The Who - Quadrophenia

Released - October 1973

Genre - Hard Rock

Producer - The Who, Kit Lambert & Glyn Johns

Selected Personnel - Roger Daltrey (Vocals/Percussion); Pete Townshend (Guitar/Synthesiser/Piano/Vocals); John Entwistle (Bass/Horns/Vocals); Keith Moon (Drums/Percussion/Vocals)

Standout Track - Love, Reign O'er Me

The Who are obviously great. It would be stupid of me to not admit that they're great. They left an indelible mark on the world of rock music and recorded some amazing stuff in their time, and are firmly ensconced as one of the all-time legends of classic rock. But none of that means they should be above and beyond any criticism, and for me, they've always fallen ever so slightly short of true greatness and have never managed to inspire me with enough awe and inspiration to dive fully into their discography beyond a few of the more obvious records. The double whammy of 1971's Who's Next and 1973's Quadrophenia is a good example. The band that made Who's Next could so easily have been perhaps the greatest rock band of all time. If that had somehow been the only thing they'd ever recorded I might not even have a bad word to say about them, it's an exemplary album. But what worked so well about Who's Next was its simplicity, its coherence and consistency. Principal songwriter and de facto bandleader Pete Townshend strikes me as someone who gets carried away with his own grand conceptual visions too often - 1969's rock opera Tommy had flashes of brilliance and is a hugely significant album, but suffers as result of its being overlong and trying to cram in too many less than stellar songs in order to fully flesh out Townshend's story and structure. What's always frustrated me about Quadrophenia (which is still a better album than Tommy in pretty much every way) is that with Who's Next Townshend hit upon a format that catapulted the Who to legendary status - when they focused their creative efforts into shorter records comprised of simple, unrelated rock songs not in thrall to a grand concept, they were unstoppable (even taking into account that Who's Next only emerged from the failure of Townshend's attempt to make a second rock opera called Lifehouse). But rather than really learn from this and try to do something similar, Townshend decided to return to the idea of the grand, bombastic rock opera and the result is an album that's overlong and crams in too much filler material in order to adequately tell its story. If you cut about half an hour from it, Quadrophenia would be almost as good as Who's Next. As it is, it's a great album but one that can't help but frustrate me somewhat.

I should point out, of course, that I have absolutely no problems with grand, bombastic, complex and conceptual musical projects in general - a lot of my favourite music would fit that category. But what has always struck a chord with me most about the Who is the songs of theirs that really hit you in the gut and excite you, it's never their conceptual ideas or structural ambitions. I just feel that a simpler record like Who's Next was a much better showcase of what they could do. Anyway, with my obligatory reservations out of the way, let's talk properly about the album itself. I've not seen the celebrated film of Quadrophenia, but the album's narrative is one that's never captured me in quite the same way as Tommy's has, which admittedly boasts a more interesting concept at the heart of it despite its other failings. Quadrophenia is essentially the story of Jimmy, a young man diagnosed with a four-way multiple personality disorder who embraces the music and style of Mod culture in order to fill the gap after he is abandoned by his family, before feeling increasingly abandoned even by his Mod heroes. It's not quite got the hook of Tommy's blind, deaf and dumb prophet figure, and perhaps it's chiefly down to the fact that I've never got that invested in the story that much of the material here just feels like uninspired filler in order to tell key bits of the story. Still, Quadrophenia central multiple personality concept does allow Townshend to structure the record far more ingeniously than on his last effort at a rock opera.

Each of Jimmy's personalities, supposedly each one modelled on a member of the band itself, has a corresponding theme that recurs throughout the album ("Helpless Dancer" for Roger Daltrey, "Is It Me?" for John Entwistle, "Bell Boy" for Keith Moon and "Love, Reign O'er Me" for Townshend himself), with the two instrumental tracks that almost bookend the album, "Quadrophenia" and "The Rock" masterfully weaving between the four different themes and ultimately combining them all together into one gloriously arranged medley at the end of the latter track. It's certainly fair to say that Townshend goes to far greater lengths to really explore the idea of composing a unified piece of work and structuring it accordingly. But there's still plenty of stuff here that could really have ended up left off the final cut if he hadn't been so slavishly devoted to filling out the story - songs like "I'm One," "Is It In My Head?" or "Sea And Sand" have rarely done much to excite me or even to lodge themselves in my head for long after I've finished listening them.

