All right I’ve had it. This calls for an epic rant.
I was out with this girl and talking about how great the Blue Man Group Rock DVD is and I wind up my glowing review with “And they played “Baba O’Riley” for an encore!
What does she say? “What’s that? It sounds like an Irish pub?” I asked her if she knew “that song Teenage Wasteland by The Who” and of course she started yammering away about how she liked that song and “loves” the Who…yeah, right. I can see…
Then Nancy Carpenter goes and costs me $10 because I thought for sure, she would know. She didn’t. I owe my buddy $10.
A female music manager, a girl music lawyer in our offices, the girl assistant to the TV producer, none of them had any idea what “Baba O’Riley” is. And they’re all in the industry.
Then another girl tried to tell me she knew “exactly what it is – a rum soaked sponge cake you get in pastry shops.”
Oh God help me.
Listen up people! This is not Rush we’re talking about here. It’s one of the most recognizeable, beloved and seminal songs in Rock History!!! (yes capitalized. Don’t stop me, I’m on a roll.) We ALL know that song from the first dratted bars of the keyboard intro. Get with it finally after 34 years! The song is called “Baba O’Riley.” And it had a 30 year run as a monster of rock prior to becoming the Pavlovian signal that a TV show was coming on… (CSI: NY for those of you scoring at home)
No its not an Irish pub! No its not a rum soaked sponge cake! (Uhh…that’s “Baba Au Rum,” but thanks for playing.) And no its not your high school buddy who went to Notre Dame!
click here for more.
And it’s not spelled O’-R-E-I-L-L-Y either!
Next chump that calls it “Teenage Wasteland” or spells it O’-R-E-I-L-L-Y gets a thumb in the eye!
OK. Rant over. As you were!
“Rum soaked sponge cake”…%$#@#@!!!!!
it gets worse…I invited a very
nice sociology professor (she is cute too)to come to a red cross class on water safety followed by
upside down cake to commemorate the anniversery of Chappiquidic…
She had no idea what I was talking about and thought I made the whole story up…I Googled some stuff online and brought it to her after class the next day…it was the first time she ever heard of it….THIS IS A PROFESSOR.
If you sponge cake in bailey’s does that make it a Baba O’Reilly then?
Haha…I remember the day I learned the real title of that song. I was going through an old music collection of a friend’s and was happy to see The Who: Who’s Better, Who’s Best. then I looked at the tracks, and was like “what the heck is Baba O’Riley?” and then I made it my next goal to learn the keyboard intro. Also kinda my boyfriend’s suggestion 😛