Studios to record and mix most of the album's remaining songs. They made prominent use of synthesizers on the album, particularly on "Won't Get Fooled Again" and "Baba O'Riley", which were both released as singles. The cover photo was shot by Ethan Russell; it made reference to the monolith in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, as it featured the band standing by a concrete piling protruding from a slag heap in South Yorkshire, apparently having urinated against it.

The album was an immediate critical and commercial success and has since been viewed by many critics as the Who's best album, as well as one of the greatest albums of all time. It has been reissued on CD several times, often with additional songs originally intended for Lifehouse included as bonus tracks. In 2020, Who's Next was ranked number 77 on Rolling StoneTemplate:'s list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Background

By 1970, the Who had obtained significant critical and commercial success, but they had started to become detached from their original audience. The mod movement had vanished, and the original followers from Shepherd's Bush had grown up and acquired jobs and families. The group had started to drift apart from manager Kit Lambert, owing to his preoccupation with his label, Track Records.Template:Sfn They had been touring since the release of Tommy the previous May, with a set that contained most of that album, but realised that millions had now seen their live performances, and Pete Townshend in particular recognised that they needed to do something new.Template:Sfn A single, "The Seeker", and a live album, Live at Leeds, were released in 1970,Template:Sfn and an EP of new material ("Water", "Naked Eye", "I Don't Even Know Myself", "Postcard", and "Now I'm a Farmer") was recorded, but not released, as the band felt it would not be a satisfactory follow-up to Tommy.Template:Sfn

Instead, the group tackled a project called Lifehouse. This evolved from a series of columns Townshend wrote for Melody Maker in August 1970, in which he discussed the importance of rock music, and in particular what the audience could do.Template:Sfn Of all the group, he was the most keen to use music as a communication device, and wanted to branch out into other media, including film, to get away from the traditional album/tour cycle.Template:Sfn Townshend has variously described Lifehouse as a futuristic rock opera, a live-recorded concept album and as the music for a scripted film project.Template:Sfn The basic plot was outlined in an interview Townshend gave to Disc and Music Echo on 24 October 1970.Template:Sfn Lifehouse is set in the near future in a society in which music is banned and most of the population live indoors in government-controlled "experience suits". A rebel, Bobby, broadcasts rock music into the suits, allowing people to remove them and become more enlightened. Some elements accurately describe future technology; for example, The Grid resembles the internet and "grid sleep" resembles virtual reality.Template:Sfn

File:G-6120 2.jpg

Pete Townshend was given a Gretsch 6120 guitar by Joe Walsh in early 1971, and it became his main electric instrument for Who's Next

The group held a press conference on 13 January 1971, explaining that they would be giving a series of concerts at the Young Vic theatre, where they would develop the fictional elements of the proposed film along with the audience.Template:Sfn After Keith Moon had completed his work on the film 200 Motels, the group performed their first Young Vic concert on 15 February. The show included a new quadrophonic public address system which cost £30,000; the audience was mainly invited from various organisations, such as youth clubs, with only a few tickets on sale to the general public.Template:Sfn

After the initial concerts, at Lambert's suggestion the group flew to New York to make studio recordings at Record Plant Studios. They were joined by guests Al Kooper on Hammond organ, Ken Ascher on piano, and Leslie West on guitar. Townshend used a 1957 Gretsch guitar, given to him by Joe Walsh, during the session; it went on to become his main guitar for studio recording.Template:Sfn Lambert's participation in the recording was minimal, and he proved to be unable to mix the final recordings.Template:Sfn He had started taking hard drugs, while Townshend was drinking brandy regularly.Template:Sfn After returning to Britain, engineer Glyn Johns made safety copies of the Record Plant material, but decided it would be better to re-record the album from scratch at Olympic Sound Studios in Barnes.Template:Sfn

The group gave two more concerts at the Young Vic on 25 and 26 April, which were recorded on the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio by Andy Johns, but Townshend grew disillusioned with Lifehouse and further shows were cancelled.Template:Sfn Audiences at the Young Vic gigs were not interested in interacting with the group to create new material, but simply wanted the Who to play "My Generation" and smash a guitar.Template:Sfn The project proved to be intractable on several levels, and caused stress within the band, as well as a major falling-out between Townshend and Lambert. Years later, in the liner notes to the remastered CD, Townshend wrote that the failure of the project led him to the verge of a nervous breakdown.Template:Sfn At the time, Roger Daltrey said the Who "were never nearer to breaking up".Template:Sfn

