Lifehouse (rock Opera)
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''Lifehouse'' is an unfinished
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
rock opera A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs with lyrics that relate to a common story. Rock operas are typically released as concept albums and are not scripted for acting, which distinguishes them from operas, although several have been ad ...
by
The Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...
intended as a follow-up to ''
Tommy Tommy may refer to: People * Tommy (given name) * Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Tommy'' (1931 film), a Soviet drama film * ''Tommy'' (1975 fil ...
''. It was abandoned as a rock opera in favour of creating the traditional rock album ''
Who's Next ''Who's Next'' is the fifth studio album by English rock band the Who. It developed from the aborted '' Lifehouse'' project, a multi-media rock opera conceived by the group's guitarist Pete Townshend as a follow-up to the band's 1969 album ''T ...
'', though its songs would appear on various albums and singles by the Who, as well as
Pete Townshend Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is co-founder, leader, guitarist, second lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. Townsh ...
solo albums. In 1978, aspects of the Lifehouse project were revisited by the Who on ''
Who Are You ''Who Are You'' is the eighth studio album by English rock band the Who, released on 18 August 1978 by Polydor Records in the United Kingdom and MCA Records in the United States. Although the album received mixed reviews from critics, it was a ...
''. In 2000, Townshend revived the Lifehouse concept with his set ''
Lifehouse Chronicles ''Lifehouse Chronicles'' is a box set released in 2000 by Pete Townshend with the focus of the box being the formerly "abandoned" '' Lifehouse'' rock opera. The set contains song demos by Pete Townshend; including solo versions of "Baba O'Ril ...
'' and the sampler ''
Lifehouse Elements ''Lifehouse Elements'' is a single CD sampler of the 6-CD Box Set ''The Lifehouse Chronicles'' released by Pete Townshend Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is co-founder, leader, guitarist, se ...
''. On 1 May 2007, he released an online software called '' The Lifehouse Method'' in which any "sitter" could create a musical "portrait". The site is now defunct.


Original concept

''Lifehouses story was inspired by
Pete Townshend Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is co-founder, leader, guitarist, second lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. Townsh ...
's experiences on the ''Tommy'' tour: "I’ve seen moments in Who gigs where the vibrations were becoming so pure that I thought the whole world was just going to stop, the whole thing was just becoming so unified." He believed that the vibrations could become so pure that the audience would "dance themselves into oblivion". Their souls would leave their bodies and they would be in a type of heaven; a permanent state of ecstasy. The only reason this did not happen at Who gigs was because there was a knowledge in the listener's mind that the show would end and everyone would wake up and go to work the next morning. These ideas were directly linked to the writing of philosopher
Inayat Khan Inayat Khan Rehmat Khan ( ur, ) (5 July 1882 – 5 February 1927) was an Indian professor of musicology, singer, exponent of the saraswati vina, poet, philosopher, and pioneer of the transmission of Sufism to the West. At the urging of his ...
, a
Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...
musician who had written about the connection of vibration and sound with the human spirit. Another source of inspiration for Townshend was
Meher Baba Meher Baba (born Merwan Sheriar Irani; 25 February 1894  – 31 January 1969) was an Indian spiritual master who said he was the Avatar, or God in human form, of the age. A major spiritual figure of the 20th century, he had a following of ...
, who claimed to be an
avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...
of
Brahman In Hinduism, ''Brahman'' ( sa, ब्रह्मन्) connotes the highest universal principle, the ultimate reality in the universe.P. T. Raju (2006), ''Idealistic Thought of India'', Routledge, , page 426 and Conclusion chapter part X ...
. What Townshend was aiming to achieve in ''Lifehouse'' was to write music that could be adapted to reflect the personalities of the audience. To do this he wanted to adapt his newly acquired hardware,
VCS3 The VCS 3 (or VCS3; an initialism for ''Voltage Controlled Studio, version #3'') is a portable analog synthesizer with a flexible modular voice architecture introduced by Electronic Music Studios (London) Limited (EMS) in 1969. EMS release ...
and ARP synthesisers and a four-channel
quadraphonic Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic and sometimes quadrasonic) sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for th ...
PA system, to create a machine capable of generating and combining personal music themes written from computerised biographical data. Ultimately, these thematic components would merge to form a "universal chord". To help this process, the Who would encourage individuals to emerge from the audience and find a role in the music.''Who's Next'' 1995 Reissue Liner Notes


