AM Ranking: #428
Genre: Hard Rock, Rock Opera
Release: 26 October 1973
Label(s): Track, MCA
Ranked Songs: Love, Reign O'er Me (#1821), 5:15 (#2278), The Real Me (#4070)
01 | I Am the Sea
02 | The Real Me
03 | Quadrophenia
04 | Cut My Hair
05 | The Punk and the Godfather
06 | I'm One
07 | The Dirty Jobs
08 | Helpless Dancer
09 | 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
Movie Trailer:
The URL for the movie trailer has the word Who in it.
Any type of opinion can be expressed on these discussion threads, you can post just a few words or a couple of paragraphs, you can even rank the tracks if you wanted to. New discussions will be posted on Fridays, so that users will have the time over the weekend to listen to the album and form their opinion on it.
HINT FOR NEXT WEEK'S ALBUM
The title of the album is a made up word.
Great album including 14 of my all time faves, such as:
my 116th fave - Love, Reign O'er Me
200 - The Real Me
484 - The Punk and the Godfather
808 - I've Had Enough
912 - 5:15
1042 - I'm One
1088 - Doctor Jimmy
1089 - Cut My Hair
1125 - Sea and Sand
1134 - The Rock
1230 - Drowned
1296 - Is It In My Head?
1307 - The Dirty Jobs
1618 - Bell Boy
I love this album, in college it was in my top 10, now more like 300s.
I have a soft spot for sprawling conceptual epics and love the idea of trying to stay sane in the 60s combating contradictory social pressures and strict judgmental parents.
This was a long one so it took a bit to listen to it all again. For my money, I think Quadrophenia is the superior of The Who’s classic concept albums. I love Tommy and it’s story/lyrics are arguably more interesting but I always end up finding myself relating to this album’s themes of class frustration and depression far more easily than Tommy’s crazy tale. Plus, as stated before by others, some of the Who’s very best songs appear on here including some of my favorites the Real Me and Love Reign O’er Me. I also have to say the running motif of the latter song’s melody does a great job working up the anticipation of the ending, although I’m not smart enough to discern a thematic purpose to having the melody appear over and over! Really can’t say much more besides that I love this project, though I can understand if people are turned away from the inherent pretentiousness of it all.
Verdict: Underrated
Favorite Tracks: The Real Me, Quadrophenia, I’m One, The Dirty Jobs, Helpless Dancer, 5:15, The Rock, Love Reign O’er Me
P.S.- Crossing my fingers by the hint that next week’s album is Stankonia!
Have you ever gotten so mad that your friend got a job that you swam out into the ocean and died on a rock?
What an experience! The feel of the album is stunning, a true concept album, with themes woven through it expertly. It's also very enjoyable to listen to, with Daltrey's (I assume, I've never been good at identifying vocalists) anguished vocals a high point from start to finish. I think the stand-out songs have been pretty well covered above, although I am pulled towards 5:15 as a favourite.
The themes are still relevant, even if the situations are not. I'm torn between loving and hating the main character; his rejection of society is enviable, but I can't escape how pitiful he is, refusing to change and grow up, and eventually doing as I have somewhat jokingly summarised above. It's not enough to make me like it less, but I have no idea whether my interpretations are what was intended.
All in all, amazing album, 10/10
Sidenote, what's with The Who concept albums having weird rape references that pull me right out of the album (Doctor Jimmy/We're Not Gonna Take It)? I get it's a character-voice thing but it's still odd.
I put Quadrophenia way above Tommy both musically and conceptually. Pinball Wizard is the only song on Tommy that works out of context, whereas most of Quadrophenia works as singles. Also Tommy comes off as a religious awakening metaphor scared to be religious.
Didn't have time for this last week, so I've decided to catch up now. Glad I did!
The thing with rock opera's is that sometimes the story hinders the album more than help it. Tommy, not the first in its genre but clearly a pioneer, has this problem thanks to some very short tracks that fill in the gaps of the story, but hamper the flow of the album. Some songs there just don't play very well. I love concept albums, but usually prefer something of a thematic concept over a total story. Songs on themselves can tell great stories, but albums tend to fail spectacularly.
Quadrophenia works for me because I can ignore the story and still have a great time. Every song feels like a part of the whole, what with all the class identities and frustrations going on here. At the same time, everything works as a song. No interludes, no tracks that feel forced to push the narrative forward. I can except Quadrophenia as a series of snapshots centered around a certain subculture (with an odd fixation on nautical metaphors). It's all the better for it. Quadrophenia runs a lot smoother than Tommy and despite my love for Overture, Pinball Wizard and We're Not Gonna Take It, I think this is clearly the better album.
It's one of those double albums that to me doesn't feel bloated. In fact, after the great first three tracks I think that what was originally the second LP is the best. That stretch from 5:15 (my favorite track here) until closer Love Reign O'er Me is a real stunner. That's seven songs, all but one running over 5 minutes, but it keeps building and building till that wonderful last song that is the perfect climax. I also have to give some shout-out to the instrumental title track, which contains some of the greatest playing this band has ever done.
With Quadrophenia The Who reconnected with the sentiments that I think fueled their breakthrough hit My Generation, a song that gets referenced here. They take a look back at the angry young men they started out as and look back at what it had achieved and mostly what was lost in the process. To me this isn't self-indulgent bloat, but a personal album of a rock group that had come a long way and dared to reckon with their past. In their previous album, Who's Next, they already delivered the failed-revolution anthem Won't Get Fooled Again and Quadrophenia feels like a tribute to the people the revolution failed. A revolution this group aligned with through My Generation. Quadrophenia is The Who gone full circle and although there were good songs released later, it is perhaps no surprise this was their last major statement.
So this was the first time listening to this in full. I only knew the standouts. Some ten years ago Who's Next was one of my favorite things in the world (it still is), but instead of moving forwards to Quadrophenia I trailed their career backwards from Who's Next. I never really embraced Tommy, despite some highlights. It's more an interesting failure that sometimes succeeds to me. But I always thought Quadrophenia would just be Tommy 2.0 and significantly less good. How wrong I was. I'm also surprised by the great reception in this topic, considering classic 'dad' rock doesn't tend to go over all that well here and I thought this forum contained at least some anti-Who persons. I guess they wouldn't even start to listen a 75 minutes plus album by them.
9/10