Although the Lifehouse concept was abandoned, scraps of the project remained in the final album, including the use of synthesizers and computers.Template:Sfn An early concept for Lifehouse featured the feeding of personal data from audience members into the controller of an early analogue synthesizer to create a "universal chord" that would have ended the proposed film.Template:Sfn Abandoning Lifehouse gave the group extra freedom, owing to the absence of an overriding musical theme or storyline (which had been present in Tommy). This allowed the band to concentrate on maximising the impact of individual tracks and providing a unifying sound for them.Template:Sfn

Townshend continued to develop the concepts of the Lifehouse project, revisiting them in later albums, including a 6-CD set, The Lifehouse Chronicles, in 1999.Template:Sfn In 2007, he launched a (now defunct) website called The Lifehouse Method to accept personal input from applicants that would be turned into musical portraits.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Recording and production

File:Olympic Studios, London.jpg

Most of Who's Next was recorded at Olympic Studios in Barnes with Glyn Johns.

The first session for what became Who's Next was at Mick Jagger's house, Stargroves, at the start of April 1971, using the Rolling Stones Mobile. The backing track of "Won't Get Fooled Again" was recorded thereTemplate:Sfn before the band decided to relocate recording to Olympic at Johns' suggestion;Template:Sfn the first session there was on 9 April, attempting a basic take of "Bargain".Template:Sfn The bulk of the sessions occurred during May, when the group recorded "Time Is Passing", "Pure and Easy", "Love Ain't for Keeping" (which had been reworked from a rock track into an acoustic arrangement), "Behind Blue Eyes", "The Song Is Over", "Let's See Action" and "Baba O'Riley". Nicky Hopkins guested on piano, while Dave Arbus was invited by Moon to play violin on "Baba O'Riley". John Entwistle's "My Wife" was added to the album very late in the sessions, having been originally intended for a solo album.Template:Sfn

In contrast to the Record Plant and Young Vic sessions, recording with Johns went well, as he was primarily concerned with creating a good sound, whereas Lambert had always been more preoccupied with the group's image; Townshend recalled: "we were just getting astounded at the sounds Glyn was producing".Template:Sfn Townshend used early synthesizers and modified keyboard sounds in several modes, including as a drone effect on several songs, notably "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again",Template:Sfn but also "Bargain", "Going Mobile", and "The Song Is Over". The synthesizer was used as an integral part of the sound, as opposed to providing gloss, as was the case on other artists' albums up to that point.Template:Sfn Moon's drumming has a distinctly different style from earlier albums, being more formal and less reliant on long drum fills—partly owing to the synthesizer backing, but also due to the no-nonsense production techniques of Johns, who insisted on a good recording performance that used flamboyance only when truly necessary.Template:Sfn Johns was instrumental in convincing the Who that they should simply put a single-disc studio album out, believing the songs to be excellent. The group gave him free rein to assemble an album of whatever songs he wanted, in any order.Template:Sfn Despite Johns' key contributions, he only received an "associate producer" credit on the finished album,Template:Sfn though he maintained he acted mainly in an engineering capacity and based most of the arrangements on Townshend's original demos.Template:Sfn

File:ARP 2500.jpg

An ARP synthesizer similar to the one used on Who's Next

The album opened with "Baba O'Riley", featuring piano and synthesizer-processed Lowrey organ by Townshend. The song's title pays homage to Townshend's guru, Meher Baba, and minimalist composer Terry Riley, and it is informally known as "Teenage Wasteland", in reference to a line in the lyrics.Template:Sfn The organ track came from a longer demo by Townshend, portions of which were later included on a Baba tribute album I Am,Template:Sfn that was edited down for the final recording. Townshend later said this part had "two or three thousand edits to it".Template:Sfn The opening lyrics to the next track, "Bargain" ("I'd gladly lose me to find you") came from a phrase used by Baba.Template:Sfn Entwistle wrote "My Wife" after having an argument with his wife, exaggerating the conflict in the lyrics. The track features several overdubbed brass instruments recorded in a single half-hour session.Template:Sfn "Pure and Easy", a key track from Lifehouse, did not make the final track selection, but the opening line was included as a coda to "The Song Is Over".Template:Sfn

