The Who: Baba O'Riley Meaning

Song Released: 1972

Baba O'Riley Lyrics

Out here in the fields
I fight for my meals
I get my back into my living
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
I don't need to fight
To prove I'm right
I don't need to be forgiven

Don't cry
Don't raise your eye
It's only teenage wasteland

Sally ,take...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Aug 3rd 2008 !⃝

   This song is totally from a project that Pete Townshend wished to do for many years called "Lifehouse." The song was supposed to be about a post-apocalyptic world, where most of the cities have been destroyed and the few survivors are forced back to simpler living, such as farming. The protagonist in the song is a farmer, worried about the future of his teenage children. Sally is his wife.
2. anonymous

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   Jun 11th 2021 !⃝

   Meanings of lyrics change over time. A casual listener is a more objective interpreter .
   A casual observance about Baba ORiley is that the Teenage Period of Development is at once treasured and horrifying .
   When left to grow as weeds, the age group is subject to becoming wasteland.
   The historical framework of the 1960s and beyond creates a technogical manifesto not seen in pre tech times.
   Hard work and a laboring mind is a repulsive concept to natural humans.
   Escaping that grating experience is an imperative , be it during the Woodstock era or modern day social media.
   The inner desire remains the same. The adult perspective is what perceives it as a wasteland. In that regard, it is the songwriter acknowledging his years beyond the teens .
3. kooljohn176

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   Mar 31st 2015 !⃝

   One of the great songs by The Who and wonder if grandmothers today love this song more than their grandmothers did in the past of''Baba O'Riley'' that was and is a song about teenagers trying to survive in the present after The War Years of the past that left a wasteland for them to scrounge and fight for their meals while taking the hand of a loved one [Sally] into the future without needing to fight the political or religious fight with the ones [grownup leaders] that caused the wars in the first place that the teenagers had to pay with anger and tears to survive in knowing that they are right and don't need to be forgiven in their anger if they become distructive to survive in the wasteland with what they learned and expierienced by the wars to leave behind.
4. anonymous

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   Nov 3rd 2012 !⃝

   I actually thought he did the song in tribute to his fascination with Meher Baba.
5. anonymous

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   Jun 25th 2012 !⃝

   Well, I know Baba O Riley means "Father of Carefree Existence"...That is as much as I know about that.
6. anonymous

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   Apr 19th 2012 !⃝

   About the vietnam war.
7. anonymous

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   Mar 3rd 2011 !⃝

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. Who gives a crap:(. I think this song is about something that relates to your mom because hehe she likes chicken fingers.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
8. bobdylan

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   Sep 13th 2010 !⃝

   Darn it all, you're all close to impossibly misguided fools! Ha! Kidding!
   The song is satirical (look it up). Satire always contains moral instruction. "We don't need to fight to prove we're right. We don't need to be forgiven"--the Sixties Flower Children ideal in a nut house shell. Dropping acid and dropping their baby infants as well and giving their three year olds a dose or two of Window Pane. These people were far worse than heathens. They were degenerate scum! "Teenage Wasteland/you're all WASTED!" Selah (Ken Kesey 3:11-12)
9. anonymous

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   Dec 13th 2009 !⃝

   It's about a Scottish farmer who gathers his wife and children to begin an Exodus to London
10. Commissioner

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    Sep 6th 2008 !⃝

    The exodus is a reference to Jesus. The happy ones are those who are glad of his presence. "Lets get together..." speaks of a "marriage" of Jesus and
    his people. Duet concept... Teenage wasteland, a nickname for Jesus, Speaks through Roger Daltrey.... Pete townsend almost narrates the the situation...
    calling Jesus "Teenage Wasteland"
    
    The richness of nicknames for Jesus used in lyrics is exemplified in this song.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
11. PaulsDeadUncle

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    Sep 22nd 2007 !⃝

    I think that this song is about an old couple having to deal with teens who disregard old principles. The husband is comforting his wife.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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