With the rock opera "Tommy" (1969), Pete Townshend transformed the Who from a raucous live act into long-form storytellers for the ages. The songwriter had big plans up his sleeve when it came to the LP's follow-up effort, a dystopian epic to be entitled "Lifehouse," which told the story of a world beset by rampant pollution and the precipitous loss of personal freedom. For the record, Townshend ambitiously staged a series of concerts at London's Young Vic to bring his vision to fruition but grew frustrated when the band's audiences didn't connect with the new material.
For Townshend, the band's inability to make "Lifehouse" a reality proved to be a terrible blow, leaving him in the throes of a nervous breakdown and nearly leading to the Who's dissolution. He was emotionally and intellectually invested in the project, which emerged from his belief in popular music's power to effect change. The narrative at the heart of "Lifehouse" was a masterwork of future-thinking, with explicit references to an Internet-like "grid" that would dominate a consumerist world seemingly bent on environmental destruction and creating its own impending doom. In the story, civilization's only hope involves the shared creation of a single musical note that would establish unity in the face of so much interpersonal loss and destruction.
With a new box set devoted to "Who's Next" (1971), the epic rock LP that developed from the ashes of "Lifehouse," music lovers can finally enjoy the full, unfettered experience of Townshend's original vision. The weighty compilation is not for the faint of heart, clocking in with 155 tracks, including an incredible 89 previously unreleased songs. The box set pointedly features Townshend's original demos, along with a graphic novel that brings "Lifehouse" vividly to life.
And when it comes to "Who's Next," the album's tunes have never shone brighter with a fresh spate of remixed tracks. When it was originally released, the LP offered a bravura showcase of the band's inimitable talents. It was a muscular album that bespoke the heights of 1970s power rock. Even now, 50 years later, it's truly dazzling to hear the Who in full thrash, with Roger Daltrey's throaty vocals, Townshend's searing guitar work, John Entwistle's kinetic bass and the primal thunder inherent in Keith Moon's unruly drums. There's simply nothing else like it in the annals of rock history.
"Who's Next" marked the birth of two of the band's concert staples in "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again," songs that crackle with energy and abandon in the box set's embarrassment of remixed riches. In many ways, the 10-CD collection finally provides closure for Townshend's self-described "audacious" plans for "Lifehouse." Looking back, he admits that "the fiction and the experiment were both flawed, and neither were properly realized. But some wonderful music came from the project," he adds, "and the idea has always held me in thrall, partly because so many of the strands of the fiction seem to be coming true."
For Who fans in particular and rock music lovers in general, the "Who's Next" box set is required listening.