But where Quadrophenia really excels, aside from those two instrumental tracks and their structural ingenuity, is in the places where it reminds you how great the Who were at simple and effective rock songs. Daltrey's vocal performance is as committed and gutsy as it was on Who's Next, but pushes it even further in places to really prove him a legendary vocalist, something that was only visible in brief glimmers on Tommy and earlier albums like My Generation. On the climactic "Love, Reign O'er Me" in particular, Daltrey lets out a whole host of wails and roars that send chills down the spine. Townshend is again ever-present throughout the whole thing, contributing the majority of the instrumental parts, but it's in his spiky, vicious guitar style that he really lets his presence be felt. I mentioned in my review for Tommy that I was surprised by the Who's early albums how tame they felt in comparison to the band's legendary reputation for their destructive and violent live performances, and it's perhaps on Quadrophenia that that sense of raw power and edge comes across the strongest, to the extent that even bassist Entwistle and drummer Moon really make themselves heard. In a lot of rock bands, it's easy to overlook the significance of a rhythm section and give too much attention to the more showy contributions of a guitarist or a keyboardist or a singer, but Quadrophenia has always been one of the albums that really forces you to pay attention to every single musical contribution.

Nowhere is that more true than on the blistering almost-opener that is "The Real Me." Coming after the calming sound collage of "I Am The Sea," its frantic bass and drum playing, along with Townshend's twanging guitar riff and Daltrey's passionate vocals, make it one of the most punchy, memorable and simply great rock songs in the Who's repertoire. "The Punk And The Godfather" is another great rocker that grabs you by the throat with its slashing guitar and Daltrey's screams of "I'm the punk in the gutter." The album's first half is brought to a close by another insistent rocker, the driving "I've Had Enough" which starts with a pounding rock arrangement and, after a brief cameo from the "Love, Reign O'er Me" theme closes with a more light-hearted country twang. The second half kicks off with the brilliant "5:15," a song that pushes Entwistle's funky horn arrangements to the fore as they decorate the core guitar riff and pouding piano. The other standouts from the second half include the angry "Doctor Jimmy," which in its extended running time also incorporates the melancholy and sweetly romantic "Is It Me?" theme. I've also got to mention "Bell Boy" which, while it's far from my favourite song on the album, does contain one of its most fun moments in Keith Moon's spoken vocal part over its propulsive rhythm ("I've got a good job and I'm newly born..."). And then, as Townshend had done so well with "Won't Get Fooled Again," the album rounds things off (after the instrumental reprise of all four themes on "The Rock") with an absolute classic. The stirringly dramatic piano part and immediately classic vocal melody of "Love, Reign O'er Me" immediately lodged themselves forever in my memory the minute I first heard them (as part of a greatest hits compilation, long before I became familiar with any individual Who album) and it's long been perhaps my very favourite Who song, along with "Baba O'Riley." As I said earlier, Daltrey gives the finest vocal performance of his career, roaring out the chorus as the music fills out and the melody ascends.

Following on the heels of two albums that had quickly become legendary, Quadrophenia was another huge hit for the Who, and years later would spawn a successful film in 1979. The next stage for the band after its release was an ambitious US tour that was beset by problems (including a legendary gig where Moon collapsed and a random audience member who could play the drums a little was dragged up to play for the last few songs). After that, the band would work on the film adaptation of Tommy, after which they would record two more albums before Moon's untimely death in 1975. The general consensus from that point onwards is that the quality irreparably slid. As you can probably tell from this review, my attitude towards the Who as a band is one that's beset with reservations and frustrations, and I've never been able to summon the interest to listen to much more. Quadrophenia is undeniably a great album, and has a number of absolutely classic songs, and all the hallmarks of something truly immortal. But there's so much material on it that does so little for me that I can't bring myself to love it unreservedly. And, while there are other songs by the band that I like, my brief forays into their less well-known albums have always left me cold. My Generation has the great title track but little else that I enjoyed, while The Who Sell Out has "I Can See For Miles" and nothing else that excites me. I also gave 1982's It's Hard a shot off the back of the brilliant "Eminence Front" but, other than that song and the almost-as-good "I've Known No War," it does little but confirm how far they had fallen by the early 80s. For me, the Who will always be a band who were capable of brilliance but always seemed to lack the consistency to really get me obsessed by them in the way that other bands did. Unless I ever get round to listening to The Who By Numbers or Who Are You? I imagine that the three albums I've reviewed already on this blog will be the only three that ever truly find their way into their affections. I mean, I've done a lot of moaning about consistency and the like on this review. But I'll sum it up with the same caveat with which I started it - at the end of the day, the Who are undeniably great.

Track Listing:

All songs written by Pete Townshend.

1. I Am The Sea

2. The Real Me

3. Quadrophenia

4. Cut My Hair

5. The Punk And The Godfather

6. I'm One

7. The Dirty Jobs

8. Helpless Dancer

9. Is It In My Head?

10. I've Had Enough

11. 5:15

12. Sea And Sand

13. Drowned

14. Bell Boy

15. Doctor Jimmy

16. The Rock

17. Love, Reign O'er Me