Sam Murphy

If there's one piece of art out there, in the world today that completely trounces what art is, what art believes in, completely re-creates human nature, anger, lust, greed, love, and pain in just over five minutes, it's The Who's Baba O'Riley. Baba O'Riley is the epithet of art and human culture and devotion. IT is music, it is  rhythm, it is rock, it is loud, and above  all, it is great. From the  shouting of the poetic to the constant attack of drums and synthesizer, Baba O'Riley is art. When one listens to it one hears Mozart, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Dylan and Hendrix all rolled into one. It makes you want to get up and dance and laugh and yell and make love. It is The Who.

For those who don't know, The Who is a group of four musicians, two of which have passed away, and two of which who still live and play. I know their names; they have been scorched into my heart and ears; and I love them, though the closest I've been to any of The Who is about one hundred feet.  I like to think of what they would think of me and all those like me; Roger Daltry, the hard-hitting singer who can make anything sound great, not that he needs to; Pete Townshend; The musician who composes such wonderful works of musical magic, who is a maestro in every sense of the word; John Entwistle, the silent but deadly player who's bass is all but silent, whom they call Thunder-fingers; And Keith Moon, the blaring, screaming, joking whirlwind of percussion who changed how everyone, yes, everyone, thinks about drumming.. I wonder what they would think of me, the little guy who can barely play an F chord, yet insists on learning Led Zepplin and Baba O'Riley.Would they laugh? Would they be honored? Who knows. They're The Who; It's not about compassion, it's about the guitar smashing fury and exploding amp mayhem of music.

But back to O'Riley. From the first note of that endless synth loop that creates a wall of  sound to the final entrance of the strings, this is great. Even the chords are powerful; that Reverberating Dun Dun Dun and that thundering roll of cymbals and bass that are all the more personified by Daltry's Controlling voice; the voice that makes you feel like you''re at the schoolyard again and this big British punk is going to beat you up. What part of this titanic foursome rules the song? Is it the looping synth? Townsend's powerful chords? Entwhistle's roaring bass? Moon's thundering drums? Or is it something greater?

Honestly, I believe it is. The combination of all these crucial elements that make the song what it is, the end result of putting all these wonderful things together is what makes Baba O'Riley great.The Beatles couldn't have done this - They weren't mean enough. The Stones couldn't; they weren't loving enough. Bands today couldn't. They didn't grow up in 1950's Britain under the shadow of the war. They-aren't Mods, they aren't focused. They don't have a message. Before the sixties it wasn't possible either; music wasn't mean enough. All it wanted was to entertain, not to kick you in the teeth like The Who.

And why, you now ask, am I writing this essay? Is it to simply preach on about my favorite song, or is it something more? It is something more, readers, something which I have to scream out to the world before I explode from passion. The message is as follows: This , the greatest bit of music or art to come out of the human race ever, is unappreciated. If one were to go up to anyone who was born after 1990 (Excluding me, of course) they would say, and this is what kills me, "Baba who?" I want to break down and cry. Usually after hearing this I'll say in a very small and trampled-on voice, "Teenage Wasteland?" and they'll go, "Oh, yeah! I love that song!" Inside I'll be thinking, "No you don't. you like how it songs. But does it capture your soul, catch your breath, and make your heart jump all at once? Or do you just like it? Go back to grunge, fool." The young people today, myself included, need to be re-influenced by real music, like Baba O'Riley. Who knows how many Hendrixes are waiting to pick up a strat out in the world of rap and hip-hop? I honestly wish I had been born forty years ago, so I might have been old enough yet young enough to enjoy this music, or make some of it. When will the next 'Summer of Love' happen? When will peace and love reign? When will there be the next Beatles, Stones, and most of all Who? when will love reign o'er the world again? When will there be music again? And now, I ask of you all, as one fleeting remark, call the DJ on your rock station and request them play Baba O'Riley. While you're at it, call up all the other radio stations too, you know, the ones who don't even speak English. See if you can get them to play it.  I'm not trying to change the world and re-create a bygone era; I'm trying to help Baba O'Riley, the greatest piece of music or art ever to grace this world, do that.