Pete Townshend remains hard at work on delving through his demos for Who’s Next in preparation of an upcoming box set. Townshend revealed to Mojo thaxt the Who had planned to have the the Who’s Next/Lifehouse box ready in time for the 50th anniversary, but it was delayed due to covid. Townshend joked, “Three days working until five in the morning trying to keep up with some Who demos. If I am looking a bit shattered, it’s because I am.”
Townshend revealed he been trying to repair the demo for an unused track — and longtime fan favorite — “Ambition”: “This is a song we’re trying to recover.” No release date for the box set has been announced.
FAST FACTS
- The Who released Who’s Next on August 25th, 1971. The album peaked at Number Four in the U.S. — yet fared better in the UK where it topped the album charts.
- Who’s Next, which is one of the rare albums in rock history in which every track became an FM staple, featured, arguably, the band’s three most important ’70s classics — with the Pete Townshend-written “Baba O’Riley,” “Behind Blue Eyes,” and the epic “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”
- The album also featured John Entwistle‘s signature concert spotlight, “My Wife,” and such groundbreaking work as Townshend’s “Bargain,” “Song Is Over,” “Going Mobile,” “Love Ain’t For Keeping,” and “Getting In Tune.
DID YOU KNOW???
- The genesis of Who’s Next began as the dust settled on the original Tommy album and tour.
- Pete Townshend‘s 1970 songs were to be utilized in a futuristic multimedia project called Lifehouse.
- By the time the songs were released on Who’s Next, the project had been scaled back dramatically – but the songs, regardless of their story — were immediately embraced by fans as instant Who masterpieces.
CHECK IT OUT: Pete Townshend’s 1970 demo for “The Song Is Over”: