The Who’s Life House Finally Comes To Life
Inside the new Super Deluxe Edition of Who’s Next
As much as time has passed since Pete Townshend created the concept of his long, lost sci-fi rock opera Life House, its basic premise remains oddly prevalent in the modern day.
A militaristic regime has taken over civilization after pollution made Earth uninhabitable, and citizens are forced into these virtual reality suits connected to a grid that’s operated by a Mother Brain of corporate entities providing everyone information, entertainment and sustenance. Rock music is banned on account of its ability to overpower The Grid, as its called. Rebellion, however, comes in the form of those who escape into a Life House beyond The Grid’s grasp and proceed to rebuild rock ‘n’ roll note by note and achieve melodic transcendence.
It’s no doubt an intriguing idea that reads like the plot to Wall-E in a way (if Wall-E was an electric guitar, maybe), and wild in the notion that Townshend essentially foreshadowed VR and the Internet with the Grid narrative. Not to mention, discovering Life House as a story in the post-COVID era hits a little too close to home in terms of its themes of confinement.
“It occurred to me that one day in the future human beings might be confined to exist in what we today call virtual reality spacesuits,” the guitarist wrote in his essay for the long awaited Super Deluxe Edition of Who’s Next. “Why? Because one of the big issues of the ’70s was pollution threatening to hide the sun and freeze the planer. My hypothesis was that any such technological ‘lock-in’ (might call it ‘lockdown’ today) would inevitably be corrupted in the hands autocratic government. Once the world’s population was safely pacified by endless streams of free entertainment in the shape of endless lifetimes of pseudo experience, they could do double duty: reduce the amount of pollution they generated and be kept safely suppressed and silent. I had hit on the same device I had used for Tommy. In this case my central characters were all ‘locked-in.'”
Townshend’s plot, when put through the lens of these last seven years we’ve all endured, is eerily prophetic in some aspects, downright dystopian in others. But it seemed to be too much story for our Pete, who wound up paring down the double album concept into a single LP at the behest of producer Glyn Johns, which would become The Who’s signature title Who’s Next.
Exhaustive is an adjective commonly used when speaking of these deluxe editions, but this Who’s Next | Life House box gives the term a whole new dimension. There isn’t a more storied album in Who lore, and at 10 compact discs and one blu-Ray, this collection is well worth its price point as it finally delivers the project as Townshend originally envisioned it.
Featuring 155 tracks, of which 89 are previously unreleased and 57 feature fresh remixes, this box incorporates the entirety of the Life House project in various stages of development, which was initially conceived as a combination film script and blueprint for a live musical.
“Some wonderful music came from the project,” Townshend writes in his essay, “and the idea has always held me in thrall, partly because so many of the strands of the fiction seem to be coming true.”
The Super Deluxe Edition of Who’s Next | Life House was remastered from the original tapes by longtime Who engineer Jon Astley. The Blu-ray Audio disc, meanwhile, incorporates newly crafted Atmos and 5.1 surround mixes of Who’s Next along with 14 more bonus tracks crafted by in-demand artist and producer Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree fame.
Highlights of the 155-track format include Townshend’s demos for Life House, two discs that essentially offer the closest we will ever hear to his complete vision in album form. Also included are The Who’s 1971 session recordings at the Record Plant in New York with longtime manager Kit Lambert behind the board, which was the band’s fast and loose initial attempt at the material. The sessions with Johns at Olympic Studios in southwest London from 1970-1972, on the contrary, are a far more cohesive affair by comparison, augmented by alternate versions of such Who’s Next highlights as “Bargain,” “Getting In Tune” and “Going Mobile” along with studio versions of Life House era live staples like “Pure and Easy,” “Lets See Action” and “Naked Eye.” A sixth disc, entitled Singles and Sessions, continues to mine that ’70-’72 era by bringing such Who staples as “The Seeker,” “Water” and “Long Live Rock” into the conversation. It should also be noted what a treat it is to hear the evolution of what many consider to be The Who’s greatest tune, “Baba O’Riley,” across the scope of these discs as well.
The last four CDs, however, are dedicated to a pair of complete 1971 Who shows that are must-listens for any ardent fan of the band. The first concert was captured at London’s Young Vic and finds the band working out the Who’s Next | Life House material onstage alongside such live staples as “Young Man Blues,” “Pinball Wizard” and “My Generation.” Highlights of this gig were originally included in the 2003 deluxe edition of Who’s Next as the bonus disc, but it’s inclusion in the box set marks the first time it’s been presented in it’s entirety. The other show is from a scorching second night of a residency at the Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, CA, that finds The Who playing with such swagger and ferocity, especially when they are jamming out on an 11-minute “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and a version of “Magic Bus” that breaks down into a proto-Sonic Youth jam towards the end. The Civic Auditorium version of “Behind Blue Eyes” is particularly inspired as well, not to mention a downright nuclear “Baba” that rivals the one from The Kids Are Alright.
The box set also contains a 100-page hardback book with Townshend’s aforementioned introduction and new sleeve notes by Who experts and compilers Andy Neil and Matt Kent. Also included is Life House – The Graphic Novel, a newly commissioned, 170-page hardback book overseen by Townshend that tells the story behind the project and is well worth a few hours of reading time. The book was created by the team of DC Comics artist James Harvey, writer David Hine, visual artist Max Prentis and master inker Mick Gray under Pete Townshend’s supervision.
Completing the set is an envelope of replica ephemera including a 20” x 30” poster of a Who gig in Sunderland, England, on 7th May, 1970; a 25.5” x 34.25” poster of a date at Denver Coliseum, Denver, CO on 10th December, 1971; a 20-page concert program from the Rainbow Theatre in London on 4th November, 1971; a 16-page program from the band’s October/November 1971 tour of the UK; a collectible four pin button set; and an 8” x 10” colour photo of The Who with printed autographs.
Who’s Next really is one of the definitive albums of that classic rock era of the early 1970s, and this incredible box set gives you the opportunity to experience it the way Pete Townshend always wished and beyond. You owe it to yourself to get lost in his vision.
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