wind in my hair | Reviewer: Anonymous | 11/15/13

Nothing better to fill me with that eternal feeling of youth than hearing this awesome song playing on Perth's 96.1 station (Ausralia)this morning - the windows of my 4x4 rolled down, the fresh Aussie wind and sun in my face and cranking up the volume to the max. The who were so much a part of my youth and this song reinforces the notion that we are all eternally young if we allow ourselves

viscera | Reviewer: David | 9/13/13

today at lunch, in the south china heat, some tiny thread in the cafe music brought the opening strains of this song up from the depths of my memory. It's been decades since I heard it, probably on 92.3 KROCK, and I'm long past being a teenager, but the way it pulls you in; then the roll down the tom-toms; the cymbal catches at the end...doesn't matter what it was written to mean, just what it means to you; it's from the gut and still hits you in the gut and lifts you up if you're open to it. And peace to you, @Doorgunner; I'm sorry you had to go through hell on both sides of the ocean, but glad you made it back and are here to tell your tale.

Memories | Reviewer: Doorgunner | 6/20/13

I was a doorgunner on a helicopter during the Viet Nam War. We instantly adopted the song as our alma mater.....120 degrees every day-no shower or bath for a month at a time/young men trying our best to save civilians and keep ourselves alive while being ridiculed as baby-killers back at "Home"/a Nation that once was ours now despized us/Politicians arguing over the shape of a "peace" conference table while we ran out of ammunition on a daily basis because of "Congressional Cutbacks"/us knowing before everyone else that the war was a waste of humanity.

My song, aged 19 | Reviewer: Pauly | 6/13/13

I worked on a southern English farm, at 19 years old, did exactly what the song says. Had to fight all the time to prove my manhood & keep my girlfriend, no other choice or they would've killed me.

Nam | Reviewer: Jack B. | 1/20/13

I am now 66 and was a Infantry Lt. In Nam 70 -71. Man then and later in Grd School did we get blasted on this song. I guess I always thought it was about the waste of lives in the war. It still fits today, and every time I hear it a rush of memories come flooding back!

Just Baba O'Riley | Reviewer: Craig | 11/30/12

It's only one song, and the title is Baba O'Riley. It is the song that I always THOUGHT was called Teenage Wasteland. I was about 16 when it came out and loved the song, but apparently never heard the title. Years and years later, my son, then probably 15 himself, mentioned Baba O'Riley. He loved retro music and had heard it. I told him I knew no such song. He played it for me, and VOILA!, I learned something new...LOL.

the meaning from Petes mouth | Reviewer: jamiefawks | 1/13/12

Townshend originally wrote "Baba O'Riley" for his Lifehouse project, a rock opera that was to be the follow-up to The Who's 1969 opera, Tommy. The song was derived from a nine minute demo, which the band reconstructed.[3] "Baba O'Riley" was going to be used in the Lifehouse project as a song sung by Ray, the Scottish farmer at the beginning of the album as he gathers his wife Sally and his two children to begin their exodus to London. When Lifehouse was scrapped, many of the songs were released on The Who's 1971 album Who's Next. "Baba O'Riley" became the first track on Who's Next. The song was released as a single in several European countries, but in the United States and the United Kingdom was only released as part of the album.

Pete Townshend later claimed in an interview that, at least in part, "Baba O' Riley" was about what he witnessed at the Who's performance at Woodstock. "'Baba O' Riley' is about the absolute desolation of teenagers at Woodstock, where everyone was smacked out on acid and 20 people, or whatever, had brain damage. The contradiction was that it became a celebration: "Teenage Wasteland', yes! We're all wasted!'

Baba O'Riley | Reviewer: Anonymous | 1/6/12

I'm just wondering if anyone out there has made any connection to the lyrics of this song to t.s. eliot's poem Wasteland?

I thought perhaps Pete had been influenced in some way by the song and used "wasteland" as a way to describe the dark period of the teenage years? The poem itself is very deep and I don't know that any of this song was really meant to say anything about war.

I wish I could ask him. I wonder if he's ever said himself what the song was about. In the end, I think the song is for each person something different. Great music does that, it speaks to everyone for every reason.


Where I was wasted. | Reviewer: Smif | 1/29/11

Yeah, it was 1969, me eighteenaeons old, the Who at The Civic Hall, a town called Dungstable. Dun in old working macs, spatter'd n paint, ephedrin eyes, wide on methadrine an every other fing. Sat atop a speaker case side on, six feet to Townie revving, Daltree frontin, mouth a playin, all foaming this angry heat of an enforced existence, Daly turns, clocks us, uncertain, anarchists in the wing. We laugh, we know already, we are all wasted.

The gut-level meaning | Reviewer: Geoff | 7/2/10

Townsend wrote the song for a rock opera about Scottish refugees in England. But let's look past that to the song's universal appeal and meaning.

On a gut level, the first verses are about the beautiful simplicity of childhood.

"Don't cry ... it's only teenage wasteland" is about the disillusionment of a kid realizing he has to face a huge, corrupt, and complicated world.

The next section is an armageddon/escapist fantasy about the destruction of that corrupt world and the creation of a new ideal one. This is the idealism of youth.

The last lyric "they're all wasted!" kind of trivializes the deep emotions up to that point, maybe intentionally. After all, this is what youthful rebellion and angst usually leads to, just getting wasted. (And of course this was written in the 70s when getting wasted was considered a more meaningful thing than it is today.)

Oh well, wrong again | Reviewer: Anonymous | 4/16/10

I have listened to this song; but, never really heard it. I just now actually READ the lyrics, I heard what I wanted to hear. "The Who" were in their prime in my youth. I was back from Viet Nam (a Navy Hospital Corpsman - FMF, 1st Mar Div). I heard "out here in the fields" and thought "where nothing was real". Oops. The thing about not having to fight to prove I was right worked for me big time. And FUCK anyone who thinks I need to be forgiven. It was; and always will be a Teenage Wasteland (as all wars past and present). God bless my brothers, alive and past. Semper Fi.

.the wasteland expands! | Reviewer: tonezbonez | 2/13/10

sally ! in some circles is known as CRACK COCAINE.
i know originally it is about the draft but now that those days were ending and total drug use was being condoned by those returning home just a total mess. being high being preferred to the old way of being straight . to me the lyrics begun an updated meaning as well right down the homelessness and ragged cardboard signs...we are still very immature .the wasteland expands!

CSI:NY has input | Reviewer: Anonymous | 11/22/09

The song by the group "The Who" is listed as
"Baba O'Riley in the television's list of credentials. The song is really an angry outcry at the loss of young lives fighting wars. The average age of soldiers in the Vietnam War (when this song was originally sung) were under the age 0f 20.

Love the music! | Reviewer: Anonymous | 8/12/09

I love the music! I'm on FaceBook abd do a song a day and I have gotten more status comments on this song then any othere. A tribute to my friends because I come up with wired things at different times and they know oh yes they know if it's "Teenage Wasteland or Baba O'

... | Reviewer: Hmmm | 1/18/09

Well...regardless of title or version or any of that, I truly enjoy this song.

It sounds like a teenage's naive interpretation of the know, that invincible feeling, like you can conquer anything. At the same time, it shows kind of a struggle...almost like said teenager is trying to create a life for their self, and refuses to give in.

Seriously, makes me cry everytime.