Opinion of The Who song "Baba O'Riley"

[angus]

I just heard it for the first time now because of a Family Guy joke.

It's an excellent song to listen to.  I tried to learn the chord progression.  It has, more or less, a normal 1-4-5 progression and seems to start in the key of F-major (F/B^♭/C), but it has some weird sounds that are hard to identify or match.  I've been hearing it all my life and I'm surprised that you're just now hearing it, given your interest in modern musical styles.

It might be a little rightist for your tastes, but it's an excellent lyric.  

Out here in the fields, I work for my meals.  I put my back into my living.
I don't need to fight to prove I'm right, and I don't need to be forgiven.
Sally take my hand, and travel South cross land.  Put out the fire, and don't look past my shoulder.
The exodus is here.  The happy ones are near.  Let's get together before we get much older.

I've always thought that the lyric referred to two things:  the hippies who wasted their lives on acid or on protest, or dropping out of society; and the destruction of South Vietnam.  

They're all wasted!

Here, wasted can have une double entendre.  The waste of the world lays at the hands of the generation of Pete Townsend (although to be fair, it is on the hands of their fathers as well, and as time will tell, of his children's and his grandchildren's generation).  But wasted can not only mean dead by a north vietnamese bullet; it can mean intoxication on the drug of one's choice.

"Won't get fooled again" is another good one.  More on the left.  (Marie Antoinette probably wouldn't like it.)  If you haven't heard it, give it a listen and let us know what you think.

[angus]

Ah, it's like this mang:   1/5/4 progression.

Start with the right hand on an F-chord, but inverted (C on the bottom), and the left thumb on an F bass (the one just below the lowest line on the bass clef, I think).  Then C-major chord with the right hand and a simultaneous C bass with the left index finger.  Then B♭ with the right hand (move the hand way forward on the keys and the left fingers sneak in-between to hit the 3rd and 5th of that chord), with a simultaneous B♭ base with the right middle or ring finger.  Here are the first few bars, with a strange quarter rest symbol because I don't know how to get a correct one in this font:

| F ⌇ ⌇ C | B♭ ⌇ ⌇ ⌇ | F ⌇ ⌇ C | B♭ ⌇ ⌇ ⌇ | F ⌇ ⌇ C | B♭ ⌇ ⌇ ⌇ | F ⌇ ⌇ C | B♭ ⌇ ⌇ ⌇ |

I was going to go to the office today, but I decided to dick around with this instead.  The wife is getting blood drawn and the boy is at school so I decided to practice this today.  That way I could play loudly and belt out the lyrics without being disturbed.

I really need a drum and guitar now.  When the boy comes home I'll show it to him and he can play it while I do the guitar part and sing.  He can play piano better than I, but he needs me to show him the progression.  Maybe I can show my wife how to do the drum part.  We have an electronic trapset in the music room and I was playing the drums along while I watched the video.  She has no musical training but it's not hard and my son has already taught her some basic drumming patterns that he learned in the school band.  I'll let the boy figure out that weird organ/synthesizer part later.  This can be a fun family project for next weekend.

Every once in a while Red is inspirational.

[angus]

I feel like that about the BeeGees.  I didn't know anyone felt like that about The Who, especially an otherwise well-adjusted fellow like yourself.

Anyway, I found that the diddly-blit-diddly-blit staccato parts throughout are from an EMS VCS3 synthesizer, which is is also used on Pink Floyd's "On The Run".  I guess Townshend isn't actually playing every note you hear.  The EMS VCS3 is sort of an automatic music machine, so once he figured out how he wanted it, he probably just hit a button to start it up, and had the machine repeat it.  That sound might be hard to reproduce without the actual instrument.  I saw some refurbished ones on eBay just now for 15 thousand dollars or so.  Wow.  Maybe it was the actual one from Pink Floyd or The Who.  There are some modern, new synthesizers for much less that might actually make the sound.  Maybe our keyboard at home will.  It has about 400 voices and the capacity to record and play back.

You can get a EMS VCS3 coffee mug for $16.95 or a EMS VCS3 T-shirt for $28.95.