Baba O'Riley
“Don't cry, don't raise your eye. It's only teenage wasteland.”
"Teenage Wasteland" is a 1971 rock song rarely referred to by its real name, "Baba O'Really". The song is about a teenager, also named Baba O'Riley, who along with tens of millions of others attended the 1969 music festival at Woodstock, New York — the one romanticized by baby boomers who only listen to "real music" that doesn't have any of that Auto-Tuned crap. Research suggests these revelers also witnessed The Beatles' final performance at Shea Stadium, The Sex Pistols at the 100 Club, Lionel Richie's Figaro at La Scala, and Jesus's 33 AD Comeback Special.
Meaning[edit]
However, O'Riley himself did not trouble the attention of the world until he looked around a wet field in Upstate New York and reportedly shouted out "We're all wasted!" in disillusionment. Careful analysis of surviving audio suggests his actual words were "We've all wasted our cash!" — a comment thought to have been inspired by Jefferson Airplane's imminent performance of "We Built This City". The final few syllables were lost due to The Who's performance; Keith Moon detonated several tons of stage pyrotechnics, and the shout "We're all wasted!" was echoed by Pete Townshend on arriving at the Middle Eight.
Interestingly, Townshend later claimed to have shouted "We all wasted our chance!", referring to his assault on political activist Abbie Hoffman, who Townshend had hit over the head with his Fender but failed to properly eviscerate as he needed to play the final chords of "Boris the Spider".
As the audience rushed away before Grace Slick could begin yodeling, wiser bodies took O'Riley aside to privately counsel him that flagrant overdosing on drugs was the entire point of the event.
Legacy[edit]
"Baba O'Riley" (or "Teenage Wasteland" as listeners refer to it) was immortalized by its overexposure on classic rock radio, car commercials, and movies/trailers like American Beauty and Premium Rush featuring "relatable everymen" caught between a rock and a hard place. Pearl Jam also made the song a concert mainstay, with Eddie Vedder yarling out the lyrics.