Video of Baba O'Riley. The audio has "migrated" a bit since the video was uploaded, but it still sounds sweet!
Often referred to as 'Teenage Wasteland', Baba O'Riley is in my opinion one of the greatest rock songs of all time. Check out a live performance of it on youtube sometime if you need a pick-me-up. That being said, you might wonder why I would cover a song that I can't possibly make better. First, covering songs that are better than my own is one of the great privileges of being a performer! Second, without necessarily improving a song I can still put my own mark on it. For this cover my goal was to help the melody stand out a bit more on its own. By stripping away some of the trademark 'Who sounds' -the pounding piano, thrashing drums, wailing bass, screeching guitar, whirling synthesizer- and slowing it down, I came up with a nice acoustic rendition that emphasized Daltrey's soulful melody; perhaps not the best part of the song, but a great melody nonetheless and a part that is often overlooked (as is to be expected from a person standing next to Entwistle, Moon and Townshend).
One final interesting note about this project is that I finally learned the correct lyrics (I think, although there is no consensus online). I always thought the opening line was, "Out here in the fields, I fight for my meals". But I was "corrected" by a zealous 'Who fan' who told me it was, "I farm for my meals". So I went to the online lyric sites and found out that online lyric sites are fairly worthless. Most of them say 'fight', some say 'fought' and a few say 'farm'. After listening carefully to the studio recording, I was convinced that it was indeed 'farm'. So there you go, I hope you learned something (at the very least you learned my opinion :) And above all, I hope you like my cover of Baba O'Riley. Check out more covers and originals here!