The Lifehouse concept

''Lifehouse'' began as a story written around several songs. According to Pete Townshend: "The essence of the story-line was a kind a futuristic scene…It’s a fantasy set at a time when rock ’n’ roll didn’t exist. The world was completely collapsing and the only experience that anybody ever had was through test tubes. In a way they lived as if they were in
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
programmes. Everything was programmed. The enemies were people who gave us entertainment intravenously, and the heroes were savages who’d kept rock ‘n’ roll as a primitive force and had gone to live with it in the woods. The story was about these two sides coming together and having a brief battle." Under those circumstances, a very old
guru Guru ( sa, गुरु, IAST: ''guru;'' Pali'': garu'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: traditionally, the guru is a reverentia ...
figure emerges and says, ‘I remember rock music. It was absolutely amazing—it really did something to people.’ He spoke of a kind of
nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...
people reached through listening to this type of music. The old man decides that he is going to try to set it up so that the effect can be experienced eternally. Everybody would be snapped out of their programmed environment through this rock and roll-induced liberated selflessness. The Lifehouse was where the music was played, and where the young people would collect to discover rock music as a powerful catalyst — a religion as it were. "Then I began to feel ‘Well, why just simulate it? Why not try and make it happen?’" The plan was for the Who to take over the
Young Vic The Young Vic Theatre is a performing arts venue located on The Cut, near the South Bank, in the London Borough of Lambeth. The Young Vic was established by Frank Dunlop in 1970. Kwame Kwei-Armah has been Artistic Director since February 201 ...
theatre with a regular audience, develop the new material on stage and allow the communal activity to influence the songs and performances. Individuals would emerge from the audience and find a role in the music and the film. When the concerts became strong enough, they would be filmed along with other peripheral activity from the theater. A storyline would evolve alongside the music. Although the finished film was to have many fictitious and scripted elements, the concert footage was to be authentic, and would provide the driving force for the whole production. Townshend went wild, working out a complex scenario whereby a personal profile of each concertgoer would be compiled, from the individual’s
astrological chart A horoscope (or other commonly used names for the horoscope in English include natal chart, astrological chart, astro-chart, celestial map, sky-map, star-chart, cosmogram, vitasphere, radical chart, radix, chart wheel or simply chart) is an ast ...
to his hobbies, even physical appearance. All the characteristics would then be fed into a computer at the same moment, leading to one musical note culminating in mass nirvana that Townshend dubbed ‘a kind of celestial cacophony.’ This philosophy was based on the writings of Inayat Khan, a Sufi master musician who espoused the theory that matter produces heat, light, and sound in the form of unique vibrations. Taking the idea one step further, making music, which was composed of vibrations, was the pervading force of all life. Elevating its purpose to the highest level, music represented the path to restoration, the search for the one perfect universal note, which once sounded would bring harmony to the entire world. Despite Townshend’s grandiose plans, the project had its problems. The theater had its own schedule of drama productions, and wasn’t available on a regular nightly schedule that Townshend insisted was necessary for the band to sustain a "euphoric level" of performance. Townshend: "The fatal flaw…was getting obsessed with trying to make a fantasy a reality rather than letting the film speak for itself." Eventually Townshend had to let go of ''Lifehouse'' for his own sake. Townshend’s inability to translate the ideas in his head to those around him eventually led to a nervous breakdown. "It was a disaster." No one apart from himself actually understood the whole concept of ''Lifehouse''. Even
John Entwistle John Alec Entwistle (9 October 194427 June 2002) was an English musician who was the bassist for the rock band The Who. Entwistle's music career spanned over four decades. Nicknamed "The Ox" and "Thunderfingers", he was the band's only member ...
believed that the band were to actually stay at the Young Vic with the audience in a sort of commune.
Kit Lambert Christopher Sebastian "Kit" Lambert (11 May 1935 – 7 April 1981) was a British record producer, record label owner and the manager of The Who. Biography Early life Kit Lambert was born on 11 May 1935, the son of composer Constant Lamb ...
, an integral part of the communication between the members of the Who, was missing. Townshend had rejected a ''Tommy'' film script written by Lambert, and later found out that he had told
Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
(to whom Townshend had spoken regarding the making of the film) that ''Lifehouse'' was actually a new version of ''Tommy''. Lambert, dejected, frustrated and hurt, had moved to New York. With ''Tommy'', Lambert had served as Townshend’s "interpreter," explaining "to the willing but befuddled people around me what I was on about." The film was indefinitely postponed until the album had been issued. The band went to
Glyn Johns Glyn Thomas Johns (born 15 February 1942) is an English musician, recording engineer and record producer. Biography Early history Johns was born in Epsom, Surrey, England. He had three siblings, two older sisters and a younger brother, Andy ...
to produce their collection of songs, intended for a double album. They decided to shelve most of the songs in favour of a single album, hoping that it would have "a sharper focus and greater impact" than the concept of ''Lifehouse'' had become. In August 1978 Keith Moon said the band intended to make a ''Lifehouse'' film after the film version of ''Quadrophenia'' had been completed. Townshend also revisited the concept, in modified form, in his radio play and recording ''
Psychoderelict ''Psychoderelict'' is a concept album written, produced and engineered by Pete Townshend. Some characters and issues presented in this work were continued in Townshend's later opus ''The Boy Who Heard Music'', first presented on The Who's album ...
'', which incorporated outtakes from the ''Lifehouse''/''Who's Next'' sessions and demos. In the plot of ''Psychoderelict'', a reclusive rock star named Ray High is lured out of retirement by a fan-letter hoax between his manager and a gossip columnist, ultimately staging and broadcasting a virtual reality concert similar to the ''Lifehouse'' climax. He continued discussion of these themes in his later opus ''
The Boy Who Heard Music ''The Boy Who Heard Music'' is a rock opus that began life as an Internet novella written by musician and songwriter Pete Townshend. Townshend wrote in the foreword to the novella that he typically sketches out his opera in this way to lay out ...
''. In April 2019 it was announced that a graphic novel based on the ''Lifehouse'' concept was in production, with a scheduled release date of July 2020. However, the graphic novel has not been published as of August 2022.


