The Who: Who’s Next – 1971

God only knows how many times I have played this record and ALWAYS from beginning to end.

As a teenager “Baba O’ Riley” was the Anthem of every start of the week-end, when thoughts about tearing the shit out of things was a predominant thought. In College “Behind Blue Eye” was a standard at parties when the need to make out arose and “The Song Is Over” was notoriously played at the end of every party we threw and so it went on accompanying me when I got married with “My Wife”, my first divorce with
“Won’t Get Fooled Again” and through endless life adventures Who’s Next has ALWAYS been by my side, on the radio, on the cassette, on CD in my car, on Vinyl in my house and simply everywhere.

How can a record with such madness retain its shape and meaning through the decades is a mystery to me, and just last month I saw a documentary in which they isolated Keith Moon’s drums on this record and as you listen to his madness you simply wonder if The Who were not from another planet, and somehow we all drank their cool-aid and entered their “trip”, unaware that we were listening to mad man.

But madness aside, this record belongs to ANYONE’S list of Top 100 albums of all time, let alone my list which are the best albums to listen to front to back.

Out here in the fields
I fight for my meals
I get my back into my living
I don’t need to fight
To prove I’m right
I don’t need to be forgiven
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Don’t cry
Don’t raise your eye
It’s only teenage wasteland

And so we drank the night away.