The ‘Lifehouse’ idea really was very simple. It was a portentous science fiction film with Utopian Spiritual messages into which were to be grafted up lifting scenes from a real Who concert. I was selling a simple credo: Whatever happens in the future, rock ‘n’ roll will save the world.

Lifehouse began as a story written around several songs. Pete Townshend: "The essence of the story-line was a kind a futuristic scene…It’s a fantasy set at a time when rock ’n’ roll didn’t exist. The world was completely collapsing and the only experience that anybody ever had was through test tubes. They lived TV programs, in a way. Everything was programmed. The enemies were people who gave us entertainment intravenously, and the heroes were savages who’d kept rock ‘n’ roll as a primitive force and had gone to live with it in the woods. The story was about these two sides coming together and having a brief battle."

Under those circumstances, a very, very, very old guru figure emerges and says ‘I remember rock music. It was absolutely amazing—it really did something to people.’ He spoke of a kind of nirvana people reached through listening to this type of music. The old man decides that he’s going to try to set it up so that the effect can be experienced eternally. Everybody would be snapped out of their programmed environment through this rock and roll-induced liberated selflessness. The Lifehouse was where the music was played and where the young people would collect to discover rock music as a powerful catalyst—a religion as it were. "Then I began to feel ‘Well, why just simulate it? Why not try and make it happen?’"

The plan was for The Who to take over a theater [the Young Vic] with a regular audience, develop the new material onstage and allow the communal activity to influence the songs and performances. Individuals would emerge from the audience and find a role in the music and the film. When the concerts became strong enough, they would be filmed along with other peripheral activity from the theater. A story-line would evolve alongside the music. Although the finished film was to have many fictitious and scripted elements, the concert footage was to be authentic, and would provide the driving force for the whole production.

Pete went wild, working out a complex scenario whereby a personal profile of each concert-goer would be worked out, from the individual’s astrological chart to his hobbies, even physical appearance. All the characteristics would then be fed into a computer at the same moment, leading to one musical note culminating in mass nirvana that Pete dubbed ‘a kind of celestial cacophony.’ This philosophy was based on the writings of Inayat Khan, a Sufi master musician who espoused the theory that matter produces heat, light, and sound in the form of unique vibrations. Taking the idea one step further, making music, which was composed of vibrations, was the pervading force of all life. Elevating its purpose to the highest level, music represented the path to restoration, the search for the one perfect universal note, which once sounded would bring harmony to the entire world. Despite Pete’s grandiose plans, the project had its problems. The theater had its own schedule of drama productions, and wasn’t available on a regular nightly schedule that Townshend insisted was necessary for the band to sustain a "euphoric level" of performance. Pete: "The fatal flaw…was getting obsessed with trying to make a fantasy a reality rather than letting the film speak for itself." Eventually Pete had to let go of Lifehouse for his own sake.

Pete’s inability to translate the ideas in his head to those around him eventually led to a nervous breakdown. "It was a disaster." No one apart from himself actually understood the whole concept of Lifehouse. Kit Lambert, an integral part of the communication between the members of The Who, was missing. Pete had rejected a Tommy film script written by Lambert. Kit, dejected, frustrated and hurt, had moved to New York. With Tommy, Lambert had served as Townshend’s "interpreter," explaining "to the willing but befuddled people around me what I was on about." The film was indefinitely postponed until the album had been issued. The band went to Glyn Johns to produce their collection of songs, intended for a double album. They decided to shelf most of the songs in favor of a single album, hoping that it would have "a sharper focus and greater impact" than the concept of Lifehouse had become.

BABA O’RILEY

The slated opening of "Lifehouse." This song is a reference to the mental and spiritual pollution at the hands of the neo-fascist Big Brother government.

BABY DON’T YOU DO IT

Mary decides to leave her suit and go to the Theater instead of being plugged in via the Grid.

BARGAIN

About the search for personal identity amid a sea of conformity. This song is one of the most obvious examples of tunes that were written by Pete as a prayer to his spiritual mentor Meher Baba.

BEHIND BLUE EYES

About how the villain of "Lifehouse" feels on being forced to play a two-faced role, branded a bad guy when he feels that he is doing good.

GETTING IN TUNE

Perhaps about gearing up for a show at the Lifehouse, and Bobby’s feelings for Mary.

GOIN' MOBILE

I DON'T EVEN KNOW MYSELF

This song seems to be Townshend’s way of saying: listen, don’t try to judge me, to overanalyze me. How can you think that you have me figured out, when I can’t even figure myself out?

JOIN TOGETHER

Another central "Lifehouse" song, about the hopes that under the right circumstances, performer and audience would ‘join together’ and become one.

LET'S SEE ACTION

LOVE AIN'T FOR KEEPING

MARY

NAKED EYE

PURE AND EASY The pivotal song of "Lifehouse." Much like Amazing Journey from "Tommy," Pure and Easy is the most important song of the concept, and embodies the main idea of "Lifehouse."

PUT THE MONEY DOWN

Lament about the lack of connection between the performer and the audience.

RELAY

THE SONG IS OVER The climax to "Lifehouse." Second to Pure and Easy with regards to importance in the "Lifehouse" concept.

TIME IS PASSING

TOO MUCH OF ANYTHING

WATER

WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN

Tells of rebels being offered amnesty to abandon anarchic ways and join up with conventional forces, accepting the status quo and thereby receiving power in return. "The hero of the piece [Bobby]," states Townshend, "warns ‘Don’t be fooled, don’t get taken in.’" It’s tells of a revolution but ends by stating that revolution doesn’t really change anything.