Plot summary

''Lifehouse'' has three variations in its storyline:


1971 version

In the world in which the album is set,
pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
is so bad that the populace are forced to wear Lifesuits, suits that could simulate all experiences in a way that no one would have to leave home. The suits are plugged into a huge mainframe called the Grid which also contains tubes for sleeping gas, food, and entertainment; supposedly, someone could live out tens of thousands of lifetimes in a very short period within the Grid. The Grid is controlled by a man named Jumbo. The story begins when a farming family in
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
hear of a huge rock concert called Lifehouse occurring in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, a sort of
post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astro ...
Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...
. Their daughter, Mary, runs away to join the concert. They don't wear Lifesuits because they are supposedly out of the pollution's range and they farm the crops that the government buys to feed the Lifesuiters. Bobby is the creator of Lifehouse. (''Bobby'' was also the tentative name of the project for a time.) He is a
hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...
who broadcasts
pirate radio Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially w ...
signals advertising his concert, where the participants' personal data are taken from them and converted into music, quite literally "finding your song". At the climax of the album, the authorities have surrounded the Lifehouse; then the perfect note rings forth through the combination of everybody's songs, they storm the place to find everybody has disappeared through a sort of musical
Rapture The rapture is an Christian eschatology, eschatological position held by some Christians, particularly those of American evangelicalism, consisting of an Eschatology, end-time event when all Christian believers who are alive, along with resurre ...
, and the people observing the concert through their Lifesuits have vanished as well.


