THE ALBUM FROM THE FUTURE

Pete Townshend conceived of a tale that, in hindsight, was visionary. It told of a future society whose inhabitants had become subservient to a network called the Grid that fed, was not about the perils of technology but rather the seduction of pleasure — how it can suck you in and swallow your free will. The personal demons that fueled Townshend’s allegory are detailed in this issue’s cover story, but suffice it to say he was dealing with his own feelings of isolation from his closest creative collaborators, as well as from the Who’s audience, which had grown huge following the success of , the group’s 1969 rock opera, and whose members were increasingly taking refuge in drugs. Townshend hoped would serve as a wake-up call to the children of Woodstock, but the project never came to fruition. Instead, the Who took a handful of its best songs and delivered them to us as , the group’s iconic 1971 album. As it turned out, the Woodstock generation found its way without . As for , it became one of Townshend’s greatest triumphs and, for many, the Who’s best album.