Cover Wars: Baba O’Riley Edition

Blue Man Group: Keeping things good and diverse this week, we’ve got the Blue Man Group who performed Baba O’Riley in one of their touring productions. As one comes to expect, there is some pretty cool tubular-drum-work going on here.

Grateful Dead: The Dead played this cover 12 times and every single time it segued into Tomorrow Never Knows. Vince Welnick handled the duties of lead vocals. Source: 3-21-1993

[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/gdbaba.mp3]

Pearl Jam: Pearl Jam has played Baba O’Riley over 100 times dating back to January of 1992. This is the second time they appear in a Cover Wars for a song by The Who, Pearl Jam was featured in The Seeker Cover Wars. Source: 10-09-2000

[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/pjbaba.mp3]

Chile 2005, faster tempo:

Seth Yacovone Band: This track comes off an action-packed show from the Seth Yac Band from the old Higher Ground in Winooski. An inspired performance all around. Source: 5-3-2002

[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/sethbaba.mp3]

Umphrey’s McGee: After debuting the song in full at their infamous Halloween 2004 show, UM kept this cover in heavy rotation playing it ten times in 2005. In the following years it became more sparse and was not played once in 2008. It has been played twice this year, most recently at Summercamp with Alie Kral of Cornmeal on fiddle (see videos below). Lead singer Brendan Bayliss is particularly fond of shouting, “You’re all fucked up” instead of the original “They’re all wasted” lyric. Source: 2-25-2005

[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/umbaba.mp3]

Checking in on last week’s Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ Cover Wars, The Phish From Vermont have emerged victorious once again.

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10 Responses

  1. “…when Seth Rogan’s character scolds Lindsay Weir for referring to this song as Teenage Wasteland. I would wager a number of our readers have had a similar experience.”

    HA! So true. It has been a constant struggle to inform people of the actual name.

  2. This is a total no-brainer, it’s Pearl Jam all the way! They’ve covered so many Who songs (The Real Me, Love Reign O’er Me, The Kids Are Alright, The Seeker, My Generation, I Can’t Explain, Naked Eye, Young Man Blues, & a few of Pete’s solo songs too) and they always do them better than anyone else.

  3. The Slip have done some monstrous versions of Baba. The DayTrotter version is far from my favorite as the vocals are a little weak, but some of their 2005-2006 versions are epic!

  4. WolfMother also does a good version of Baba O’Riley. Anyone that hasn’t heard it should check it out on youtube.

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