1972 additions

In 1972, at Daltrey's suggestion, Townshend wrote new songs related to the ''Lifehouse'' plot line. These songs included "
Relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switch ...
," " Join Together," and "Put the Money Down." Also three songs were apparently recorded for inclusion on the unfinished followup to ''Who's Next'', titled '' Rock Is Dead—Long Live Rock!'' Instead, the band released "Relay" and "Join Together" as singles that year. "Put the Money Down" was not completed until 1974, when it was released on the outtakes and rarities compilation, ''
Odds & Sods ''Odds & Sods'' is an album of studio outtakes by British rock band the Who. It was released by Track Records in the UK and Track/MCA in the US in October 1974. Ten of the recordings on original eleven song album were previously unreleased. ...
''.


1978 version

Set two hundred years after the events in the ''Who's Next'' version, this tells the story of another attempt at a Lifehouse concert. The concert holders are helped by "muso", a
cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...
that worships music, and are hated by Plusbond, the group that runs the Grid and the Lifesuits.


1999 radio play version

Ray and Sally are farmers who grow, as Sally said, "dead potatoes". Their daughter, Mary, runs away from home to visit a hacker who has fascinated her with pirated radio advertisements. Ray goes to try to find his lost child and along the way he meets his childhood self, Rayboy, and his imaginary friend, the caretaker.


Radio play

Pete Townshend, along with playwright Jeff Young, completed a musical radio play script of ''Lifehouse'' as a collaboration between
BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...
Drama and Eel Pie, Townshend's publishing company. The recorded version of this script is available on ''
Lifehouse Chronicles ''Lifehouse Chronicles'' is a box set released in 2000 by Pete Townshend with the focus of the box being the formerly "abandoned" '' Lifehouse'' rock opera. The set contains song demos by Pete Townshend; including solo versions of "Baba O'Ril ...
'', and the text is available as a
Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
Pocket Books, First Edition 1999. The book contains the unedited radio play script of ''Lifehouse'' as well as an introduction by Townshend. The first broadcast of the radio play took place on 5 December 1999 on BBC Radio 3.


Intended track listing

Below is the track listing of the 1971 version of the ''Lifehouse'' album as listed on the first two discs of
Pete Townshend Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is co-founder, leader, guitarist, second lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. Townsh ...
's ''
Lifehouse Chronicles ''Lifehouse Chronicles'' is a box set released in 2000 by Pete Townshend with the focus of the box being the formerly "abandoned" '' Lifehouse'' rock opera. The set contains song demos by Pete Townshend; including solo versions of "Baba O'Ril ...
'' without the post 1971 songs. All songs written by Pete Townshend.


Intended personnel

The Who *
Pete Townshend Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is co-founder, leader, guitarist, second lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. Townsh ...
songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...
,
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
,
keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...
,
synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
,
banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
,
vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
*
Roger Daltrey Roger Harry Daltrey (born 1 March 1944) is an English singer, musician and actor. He is a co-founder and the lead singer of the Rock music, rock band The Who. Daltrey's hit songs with The Who include "My Generation", "Pinball Wizard", "Won't Ge ...
vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
,
harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...
,
percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
*
John Entwistle John Alec Entwistle (9 October 194427 June 2002) was an English musician who was the bassist for the rock band The Who. Entwistle's music career spanned over four decades. Nicknamed "The Ox" and "Thunderfingers", he was the band's only member ...
bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
,
trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
,
French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...
,
vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
*
Keith Moon Keith John Moon (23 August 19467 September 1978) was an English drummer for the rock band the Who. He was noted for his unique style of playing and his eccentric, often self-destructive behaviour and addiction to drugs and alcohol. Moon grew ...
drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
,
percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
Additional personnel *
Nicky Hopkins Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins (24 February 1944 – 6 September 1994) was an English pianist and organist. Hopkins performed on many popular and enduring British and American rock music recordings from the 1960s to the 1990s, most notably ...
piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
,
Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...


