Trinifold Archive
Who’s Next is one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll albums ever, and is arguably The Who at the peak of the band’s considerable powers.
Sure, My Generation may have been the first punk album—a decade and a half ahead of its time—and The Who Sell Out helped redefine the album as an artform. Then, of course, there was Tommy, which broke the band as international superstars, and Quadrophenia, which was a constant on the turntables of disaffected teens everywhere in the 1970s and ’80s, counting Eddie Vedder, Scott Weiland, and so many proto rock stars (and me!) as disciples.
No, 1971’s Who’s Next is The Who album that has always, and probably will always, define the band. “I don’t think we’ve done a show since the ’70s that didn’t include at least three or four songs from it,” Pete Townshend, the band’s guiding force, says today.