"Behind Blue Eyes" featured three-part harmony by Daltrey, Townshend, and Entwistle and was written for the main antagonist in Lifehouse, Jumbo. Moon, uncharacteristically, did not appear on the first half of the track, which was later described by Who biographer Dave Marsh as "the longest time Keith Moon was still in his entire life."Template:Sfn The closing track, "Won't Get Fooled Again", was critical of revolutions. Townshend explained: "a revolution is only a revolution in the long run and a lot of people are going to get hurt".Template:Sfn The song features the Lowrey organ fed through an ARP synthesizer, which came from Townshend's original demo and was re-used for the finished track.Template:Sfn

Cover art

The front cover of the album is a photograph, taken on 4 July 1971 on the way from Sheffield to Leicester, of the band apparently having just collectively urinated on a large concrete piling protruding from a slag heap.Template:Sfn The idea to shoot the picture came from Entwistle and Moon discussing Stanley Kubrick and the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> According to photographer Ethan Russell, only Townshend actually urinated against the piling, so rainwater was tipped from an empty film canister to achieve the desired effect. The sky in the background was added later by John Kosh, who was the art director, to give the image what Russell called "this other worldly quality."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The rear cover shows the band backstage at De Montfort Hall, Leicester, amid a cluttered mess of furniture.Template:Sfn In 2003, the television channel VH1 named the cover of Who's Next one of the greatest album covers of all time.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Other suggestions for the cover included the group urinating against a Marshall Stack and an overweight nude woman with the Who's faces in place of her genitalia.Template:Sfn An alternative cover featuring Moon dressed in black lingerie and a brown wig and holding a whip was later used as part of the inside art of the 1995 and 2003 CD releases of the album. Some of the photographs taken during these sessions were also used as part of Decca's United States promotion of the album.<ref name="Atkins 1995 13, 24">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>

Release and promotion

File:The Who at Charlotte, NC (1971).jpg

The Who playing in Charlotte, North Carolina, shortly after Who's Next was released

The lead single from the album, "Won't Get Fooled Again" (edited down to three and a half minutes), was released ahead of the album on 25 June 1971 in the UK and in July in the US; it reached #9 and #15 in the charts of the respective countries.Template:Sfn The album was released on 2 August in the US and on 27 August in the UK. It became the only album by the Who to top the UK charts.Template:Sfn

The Who started touring the US just before the album was released.Template:Sfn They used the Lifehouse PA, though soundman Bob Pridden found the technical requirements of the equipment to be over-complicated.Template:Sfn The set list was revamped, and, while it included a smaller selection of numbers from Tommy, several songs from the new album, such as "My Wife", "Baba O'Riley", and "Won't Get Fooled Again", became live favourites. The latter two songs involved the band playing to a backing track containing the synthesizer parts.Template:Sfn The tour moved to the UK in September, including a show at The Oval in Kennington in front of 35,000 fans and the opening gig at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, before going back to the US, ending in Seattle on 15 December. The group then took eight months off touring, the longest break of their career at that point.Template:Sfn

Several songs recorded at the Who's Next sessions, but not included on the album, were later released as singles or on compilations. "Let's See Action" was released as a single in 1971,Template:Sfn while "Pure and Easy" and "Too Much of Anything" were released on Odds & Sods,Template:Sfn and "Time is Passing" was added to the 1998 CD version of that album.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The longest version of the cover "Baby Don't You Do It" from the sessions that is currently available is on the 2003 deluxe edition of Who's Next.Template:Sfn

The album has been re-issued and remastered several times using tapes from different sessions. The master tapes for the Olympic sessions are believed to be lost, as Virgin Records threw out a substantial number of old recordings when they purchased the studio in the 1980s.Template:Sfn Video game publisher Harmonix wanted to release Who's Next as downloadable, playable content for the music video game series Rock Band, but were unable to do so due to their inability to find the original multitrack recordings. Instead, a compilation of Who songs dubbed The Best of The Who, which includes three of the album's songs ("Behind Blue Eyes", "Baba O'Riley", and "Going Mobile") was released as downloadable content.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The 16-track tapes for "Won't Get Fooled Again" and the 8-track tapes for the other material, except for "Bargain" and "Getting in Tune", have since been discovered.Template:Sfn

