10 Perfect Follow Ups To Masterpiece Albums

There’s no real set formula as to where you go after you create a classic. Pete Townshend probably had no idea what Tommy meant for the rest of the rock scene when he made it, only to find it becoming one of the greatest rock operas ever told, following a deaf, dumb, and blind boy trying to make his way through life. The logic may have been similar going into Who’s Next, but there was also a good chance that we could have gotten a completely different album instead.

Although every one of these songs are iconic in their own right, they were originally destined to be a part of the new rock opera that Townshend envisioned, tentatively entitled Lifehouse. After the rest of the band struggled to get on the same page though, Townshend’s near mental breakdown when making the record led to the record company just throwing together the table scraps from the sessions as the final album. If this is what Lifehouse was gearing up to be, chances are it may have even surpassed Tommy in terms of sheer bombast, taking full advantage of the synthesizers on songs like Baba O'Riley and making sounds that no one was really ready for.

Outside of the concept, a lot of these songs tend to deal with Townshend’s relationship with music like Getting In Tune, almost trying to find the meaning of life within a single musical note. Townshend might still be a bit perturbed about Lifehouse never coming to fruition, but it would have been a crime if these songs were kept on the shelf as well.