This song is incredibly important to me. It is beautiful, from its opening, repeating synthesizer work, to its pounding guitar chords, to its frantic, ending violin solo. Not only is the music brilliant, the lyrics are powerful; this is among Pete Townshend's finest work, and I consider him one of the best lyricists of all time. The lyrics of "Baba O'Riley" speak to me and feel very personal: I have trudged through the "teenage wasteland" of the world, often finding myself an outsider, trying to keep my shoes clean of the muck I lurch through. I wouldn't be so bold or pompous as to judge, or consider myself superior, morally or otherwise, to the inhabitants of the "wasteland," but I always have been different. I wanted to disengage from the society, to stick with the ones I loved and stand up for myself. It took me many years to realize that I don't need to fight to prove I'm right. My decisions are just as valid as anyone's. I don't need to be "forgiven" for being who I am, and if I don't want to be "wasted" like "everyone" else, I don't have to be. And in the end, it's only teenage wasteland--that's all. I don't have to be depressed because the world is ugly. It is not, after all, the world that matters--it is the people who can be beautiful.

So yes, "Baba O'Riley" is one of those extremely important songs to me. I was actually attempting to learn it on guitar recently, by ear. I came up with something reasonably close to the primary three-chord progression:


E|---1---------|
A|-------3--1--|
D|---3---------|
G|-------5--3--|
B|-------------|
E|-------------|

I have no idea whether that's actually how it's played or not, but you get the idea.