On The Voice’s second round of battles, Team Adam rockers Keith Semple and Manny Cabo will square off and sing The Who song “Baba O’Riley“, which is often erroneously called “Teenage Wasteland” due to the refrain. The 1971 song was written by The Who’s Pete Townshend – “who sings the lines “Don’t cry/don’t raise your eye/it’s only teenage wasteland.” Roger Daltrey sings the rest including the screaming part “They’re all wasted!”
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According to Wikipedia, Townshend said in an interview that the song is really about “the absolute desolation of teenagers at Woodstock, where everyone was smacked out on acid and 20 people had brain damage.” It’s not the celebratory song many “wasted” teenagers believe it to be. The title “Baba O’Riley” reportedly refers to Townshend’s philosophy/music mentors – Indian spiritual Meher Baba (translated “Compassionate Father”) and American composer Terry Riley. The Voice airs Mondays at 8pm and Tuesdays at 9pm on NBC.