Related albums

* 1971: ''
Who's Next ''Who's Next'' is the fifth studio album by English rock band the Who. It developed from the aborted '' Lifehouse'' project, a multi-media rock opera conceived by the group's guitarist Pete Townshend as a follow-up to the band's 1969 album ''T ...
'' released by
the Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...
* 1972: ''
Who Came First ''Who Came First'' is the debut album by Pete Townshend, released in 1972 on Track Records in the UK and Track/Decca in the US. It includes previously released material as well as tracks that originated as demos for the Who's aborted concept ...
'' released by
Pete Townshend Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is co-founder, leader, guitarist, second lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. Townsh ...
* 1974: ''
Odds & Sods ''Odds & Sods'' is an album of studio outtakes by British rock band the Who. It was released by Track Records in the UK and Track/MCA in the US in October 1974. Ten of the recordings on original eleven song album were previously unreleased. ...
'' released by
the Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...
* 1975: ''
The Who by Numbers ''The Who by Numbers'' is the seventh studio album by English rock band the Who, released on 3 October 1975 in the United Kingdom through Polydor Records, and on 25 October 1975 in the United States by MCA Records. It was named the tenth-best a ...
'' released by
the Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...
* 1978: ''
Who Are You ''Who Are You'' is the eighth studio album by English rock band the Who, released on 18 August 1978 by Polydor Records in the United Kingdom and MCA Records in the United States. Although the album received mixed reviews from critics, it was a ...
'' released by
the Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...
* 1981: ''
Hooligans Hooliganism is disruptive or unlawful behavior such as rioting, bullying and vandalism, usually in connection with crowds at sporting events. Etymology There are several theories regarding the origin of the word ''hooliganism,'' which is a ...
'' released by
the Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...
* 1982: ''
It's Hard ''It's Hard'' is the tenth studio album by English rock band the Who. Released on 4 September 1982, it was the last to feature bassist John Entwistle, who died in 2002. It was also the second and final Who studio album with drummer Kenney Jones ...
'' released by
the Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...
* 2000: ''
Lifehouse Chronicles ''Lifehouse Chronicles'' is a box set released in 2000 by Pete Townshend with the focus of the box being the formerly "abandoned" '' Lifehouse'' rock opera. The set contains song demos by Pete Townshend; including solo versions of "Baba O'Ril ...
'' released by
Pete Townshend Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is co-founder, leader, guitarist, second lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. Townsh ...
* 2000: ''
Lifehouse Elements ''Lifehouse Elements'' is a single CD sampler of the 6-CD Box Set ''The Lifehouse Chronicles'' released by Pete Townshend Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is co-founder, leader, guitarist, se ...
'' released by
Pete Townshend Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend (; born 19 May 1945) is an English musician. He is co-founder, leader, guitarist, second lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. Townsh ...
* 2012: ''
Method Music ''Method Music'' is a double-album of electronic music by the English composer and mathematician Lawrence Ball created using the compositional system that would become The Lifehouse Method, an online-based compositional project conceived by Pete ...
'' released by
Lawrence Ball Lawrence Ball (born 17 September 1951) is an English musician and composer who lives in North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge o ...


See also

* ''
Smile A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile. Among humans, a smile expresses ...
'' by
The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and frie ...


References


External links


The Lifehouse
– web site devoted to The Who and Pete Townshend's "Lifehouse" Project

– interview with The Who, with focus on the "Lifehouse" project *
Come to the Lifehouse: Pete Townshend's Unfinished Utopia
' by
Philip Bounds Philip Bounds was a Marxist historian, journalist and critic. He held a PhD in Politics from the University of Wales and wrote a number of books, including ''Orwell and Marxism'' and ''British Communism and the Politics of Literature, 1928–1 ...
(Article from ''Fifth Estate Online: An International Journal of Radical Mass Media Criticism'') {{The Who Unreleased albums Rock operas The Who Unfinished operas Unfinished albums Science fiction concept albums