The Who "Who's Next"

Who's Next is the fifth studio album by English rock band the Who. It developed from the aborted Lifehouse project, a multi-media rock opera written by the group's 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, 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 synthesizer 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 group members standing by a concrete piling protruding from a slag heap, apparently having urinated against it.

Who's Next was an immediate success when it was released in August 1971. It has since been viewed by many critics as the Who's best record and one of the greatest albums of all time. It was reissued on CD several times, with additional songs originally intended for Lifehouse.

The cover artwork shows a photograph, taken at Easington Colliery, of the band apparently having just urinated on a large concrete piling protruding from a slag heap. The decision to shoot the picture came from Entwistle and Moon discussing Stanley Kubrick and the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. 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 to give the image what Russell called "this other worldly quality." The rear cover showed the band backstage at De Montfort Hall, Leicester, amongst a debris of furniture. In 2003, the television channel VH1 named Who's Next's cover one of the greatest album covers of all time.

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. An alternative cover featuring Moon dressed in black lingerie and a brown wig, holding a whip, was later used for the inside art for the 1995 and 2003 CD releases. Some of the photographs taken during these sessions were later used as part of Decca's United States promotion of the album.

Track listing

All tracks written by Pete Townshend, except "My Wife" by John Entwistle.

Side one

1. "Baba O'Riley" Roger Daltrey (verses), Townshend (bridge) 5:08
2. "Bargain" Daltrey (verses), Townshend (bridge) 5:34
3. "Love Ain't for Keeping" Daltrey 2:10
4. "My Wife" Entwistle 3:41
5. "The Song Is Over" Townshend (verses), Daltrey (chorus) 6:14

Total length: 22:47

Side two

1. "Getting in Tune" Daltrey 4:50
2. "Going Mobile" Townshend 3:42
3. "Behind Blue Eyes" Daltrey 3:42
4. "Won't Get Fooled Again" Daltrey 8:32

Total length: 20:46

Note:

Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1–9 on CD reissues.