The original concept name for the album that became Who's Next was Lifehouse.
Pete Townshend imagined Lifehouse as a science-fiction rock opera and multimedia project following The Who's success with Tommy. Its story depicted a polluted, tightly controlled future in which people lived through artificial experiences delivered by a system called the Grid. A concert called the Lifehouse would reunite people with the liberating power of live rock music.
Townshend planned to use audience members' personal data to generate musical themes, combining them into a supposedly perfect “universal chord.” The Who intended to develop the project through performances at London's Young Vic theatre, but the concept proved difficult to communicate and stage. The band eventually recorded the songs with producer Glyn Johns as a conventional album.
That album was released in 1971 as Who's Next. Several Lifehouse songs survived, including “Baba O'Riley,” “Behind Blue Eyes,” “Won't Get Fooled Again,” and “The Song Is Over.” Lifehouse itself remained unfinished, although Townshend revisited it in later recordings and projects.