10 Rock Albums That Were A Nightmare To Make

After the Who came off the road supporting Tommy, the plan was to do the same thing all over again. Their last album had been one of the first rock operas to connect with the public, and Pete Townshend was already planning the next phase of his grand vision, making an album that built on the template that Tommy had paved the way for. All the seeds were there for another rock opera, but everything changed once Pete started to go off the rails.

Working on the project with the tentative title Lifehouse, Pete started running into problems the minute that he got into the studio, struggling to get the rest of the band on the same page with him and the story growing more convoluted by the day. Instead of just pushing forward, Pete's near mental breakdown during production led to the band putting out a record that had certain pieces of Lifehouse in it, turning into Who's Next. As far as table scraps go though, this might be the single best Who album ever released, having Townshend's most ambitious songs to date like Won't Get Fooled Again and Baba O'Riley, both of which incorporate synthesizers alongside the screaming guitars.

Then again, you can see why Pete might look back on this album with a little bit of disdain as well. If the half hearted version of the record ended up being this good, you can only imagine the kind of showstopping album we could have gotten had we heard it the way that Pete intended.