Who... is it?

[steve @ home]

Who played the organ part on 'Won't get fooled again' by The Who (1971)? It's such an iconic piece of music. For you younger members, it's now the theme tune to CSI!

[whattheheck]

This is a 'clip' from an article that I found, hope it helps...

The song was powered by riffs combining Rolling Stones-style chord changes with the Who�s trademark power slams, but the song�s real innovation was Townshend�s pioneering use of synthesizers.

Townshend had been at work on a science-fiction rock-concept work, Lifehouse, which, he says, �explored the Sufic notion that all life and all nature is based on harmony or disharmony of a very physical variety.� He collected information from test individuals�heartbeat, brain rhythms, astrological data�tabulated the information on charts and converted the numbers into synth patterns. The resulting patterns became the opening of �Won�t Get Fooled Again.� Glyn Johns, who produced the final version of the song, says, �Pete came up with synthesizer basics for the tracks, which were just unbelievable. Nobody had done it that way before.�

[steve @ home]

Thanks! That's fantastic. I got thinking about this after Live 8 when The Who had a organ player on stage with them using the drawbars on what I assumed was a Hammond C3. I should have guessed Townshend would have done it himself in the studio.
The opening to Baba O'Reilly is incredible too.