Baba O'Riley

I'm not sure where this topic actually belongs, so I thought I'd put it here, where it would be seen by the most people.

Here it is:

How do you play the intro part to the song Baba O'Riley by the Who? It sounds to me like it could be a guitar with delay, but it seems to sound almost like a keyboard.

Is anyone here able to play this with a guitar? Perhaps you have invented your own arrangement/interpretation of this song. If so, please share...

I found this somewhere a while back, never checked it out, but give it a try and let us know. We did "Baba" back in the mid '70's, we recorded the beginning on tape and looped it throughout the song.


The Who--Baba O'Reilly

Starts out on a synth, but using two guitars:

Guitar 1: x-8-10-10-x-x eadgbe
Pick quickly A-A-D-D-G-G-D-D-A-A-D-D-G-G-D-D (all 1/16th notes) over and over
(Technically, this is until the end of the song, when the violin comes in.)

Guitar 2: x-x-x-10-13-13 eadgbe
Pick quickly G-G-B-B-e (G and B strings played as 1/16th, the e is an eighth)

After 5 repetitions, the piano enters, after four piano and synth parts,
the drums and bass enter. The piano and bass play a simple F-C-Bb
For guitar in place of piano, it is played
F x-x-x-5-6-5 C x-x-x-5-5-3 Bb x-x-x-3-3-1
The first verse is played the same way: