Hello all, and welcome back to Tuning Thursdays, where you can kick back, imbibe your preferred libations, and plan to plan what you’ll do for the rest of the day. Last week, we brought you the Cramps and their trippy ideas for what one may consider “customized” in their song, “I’m Customized.” You can view that article here.

Fun fact: the monolith the guys have just relieved themselves on was meant to ridicule Stanley Kubrick refusing to direct “Tommy.” TheAttackZone.com

This week, we’re gonna roll things back to the age of classic rock with a personal favorite, The Who. Today’s selection is a B-side that almost made it to that interesting middle child that came between their seminal rock opera albums Tommy and Quadrophenia, called Who’s Next, from 1971.

The song, called “Water,” came as part of the “5:15” single released in 1973, the latter of which would find its way to Quadrophenia. The song was originally recored in 1970, back when Pete had put his heart and soul into the failed Lifehouse rock opera album, only to have it fall apart.

However, the ashes of that album gave rise to Who’s Next, and what resulted was a massive success, giving the world such classic rock hits like “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and “Baba O’Riley.” The album wound up peaking at number 4 in the US and number 1 in the UK.

You may recall the famous line, “It’s only Teenaged Wasteland,” from “Baba O’Riley.” You see, Lifehouse was meant to take place in the totalitarian, post-apocalyptic, sans-rock music wasteland, and “Water” is something the government obviously controls. The whole revolves around Roger screaming for water–as well as “somebody’s daughter”–so he can carve out a life for himself.

Keep your Chevy in shape, or it may wind up like this ’71 Camaro. Photo: Texas Exports

Heck, even his poor Chevrolet has had to share in his fate, just sitting around and making steam. It’s enough to make you get up and check your Bowtie’s fluid levels, and make sure it’s not leaking or having a tough time driving. Barring that, just keep the radio operational so you can stay tuned to your local classic rock station.

Thanks for joining us today. Crack open another cold one, and we’ll see you soon.