The Who release Who’s Next/Life House as a Super Deluxe Set

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The Who

The Who

Photo: Easington Colliery/Track Records. All rights reserved.

New material from rock pioneers The Who will be heard soon. Or rather: new old material. Because with the super deluxe set of “Who’s Next”/”Life House” not only revised classics but also previously unreleased songs will be released. And on them The Who songwriter Pete Townshend drew a bleak picture of the future 50 years ago that is actually reminiscent of today.

“Lifehouse”, the lost The Who project

Older fans of the British rock band will probably remember their 1971 album Who’s Next very well. The work is considered a classic of rock ‘n’ roll and contained hits like “Behind Blue Eyes” and “Baba O’Riley”. On the Super Deluxe Edition of “Who’s Next” listeners can once again enjoy these songs in a new guise. The band’s longtime engineer, Jon Astley, personally took on the task of completely remastering the original tapes of the recordings.

Much more exciting, however, is “Life House”, which Townshend once conceived as a successor to the rock opera “Tommy”, which is considered lost. The science fiction music epic tells of a not too distant future in which climate catastrophes oppress the individual. In his dystopian vision of the future, Townshend even predicted the internet, virtual reality, and pandemics. However, The Who head never completed the ambitious project and had to abandon it for the sake of his own mental health. Now, for the first time, fans can listen into the musical experiment and get a sense of what Townshend was up to.

In total, the entire Super Deluxe Edition includes 155 titles, 89 of which are previously unreleased. Furthermore, numerous demo and live versions can be found in the set. Depending on the format, the Super Deluxe Edition is available on ten CDs plus a Blu-ray, two CDs, a four LP set and digitally. The exclusive box set also contains books with background information on the creation story, a graphic novel to accompany “Life House” as well as posters, concert programs and much more.

The cover of the Super Deluxe Set

Title list of the double CD set

Disc One: “Who’s Next” (Remastered)

  1. Baba O’Riley
  2. bargain
  3. Love Ain’t for Keeping
  4. my wife
  5. The Song Is Over
  6. Getting In Tune
  7. going mobile
  8. Behind Blue Eyes
  9. Won’t Get Fooled Again

CD Two: Bonus Tracks (*previously released in remix/ **previously unreleased)

  1. Behind Blue Eyes (Record Plant, NYC Sessions – Version 1) [Take 15, March 16, 1971]**
  2. Getting In Tune (Alternate Mix) (Life House Demo)**
  3. Mary (Alternate Mix) (Life House Demo)**
  4. Love Ain’t For Keeping (Record Plant, NYC Sessions) [Take 14, March 17, 1971]*
  5. Pure And Easy (Olympic Studios Mix) (Life House Demo)**
  6. I Don’t Know Myself [Eel Pie Sound Studio – New Unedited Mix]**
  7. Too much of anything [Original 1971 Vocal]**
  8. Time Is Passing (Live at the Young Vic, London – April 26, 1971)*
  9. Bargain (Live at the Young Vic, London – April 26, 1971)*
  10. My Wife (Live at the Civic Auditorium, San Francisco – December 12, 1971)*
  11. Baba O’Riley (Live at the Civic Auditorium, San Francisco – December 12, 1971)**
  12. Won’t Get Fooled Again (Live at the Civic Auditorium, San Francisco – December 12, 1971)**

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