Butch Vig

Who’s Next THE WHO

The Who are a very important band to me. Who’s Next is their peak. I bought it right when it came out. I was a freshman in high school, and I’d be lying in bed with my headphones at night, playing air drums, listening to the production. I’d never heard a rock record like that before. They were a three-piece band that made a huge, symphonic sound, which set it apart from all the other albums of that era. Starting with the sequencer and then into those three simple chords, “Baba O’Riley” has one of the most epic intros to an album ever. It takes you on a journey, from when

Pete Townshend sings “It’s only teenage wasteland” to when the violin comes in. Not many other bands were capable of pulling that off, and it resonated with the world I was living in. If they had just played full on as a power trio all the way through, the record would’ve been more one-dimensional. But there’s so much restraint in a song like “Behind Blue Eyes”; when the band kicks in, it’s incredibly cathartic. I loved all the songs on the album, and I blasted it all the way through. I still do.