Pete Townshend - Teenage Wasteland Lyrics

How many Lifehouse Chronicle CD's did Pete do? This is a 1999 recording? The gifts keep coming. Love it.

It’s a 1970–71 recording. Lifehouse Chronicles came out in 2000. Six discs, including a BBC radioplay taking up two discs. Two discs of Lifehouse demos as well, including this one.

Christ. This is evidence that Roger and the Who treated Pete like those sorry bastards in the Beach Boys treated Brian Wilson. Brilliance from the start.

Beautiful. PT is abluddy genius.

I truly think Lifehouse would have been heralded as rock’s greatest album had it come together as planned.

This is stunning. Have been a Who/Townshend fan for all of my life, but never heard this. Such a different song than Baba. Pete is a genius. Such depth and emotion.

beautiful art-rock piece

Wow it's so different but also very good. Totally different meaning to the song somehow.

Anyone else listening to this on repeat?

Yes, this song and Carouselambra by Zeppelin...addicted to both songs at the moment. Oh yeah, and a cover of Black Sabbath's Paranoid by a band out of Newmarket called Metal Inset...those guys are going places!

Better than baba O'Reilly. Way more depth. Pete is a genius

You have exceptional taste in music ;) Thanks for sending me here.

@Chris Manley you're welcome my good sir. And thank you for complimenting my taste in music. I kind of got it from you ;). Seeing the who with you was unreal.

@Connor Manley Yes...seeing that show was an amazing memory. Although I thought Roger Daltrey would dislocate his shoulder at his age doing those microphone spins ;) On their next tour I think Townshend should smash a Les Paul while holding onto his walker lol. Daltrey will drive his wheelchair into the Hiwatt amps ;)

Lol too true

Not better but it's a masterpiece too.

Waited half my life to hear this! As it was talked about for so long... thank you for the upload def will pick up the CD. :)

Wow so eventually they threw all this music out and just replaced it with that 3 note riff

Yes. And that's probably the best decision that they ever took lol

Lifehouse was too advanced for them. Pete's brain was bigger than his body. If they kept trying to make Lifehouse they would have died.

Georgie Thumbs this song was supposed to be separate from Baba O’Riley, they were both thematically linked. This song opened lifehouse and baba oriley was the 3rd track

Beautiful song this way. Beautifully sung as well

A world of bleakness dominated by cybernetic pleasure suits linked together by a mass intercommunications network... Is that not the future we're headed in?

Pete is an absolutely unparalleled genius.So is Roger.So was the Ox.So was Moon the Loon.

Pete is so smart , he leaves people behind sometimes with his ideas , Life house 40 years ahead of it's time , now in the age of the computer the internet and virtual reality , it is easier to get your head round, as I think partly that is what he was getting at , in 1971 !! unreal, the one note , is just simply man kind all becoming as one in a shared experience of understanding, well that's my take , or in sink with the God and the universe .

5'10'' onward sounds more like early Genesis than the Who.

Totally agree.  I hadn't thought of that before - that's a good catch.

Or Alan Parsons.

So moody and beautiful just like Pete.

Didn't like this at first but I keep coming back to it, it grows on ya, so moody and beautiful. I dig it

It is what it is..... a completely different song. And an amazing one at that. Of all the Song writing geniuses of the 60s (and there were many) name me ONE who could write such a thing of beauty, produce it, play all the parts and make it sound more professional than many hits of the era.... in his homemade studio. PT is a genius. Heard this song today for the first time and havnt stopped. love the way I can here momentary quotes from "Song Is Over" and even a little bit of "No Road Romance". This is lovely. Thank You.

His guitar tone is great!

this is my first time hearing this. I love it

Much more melancholic than Baba O'reily, I like it a lot more. Fits the lyric of "teenage wasteland" more

I happen to love this song !!!!!

More epic than Baba O'reilly

adamsmith13real more dramatic is a better way to put it.

better than baba o'reilly

Hey man whatsup

This is the demo version for Baba O'reilly, thank God he either re-thought the tune or someone helped him with it, because this is terrible.  

Yeah, I guess I have. Merry Christmas! 

Mike Atkins this is actually the original track. the very first from the Lifehouse.

Not terrible, just not The Who

lol, this is what happens when you can't keep your shit taste to yourself :^)

"I went to who concert once that makes me #1 fan!!!"

Seek Jesus brah!

