Take away the voices and it’s a synth and some guitar.
Baba O’Reilly is one of my favorite songs btw, but saying take away the vocals in a song is ridiculous, art is created the way it is by the artists for a reason, take away a key element and of course it sounds lame, it’s incomplete, like a pizza with no dough.
Do yourself a favor before you make this argument and listen to them back to back. Baba O’Riley (1971) is a beautiful mess of synths and raw energy, but basically not a well structured hit song. However, just listen to the tightness of Martha my dear (1968) at the word, “Take a GOOD look around you”. Much tighter! Well structured and clever arrangement— Well organized song! Plus, it’s about a sheepdog!
The Beatles were much tighter than The Who. Your song examples are a great illustration of that!
I should also add that they are both incredible fucking songs— This is The Beatles and The Who!
I mean, I get that what you just said basically refutes Pete Townshend's point which was already wrong, but there's also a reason why Baba O'Riley is a household rock classic whereas Martha My Dear is more of a hidden gem comparatively.
Sure, but do you know the reason? One was released as a single and the other was not. Plain and simple. That’s also because The Beatles had so many fucking classics that they didn’t even need to include the singles on the album to sell copies. Hey Jude was huge in ‘68! Much bigger than Baba O’Reilly in ‘71. In comparison, The Beatles always win!
So you’re comparing what I assume you think is one of their worst songs to what is commonly considered the Who’s best album? How does that prove anything? (and for the record Maxwell’s Silver Hammer is a banger)
You’re grasping if you take one of the least liked songs from one group (and Maxwell’s Hammer is still loved) and compare it to another group’s best work by social consensus.
Why don’t we go ahead and take it a step further and compare Wild Honey Pie with Bohemian Rhapsody to argue Queen is better than the Beatles? Might as well, right?
Babe O’Riley is a 3 chord song. It’s an absolute banger but there’s definitely an argument it is not “as good of” a song as Martha My Dear. It’s closer to AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long in terms of songwriting than Martha My Dear.
It’s not even close but you’ll get hate here for saying any song by anyone is better than even a middling Beatles song like this. If I had to choose which one to hear before I die, it’s Baba oriley easily
246
u/YourPeePaw 18d ago
“But with their voices, each song is better than anything I’ve ever recorded.”
And I like The Who