Critical reception and legacy

Template:Music ratings Reviewing for The Village Voice in 1971, music critic Robert Christgau called Who's Next "the best hard rock album in years" and said that, while their previous recordings were marred by a thin sound, the group now "achieves the same resonant immediacy in the studio that it does live".<ref name="Christgau"/> Billy Walker from Sounds highlighted the songs "Baba O'Riley", "My Wife", and "The Song Is Over", and wrote: "After the unique brilliance of Tommy something special had to be thought out and the fact that they settled for a straight-forward album rather than an extension of their rock opera, says much for their courage and inventiveness."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Rolling Stone magazine's John Mendelsohn felt that, despite some amount of seriousness and artificiality, the album's brand of rock and roll is "intelligently-conceived, superbly-performed, brilliantly-produced, and sometimes even exciting".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At the end of 1971, the record was voted the best album of the year in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics published by The Village Voice.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Retrospectively, Who's Next has often been viewed as the Who's best album.<ref name="Qmag"/> In a review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine said its music was more genuine than Tommy or the aborted Lifehouse project because "those were art – [Who's Next], even with its pretensions, is rock & roll."<ref name="AllmusicReview"/> BBC Music's Chris Roberts cited it as the band's best record and "one of those carved-in-stone landmarks that the rock canon doesn't allow you to bad-mouth."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Mojo claimed its sophisticated music and hook-laden songs featured innovative use of rock synthesizers that did not weaken the Who's characteristic "power-quartet attack".<ref name="Mojo"/> In The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (1998), Colin Larkin said the album raised the standards for both hard rock and the Who, whose "sense of dynamics" was highlighted by the contrast between their powerful playing and a counterpoint produced at times by acoustic guitars and synthesizer obbligatos.<ref name="Larkin"/> Christgau, on the other hand, was less enthusiastic about the record during the 1980s, when the Who became what he felt was "the worst kind of art-rock band", writing that Who's Next revealed itself to be less tasteful in retrospect because of Daltrey's histrionic singing and "all that synth noodling".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked it 28th on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> it maintained this rank on the 2012 edition of the list,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and was ranked 77th on the 2020 edition.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> It appeared at number 15 on Pitchfork Media's 2004 list of the 100 best records from the 1970s,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2005).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Classic Albums BBC documentary series aired an episode on Who's Next, initially on radio in 1989, and then on television in 1998,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> which was released in 2006 on DVD as Classic Albums: The Who – Who's Next.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> That year, it was chosen by Time as one of the 100 best albums of all time.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2007, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for "lasting qualitative or historical significance".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It was voted number 48 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.<ref name="Larkin57">Template:Cite book</ref>

Personnel

The Who

• Roger Daltrey – lead vocals
• Pete Townshend – guitar, VCS 3, organ, ARP synthesizer, vocals, piano on "Baba O'Riley"
• John Entwistle – bass, brass, vocals, piano on "My Wife"
• Keith Moon – drums, percussion

Additional musicians

• Dave Arbus – violin on "Baba O'Riley"
• Nicky Hopkins – piano on "The Song Is Over" and "Getting in Tune"
• Al Kooper – Hammond organ on alternate version of "Behind Blue Eyes"<ref name="multiple"/>
• Leslie West – lead guitar on Record Plant sessions on "deluxe edition" including "Baby, Don't You Do It" and "Love Ain't for Keeping" (electric version)<ref name="multiple">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Production

• The Who – production
• Glyn Johns – associate production, recording, mixing
• Doug Sax – mastering
• Kit Lambert – executive production
• Chris Stamp – executive production
• Pete Kameron – executive production
• John Kosh – album design
• Ethan Russell – photography
• Steven Wilson – multichannel mixes for the 2023 Who's Next / Life House deluxe set

Charts

Template:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chart

1971 weekly chart performance for Who's Next

Chart (1971)	Peak position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)<ref name=aus>Template:Cite book</ref>	3
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	3
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>	9

Template:Album chart

2013 weekly chart performance for Who's Next

Chart (2013)	Peak position

2014 weekly chart performance for Who's Next

Chart (2014)	Peak position
US Billboard Top Pop Catalog<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	7

Template:Album chart

2020 weekly chart performance for Who's Next

Chart (2020)	Peak position

Template:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chartTemplate:Album chart

2023 weekly chart performance for Who's Next

Chart (2023)	Peak position
Japanese Hot Albums (Billboard Japan)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	46
Swedish Physical Albums (Sverigetopplistan)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	5

References

Sources

• Template:Cite AV media notes
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite AV media notes
• Template:Cite book

Further reading

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Classic Albums: The Who - Who's Next, DVD, Eagle Vision (Classic albums series).

External links

• Template:Discogs master
• Who's Next liner notes – Song-by-song liner notes for the album (Template:Webarchive)
• Guitar tablature