10 Perfect Rock Songs Cut From Classic Albums

For as many classics that the Who were pumping out in the early ‘70s, Pete Townshend was going through his own private hell. The road to making Tommy may have been a great success, but the idea to do it all over again was starting to wear on the Who’s main songwriter, nearly suffering a mental breakdown to get a project called Lifehouse off the ground. The decision for Who’s Next really was just assembling the table scraps of what Lifehouse was supposed to be, only without one of the key themes of the opera.

While you can definitely hear the rock opera that Townshend was working with on songs like Baba O’Riley and Won’t Get Fooled Again, the whole mission behind the original concept was to tell the story of a man who is numb to everything and uses music as a refuge, with Pure and Easy setting the scene for his first interaction with music. Trading in the roaring guitars for a gentle piano melody, most of this song is about as pure as Townshend gets songwriting wise, talking about the raw joy that comes out of playing your instrument and hearing music come together in your head.

While it might have been a bit too meta for the proper Lifehouse project to work, you can hear that same kind of relationship with music play out on Who’s Next as well, with songs like Getting in Tune and The Song Is Over talking about music giving you the power to change the world around you. The entire Lifehouse project may have been put on the backburner, but if we ever do get a proper version of Townshend’s vision, you better believe that this song has top priority in the setlist.