Pete Townshend is hard at work on the delayed 50th anniversary Who’s Next box set. Townshend took to Instagram to spotlight his new studio space and reveal he had been up for three straight nights sifting through Who’s Next and Lifehouse demos. No release date has been set for the collection, which will be released in 2022 — hopefully in time for the album’s 51st anniversary.

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 one-man-band demo for “Love Ain’t For Keeping”: