The Who: Quadrophenia

Quadrophenia

Best song: Love Reign O’er Me

Worst song: I’m One

Overall grade: 7

Everyone does stupid things sometimes. A stupid thing I once did (a long time ago, before I was a big Who fan) is bought the album ‘Quadrophenia’ having never listened to it before, putting it into my computer to play, taking the sound off mute and listening to the whole of disc one, all the while thinking ‘What’s up with this? The music has potential but either the sound quality is dreadful or it’s drenched in so many sound effects that you can’t hear what’s going on!’ Then I took the disc out and the sound effects continued and I realised that they were coming from somewhere else on my computer entirely.

But Pete Townshend did not do a stupid thing by making this album, because when I got to listen to this without any volcano noises in the background, I found that it is not only the best thing the Who ever put to tape, but it is a crowning – and pioneering – achievement in the rock opera form as a whole. (All the other rock operas I think are amazing were released after this one.)

In essence, this is the story of Jimmy Cooper, an adolescent boy struggling with trying to survive alone in the world, having just left home, and also fit in with the other Mods of the day. Partly because of his identity crisis and partly because of his drug problem, he feels like his personality has split into four (hence ‘Quad’) which mirror the personalities of the four band members. It’s actually quite a clever story and not all that difficult to follow, but just in case, the basic plot is written out in a great first-person narrative in the liner notes.

This album flows together incredibly well, not in that the songs have smooth transitions, but more in that you’re constantly reminded that you’re listening to a part of a whole. This is mostly down to the four themes, also known as the title lines of ‘Helpless Dancer’, ‘Is It Me’, ‘Bell Boy’ and ‘Love Reign O’er Me’, which are played throughout the album at appropriate moments, so cleverly that they feel like part of the song they’re imposing upon, to symbolise which personality Jimmy is associating with at that moment. They’re all first introduced in opener ‘I Am The Sea’, which foreshadows the whole record and adds symmetry (it both starts and ends at sea.) Each themeis also expanded into a full song at some point (although sadly not one on each side) giving further insight into each area of his character.

So, this gimmicky stuff is all well and good, but what of people who don’t care about those things and just want to hear great tunes? Well, this album is actually perfect for that too. In fact, the only song I’m not sold on is ‘I’m One’, and even then, it has a great beginning which contrasts the previous song, and it’s only towards the end that it descends into bland, generic hard rock. Aside from that, these songs are either great, really great or classic.

Side one includes ‘The Real Me’, one of Entwhistle’s most stunning bass parts – this would still be amazing if it was JUST the bass and nothing else, seriously. But that and the rough, growly vocals give the song its raw quality which contrasts the clean feel of the final song. Another connection between the beginning and end of the album is that the second and second last real songs are both instrumentals, further developing the four themes and allowing Pete to play around with his synths and be a bit experimental. They’re clearly different songs, yet similar enough that I can’t help see them as a pair.

Another high point is ‘The Punk And The Godfather’, which has some sections driven by a heavy bass and others by a pretty acoustic guitar, reflecting the confused mental state of the protagonist. Daltrey’s vocals are expressive and amazing, as everywhere here, and I really believe that he is Jimmy. ‘The Dirty Jobs’ has a classic moment in its ‘I’m being pushed down…’ line, and it reallys trikes me how Pete has been writing about exactly the same subject matter – difficulties of everyday life while you’re young – ever since ‘My Generation’, but he’s become so much more sophisticated as a songwriter that you can hardly tell they’re related.

‘Helpless Dancer’ has a gorgeous opening and ‘Is It In My Head’ is poppier with Beatlesque vocals, but by ‘I’ve Had Enough’, the final song on the first LP, our main character seems to have given up. The hopeless atmosphere and more understated song (compared with the others at least) again highlights the triumphant final song, which is in fact quoted a couple of times here.

Moving onto disc two, we have more songs which I feel honoured to have constant access too, like ‘5.15’ which begins by sounding quite melancholy in its downbeat reference to ‘Cut My Hair’ from earlier, before exploding with heavy backing music, call and response vocals and lyrics full of imagery and symbolism. ‘Sea & Sand’ is a delight too, showcasing Pete’s innate ability for transitioning from hard and rocking to quiet and sentimental and back again without making it feel clunky. ‘Bell Boy’ has a great marching beat which I really get into, but then it occasionally stops for a short time, which might seem annoying at first but which is actually a great way of showing the crazy, unpredictable nature of this personality.

By side four and the national anthem-style opening of ‘Doctor Jimmy’, you can definitely tell we’re reaching the end, but everything continues to build until we reach the peak with ‘Love Reign O’er Me’. From the first three piano chords of that song you can tell that something special is going to happen – they have such gravity. Roger gives his vocals a soaring, epic feel and although I’ve never seen the Quadrophenia film, I can just imagine Jimmy standing on his rock, arms raised to the heavens, singing this song. The epic guitar part provides a huge release and a suitably overblown finish to this album; one that has rarely been matched in its impact.

If ‘Tommy’ proved that a bunch of songs could be strung together to tell an epic story, then ‘Quadrophenia’ proved that that could be done without compromising the music at all. It’s a truly special album that takes basic hard rock and adds progressive elements and a pinch of Broadway-style theatrics to create an album that is totally deserving of its place in what was (subjectively of course) the best ever year for music.