In a comprehensive box set, The Who retraces the management of the cult project “Who’s Next / Life House”

Arrived in stores on August 14, 1971, Who’s next in other words “The new Who album”, “the next Who album” or simply “the next one”, did not have a title predestined to mark memories. However, this record has become a reference in the history of rock, and often called the best opus in the group’s discography. Successor to the rock opera Tommy released in 1969 was no small feat, but the Who and especially their main songwriter Pete Townshend largely achieved it by creating a monument, both literally and figuratively.

A “monument” and innovative album

Who’s next is undoubtedly a monument album. Just its cover is a monument. Some see it as an allusion to the megalith of 2001, A Space Odyssey. Others have suggested that it is a work of contemporary art and that the four musicians are expressing what they think about it by urinating on it. It is actually a block used to hold slag heaps, located at Easington Colliery, and which the group passed on their way back from a concert in Sunderland, on May 8, 1971. It seems that John Entwistle and Keith Moon were were just discussing Stanley Kubrick’s feature film when they saw the block and noted its resemblance to the alien monolith from the film. For the record, photographer Ethan A. Russell later revealed that Most members were unable to urinate, so rainwater was taken from a metal can to achieve the desired effect.

But beyond its iconic cover, Who’s next is a landmark album in many ways. Songs that have stood the test of time, limpid melodies serving texts that are both contemporary and premonitory, and innovative arrangements using the new technologies of the time. The disc is full of new sounds, produced by a new instrument: the synthesizer. Two years before Dark side of the moon, Pete Townshend introduces the VCS3 organ to rock. He first uses it to create his demos, then integrates his famous loops into the final versions.

A process which will add complexity to reproducing the pieces on stage. At the time there was no digital system, and operators released tapes on tape recorders! And for Keith Moon to be able to stay on the right tempo, he absolutely had to play with headphones in order to have the click and loop permanently in his ears.

An interdisciplinary artistic project

And if Who’s next is ahead of its time, not only in its recording process, but also in its very essence as an artistic work. Initially, its songwriter Pete Townshend wanted to go well beyond the simple record. After having revolutionized the canons of the concept album with Tommy in 1969, which even if it is not the very first rock opera still constitutes the standard reference, the guitarist-songwriter tackles in 1970-71 a large-scale project which mixes rock, theater, and cinema, composition and stage performance programmed at the Young Vic Theater in London. A project named Life House.

Pete Townshend was very ambitious, perhaps too ambitious. His complex work convinced neither the record company nor the other members of the group. Unlike in Tommy and later Quadropheniathe sequence of pieces of Life House did not constitute not a constructed linear narrative that unfolded in the songs, but rather a kind of mystical maelstrom that only its author seemed to be able to decipher.

Both the fiction and the Live experience were flawed, and neither was done well. But wonderful music came out of the project, and the idea has always haunted me, because many elements of the fiction seem to come true.

Pete Townshend

about his project “Life House”

Indeed, Life House predicted a dystopian world that seems familiar today: the themes covered were pollution, overly powerful corporations and technology. Townshend’s overall vision did not come to fruition in the form he hoped for, but by making the most of the demos of Life Housethe group gives birth to Who’s next. We have seen worse as the residue of an aborted project!

A river reissue

It is to retrace the winding gestation of the work, and perhaps also to rehabilitate what was undoubtedly a great frustration at the time for Townshend, that a colossal box set is being released this September 15 bringing together all the building blocks of this which led to the masterpiece Who’s next.

No less than 10 CDs where you can hear, in addition to the remastered album, Pete Townshend’s demos – 22 tracks spread over 2 CDs, alternative takes and unreleased tracks during the studio sessions – 23 tracks spread over 2 CDs, all singles and songs not on the album – 17 tracks, and finally two concerts recorded in 1971, one at the Young Vic Theater in London in April before the release of Who’s Next, and the other at the Civic Auditorium in San Francisco in December. All supervised and remixed by Steven Wilson of Procupine Tree. And finally, a graphic novel completes this sum box set.

Obviously, some of these recordings were already circulating in pirate form and had been known among fans for a long time. But we appreciate the care taken in cleaning the tapes, the additional information given by Townshend in the liner notes, or even certain versions particularly different from what we knew until then, like this remix of Pure and Easywhose first title was The Note.

More than half a century after its release, Who’s Next continues to fascinate. And even if the words of Won’t get fooled again suggested a disillusioned Townshend, this reissue allows us to better understand his creative journey and his visionary spirit. Much more than the fact that they are in the credits of successful series, the songs on this album remain incredibly modern. 50 years later, we surprise ourselves by rediscovering the “next Who album”.

The official Who website