@russ.4527: Townshend wrote "Baba O'Riley" for his Lifehouse project, a rock opera intended as the followup to the Who's 1969 opera Tommy. In Lifehouse, a Scottish farmer named Ray would have sung the song at the beginning as he gathered his wife Sally and his two children to begin their move to London. When Lifehouse was scrapped, eight of the songs were salvaged and recorded for the Who's fifth studio album Who's Next (1971), with "Baba O'Riley" as the lead-off track. The song title refers to two of Townshend's primary inspirations at the time: Indian spiritual master Meher Baba and American minimalist composer Terry Riley.