This blog was created to supplement ENGL 460: Researching Youth Cultures, a senior seminar in the English Department at Rhode Island College.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Baba O'Riley, The Original
Beginning with a primal scream and with Pete Townshend punching his tambourine, this performance perfectly captures the essence of this song as a youth anthem.
This song could have many different meanings. When I put the lyrics and the videos on this blog together it tells a powerful story of the chaotic, lonely, uncertain, scary, fun, loving, hateful, experimental, fast, and wild teenage years. The lines, "The exodus is here...Let's get together Before we get much older" is powerful because it could be indicative of the transitional aspect of the teenager-adult stage (exodus) in life. In addition, the lines, "Teenage wasteland/They're all wasted" is not about drugs and getting wasted, to me it simply speaks to the phrase, "Youth is wasted on the young." Well, that's just my take on this assignment.
I think the song is negative and positive. It is about a tough environment- maybe about hard labor and starvation. Yet you can also hear hope in the song. That there is a search for freedom among youth. I think it's ultimately about teenage rebellion and them finding themselves. Or maybe I'm way off. And I didn't like the beginning.
I really enjoyed this version of the song. I read the lyrics and watched the blog at the same time, which made it more powerful to me personally because I am a visual learner. This song possessed the feeling of hope and has to do with youth culture. In many ways, it deals with youths hardships that they will and or have faced. The teenagers are faced with uncertain futures. "The happy ones are near" gave the feeling of hope for the youths.
I am an Associate Professor of English and Secondary Education at Rhode Island College, where I am also the Director of the Rhode Island Writing Project.
5 comments:
Check out this link to learn more about the intended meaning behind "Baba O'Riley":
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Set/8452/lifehouse.html
So, what does this song have to do with youth culture anyway?
This song could have many different meanings. When I put the lyrics and the videos on this blog together it tells a powerful story of the chaotic, lonely, uncertain,
scary, fun, loving, hateful, experimental, fast, and wild teenage years. The lines, "The exodus is here...Let's get together Before we get much older" is powerful because it could be indicative of the transitional aspect of the teenager-adult stage (exodus) in life. In addition, the lines, "Teenage wasteland/They're all wasted" is not about drugs and getting wasted, to me it simply speaks to the phrase, "Youth is wasted on the young." Well, that's just my take on this assignment.
I think the song is negative and positive. It is about a tough environment- maybe about hard labor and starvation. Yet you can also hear hope in the song. That there is a search for freedom among youth. I think it's ultimately about teenage rebellion and them finding themselves. Or maybe I'm way off. And I didn't like the beginning.
I really enjoyed this version of the song. I read the lyrics and watched the blog at the same time, which made it more powerful to me personally because I am a visual learner. This song possessed the feeling of hope and has to do with youth culture. In many ways, it deals with youths hardships that they will and or have faced. The teenagers are faced with uncertain futures. "The happy ones are near" gave the feeling of hope for the youths.
Pretty depressing to think of the adolescent years as a teenage wasteland...a holding cell until you've reached adulthood. : (
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