You obviously wouldn't know amazing music if it kicked you in the ass. Seriously... this is a masterpiece and you want to shit on it? Fuck off

@Headbanger142 Both songs were originally supposed to be in Lifehouse.

hynototz

This song is mad good reminds me of cutting school to smoke dot budda

The Who      ..??   Pete Townshend.. Was WHO.. But  who  R U  Peter ??


My GTR hero first  1965  who album meety the who . "  .  love you nay karma bless you and I Wait for turrets..   4444jcm you tube  

Yeah man, still got my N64 for whenever I want to go nostalgic.

LOL yes. Banjo Kazooie was the shit. N64 for life!

Indeed we do. By the way in "Baba o Riley" when roger says "out here in the fields, I fight for my meals." It always reminded me of hyrule field and banjo kazooie's spiral mountain where go around killing vegatables.

You are not alone. The few. The proud. We stand strong.

My God! The Who, Led Zeppelin, and Legend of Zelda fans! I though I was the only 90's era kid who loved 90's games anf classic rock.

it's original

Hell yeah XD!

This may be an unpopular opinion, but does it matter? I'm a huge Who fan, and Baba O'Riley is my favorite song of all time, but it makes sense that the average listener will assume its called Teenage Wasteland. For me, its not a hill I want to die on. At least not something that I'll hold against people. I dunno.

Yes, it does. Teenage Wasteland has nothing to do with The Who. Not to mention it's not even Baba.

AND a Zeppelin fan!

If this is an original Lifehouse demo, my head just exploded! If Pete modified this demo for the Lifehouse boxset 30 years later, I'm not as impressed.

fucking amazing no other way to describe it

it is an AWESOME thing. :3

Is this a bad thing? XD

Mother of god.
A who fan AND a zelda fan.

Kinda annoys me how people title Baba O'Riley as "Baba O'Riley/Teenage Wasteland"

Two completely different, but awesome songs!

I was looking for this song, but so many Baba O'Riley's are on Youtube called Teenage Wasteland. Not true fans of The Who.

qe temazo por dios, este tipo es un genio

Well, he played it live, so it's not dead music

I love the "don't cry" bit in "Baba O'Riley," but the choruses here with those lyrics are even more hauntingly beautiful.

it's a great song

I just loved it

@DarthMurray Best Comparison EVER on YouTube, I ALWAYS compare SMiLE to Lifehouse.

Damn...why Pete, why couldn't you make Lifehouse a reality. Why not now?

You should pick up the new book book "Won't Get Fooled Again: From Lifehouse to Quadrophenia". It goes into all the details about creation of the Lifehouse concept (and more).

i love hearing alternative versions of classics like this. i especially love 'em like this, stripped down and naked. raw, pete's brain child in its earlier, purer stage of growth. my generation needs a new pete townshend. hell, the world needs the who back too. i mean '66 - '76 style who. oh what i would give to see a live show from that time!!!!!

Why, oh why, couldn't they have made this album? THIS would've stood up as the greatest rock opera ever.....not that crap Quad or Tommy.

Quadrophenia and Tommy are not Crap!!!

You know Pete's a genuis when some of his demoes are better then some bands' songs period. ANd he recored everything himself.

wow...i prob like this better than baba o'reilly....and i love the latter

i have a vague memory of the burt bacharac studio in new york that was used by the duo simon and garfunkle.. just a rare thought that simon and garfunkle produce more hits than this studio ever did. fuk me.

I might be missunderstanding what u meen but this song is nothing like baba o'riely its only similer in a few verses.

Thanks very much for posting!!!

Yeah I'm pretty sure that Lifehouse is the only album that Townshend couldn't come finish. But I bet there are some songs on later albums that he wasn't able to come out with.

RIP Entwistle

It sounds almost like an outtake from Who Are You in a strange way..

Well, they both tried to create a "teenage symphony for god" i think.

Very Brian Wlilsony in the chorus..

a genius. probably a mad genius-but i am just as mad as he!!!

I know you were, I was just messing wit yo. When are you going to let me borrow the best of album?

ha very funny rodney you know i love The Who, i was just giving yo a hard time.

what a douch, hahahahahaha
cool song though

Lifehouse!!!!!!

Well, on 2000 he performed a lot of Lifehouse material at Sadler's Well. He's selling a DVD at his website, and someone managed to upload some of those videos here in youtube.

this song is brilliant!

i love this, orchistrated too, hear that yet?
sounds so good