I Am is a collaboration concept album

Concept album

In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...

 by Pete Townshend

Pete Townshend

Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...

 and friends pressed in 1972. The album includes the original version of "Baba O'Riley

Baba O'Riley

"Baba O'Riley" is a song written by Pete Townshend for the English rock band The Who. Roger Daltrey sings most of the song, with Pete Townshend singing the middle eight: "Don't cry/don't raise your eye/it's only teenaged wasteland"...

" played by Townshend alone without lyrics, which, at 9:48, is almost twice as long as the augmented version which opens Who's Next

Who's Next

Who's Next is the fifth studio album by English rock band The Who, released in August 1971. The album has origins in a rock opera conceived by Pete Townshend called Lifehouse. The ambitious, complex project did not come to fruition at the time and instead, many of the songs written for the project...

. I Am was produced as a tribute to Meher Baba

Meher Baba

Meher Baba , , born Merwan Sheriar Irani, was an Indian mystic and spiritual master who declared publicly in 1954 that he was the Avatar of the age....

. Other albums by Townshend and friends dedicated to Meher Baba include Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday (1970 album)

Happy Birthday is a collaboration album by Pete Townshend and friends including Ronnie Lane, pressed and released in 1970 by Universal Spiritual League. The album was originally released in February 1970 as the first in a series of tribute albums dedicated to Pete Townshend's spiritual mentor...

, With Love

With Love (1976 album)

With Love is a 1976 album by Pete Townshend and friends dedicated to Townshend's spiritual mentor Meher Baba. Appearances and backup artists include Billy Nicholls, Steve Humphries, Ronnie Lane, Ron Wood, Bruce Rowland, Lol Benbow, Paul Wyld, Peter Hope-Evans , Sydney Foxx, among others...

, and Avatar (a compilation of the previous three albums, later released as Jai Baba)http://www.thewho.info/PTAlbums.htm.

Side one

1. "Forever's No Time At All" (Billy Nicholls
   Billy Nicholls
   Billy Nicholls is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and musical director, who first gained fame in the 1960s while still a teenager with his Pet Sounds influenced album, Would You Believe, originally released on Immediate Records.Nicholls' compositions have been covered by many...
   
   , Katie Mclnnerney, Caleb Quaye)
2. "How to Transcend Duality & Influence People" (poem by Mike Da Costa)
3. "Affirmation" (Mike Da Costa)
4. "Baba O'Riley" (demo)

Side two

1. "This Song is Green" (Billy Nicholls)
2. "Everywhere I Look This Morning" (Hank Mindin)
3. "Dragon" (David Hastilow)
4. "O Parvardigar" (Pete Townshend)

External links

• Lyrics
• Pete Townshend solo album index
• Meher Baba Tribute Albums by Pete Townshend