There is a fabulous new book out called Pete Townshend's Lifehouse, written by author and long time Who fan Ian Paul Sharp. The book explores the history of Pete's long lost Lifehouse project from 1971.
Lifehouse was originally envisioned to be a sci-fi film based on a script Pete wrote that was set in a dystopian future. Many of the ideas in Pete’s original script were far reaching and prescient of things to come. A series of workshop concerts took place at the Young Vic Theatre in London that were meant to be an interactive experience with the audience that was part of the Lifehouse project. The music from Lifehouse was originally planned to be released as a double album rock opera by The Who to follow up their smash hit Tommy, but the film project ultimately collapsed due to various issues, and the storyline was dropped. What emerged out of the rubble was a stripped down single album, The Who's 1971 masterpiece Who's Next.
Pete has revisited Lifehouse many times over the years, and elements of the story have been pieced together from early demos, Who and solo recordings, and retold in various projects, including Psychoderelict in 1993, the Lifehouse BBC Radio play in 1999, the Lifehouse Chronicles box set and solo Sadler's Wells shows in 2000, the Boy Who Heard Music novella in 2005, the Lifehouse Method interactive music generation website in 2007, and the massive Who's Next / Life House box set and graphic novel in 2023. In the new book, Ian mentions plans are in the works for an upcoming documentary for Lifehouse, so the story continues!
Pete Townshend's Lifehouse takes a deep dive into all the incarnations Lifehouse has gone through, and includes extensive quotes from Pete Townshend from various interviews over the years to help illustrate the story. Ian goes into great detail describing Pete's songs and how they fit into the Lifehouse story, and provides his own version of what the definitive double album tracklist should be. According to the book's press release, it traces the project from its origins and ambitions through collapse, reinvention, and ongoing legacy. The book examines the ideas behind Townshend's most ambitious concept, the writing and recording sessions that pushed him to the edge, and the Lifehouse Method — his experiment in turning personality into music. It follows his returns to the project across five decades, up to the 2023 Who's Next Life House super deluxe edition, and makes the case that Lifehouse provides a lens for understanding Townshend's entire creative life.
Here are a few words about Lifehouse from the book's author, Ian Paul Sharp:
For me, the purest expression of Lifehouse can be found in Pete Townshend’s solo concert at Sadler’s Wells on 26 February 2000. This concert (somehow the word ‘gig’ doesn’t feel adequate) was the event that pulled me into the Lifehouse universe, and ultimately led to the writing of my book, Pete Townshend’s Lifehouse.
To be more specific, one specific song drew me inside: ‘Teenage Wasteland’.
Let’s backtrack a little. I first discovered The Who when the compilation Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy became a cult album among a few of us beginning to discover our own tastes in music as school kids. The next Who album to be released, on our timeline as 15 year-olds in 1973, was Quadrophenia. This was a whole new expression of musical possibility, cemented by going to the legendary Charlton gig in 1974.
Now we were confirmed Who fans, and, of course, all the previous albums had to be acquired. The next record to join my collection was Who’s Next. From various interviews and features in the music press I was vaguely aware of a backstory to this one, something about a lifehouse, but that was music that apparently was never going to be released - Lifehouse was ‘abandoned’ - and I didn’t have the income to fund a bootleg habit. What was locked in the vaults would always stay in the vaults.
My first proper insight into what lay beyond Who’s Next was the release of the archive compilation (selected by John Entwistle) Odds & Sods. Here was the already legendary ‘Pure and Easy’ and, almost as valuable, Pete’s track notes in which he wondered why it hadn’t been selected for Who’s Next by producer Glyn Johns.
In the meantime, I completed my Who collection and, of course, Pete Townshend joined my ever growing record collection too. I came to realise I was a Townshend fan first, and a Who listener second, because Pete wrote most of the songs. That seems rather unfair, because the incredible Who gigs I participated in required the four (and later, more) of them as performers.
Townshend solo was a unique experience but clearly could never be The Who, nor did he intend it to be. ‘Participated’? Yes, because what Pete was reaching for with the early Lifehouse experimental gigs at the Young Vic was mostly what a Who live experience already was. The band inspires and excites the audience, the audience gives energy to the band; a closed feedback loop. Lifehouse was intended to be more than that, yet how much more could there be?
I was collecting the Scoop series of demo tracks when Townshend announced a limited availability boxed set: The Lifehouse Chronicles. This, it seemed, was to be the definitive statement of Lifehouse. Among the demos, experiments, orchestrations, and the radio play, was the basis of the Sadler’s Wells 2000 concert.
One day I might be able to find the words to capture the special atmosphere of those songs and performances. The closest I can currently get is the music of the spheres, the spiritual philosophy through which we might begin to understand what music is and why it is a universal human necessity.
To explain, briefly, far too briefly: the universe vibrates and those vibrations form one note, connecting the whole universe. This would suggest music is a fundamental part of life on planets other than Earth, too; among cultures that are not human, if there are any, because music is universal. The Voyager space craft, with its laser disc of examples of human culture, including music (but not, for example, ‘Baba O’Riley’) might not have been merely a symbolic idea.
Music exists in the universe in a different way, too. Many songwriters explain their ‘muse’ as a channel through which music arrives. Perhaps ‘Baba O’Riley’, and every other piece of music, already existed. Songwriters such as Pete are sufficiently connected and open to be able to call them into existence.
This is not to say anyone could have written Townshend’s (or anyone else’s) songs. The chords, the rhythms, perhaps even the language, already exist. Perhaps the classic line by British comedians: “I’m playing all the right notes, just not in the right order” is closer to the truth of songwriting than it might appear.
My use of ‘Baba O’Riley’ as an example wasn’t accidental or coincidental. The way we hear ‘Baba’ on Who’s Next, or when The Who play it live, is just one possible reality, just one of many versions that could potentially exist. Played at Sadler’s Wells 2000, we hear another, in the alternative approach to the same idea called ‘Teenage Wasteland’.
It’s interesting to play with alternative realities. These are another manifestation of the universe. Here is the idea that every possible version of events not only could happen - there’s a universe where that alternative did happen. Skating over the unfortunate universe where Who’s Next, where The Who, where rock music itself never happened means there’s a universe where there’s only ‘Teenage Wasteland’ and never ‘Baba O’Riley’. (Does this mean there’s a universe where music doesn’t exist? Probably not; that feels like a universe where the laws of physics don’t exist).
Listen to ‘Teenage Wasteland’ as played at Sadler’s Wells. It doesn’t sound much like The Who. Perhaps Lifehouse should always have been a Pete Townshend solo project? (Discuss).
For me’ Teenage Wasteland’ is the musical root of Lifehouse.
Ian Paul Sharp, July 2026
Many thanks to Ian for sending us his lovely writeup for this article!
Pete Townshend's Lifehouse is out now. For more information on the book, please visit https://ianpaulsharp.uk.
For more info on the Lifehouse projects, please visit our extensive articles for Lifehouse, Lifehouse Method, Life House graphic novel, and the Who's Next / Life House box set!
