He didn't like what I did with it ( laughs) probably still doesn't!” In the terms of the way Quadrophenia was, I saw it as that scream of desperation from the street. He saw it as a quiet song - which obviously you can do. Pete never, ever saw that as a loud screaming plea, the way I sang it. It's like 'Love Reign O'er Me' for instance. That in somehow or the other, either went against the lyric, or took the lyric to somewhere where you didn't think. Roger Daltrey's tour-de-force lead vocal on the album's finale “Love Reign O'er Me” is one of dozens of examples of him taking a Townshend song and completely reinventing it as his own: “That's what I used to try and do is to leave people with a mood in a note, and a passion in the song. Y'know, I'd done it in the early days with a bunch of pop singles, I'd done it with Tommy, I'd tried to do it again with Lifehouse - which led to Who's Next - and with Quadrophenia, it just landed beautifully.” Townshend told us that for Quadrophenia, when writing and demoing the material, he simply followed the same template he had used for the Who's previous projects: “I put my brain into gear, y'know, get my guitar and keyboards out, go into my studio, and then try to start to serve the band in response. If in a way the failure of Lifehouse led to Quadrophenia then I'm happy, because I think I will never surpass it.” Quadrophenia was also more self-contained. Quadrophenia is also an iconic rock piece. I had complete control of it, and I think that hurt the band a bit that I had such control over it - particularly Roger, who had a feeling that he was on the outside, even though he is very much a pillar. The character of Jimmy was supposed to represent the four facets of the Who: Keith Moon (insane), John Entwistle (romantic), Roger Daltrey (bad), and Townshend (good).ĭuring his guest lecture at 2007's South By Southwest festival, Townshend was asked which he prefers the band's 1971 album Who's Next, which features only a selection of tracks recorded for his unrealized sci-fi follow-up to Tommy, called Lifehouse, or the more grounded Quadrophenia: “I like Quadrophenia better because it's purer. The album focused on Jimmy's battles with his parents, the mod nightlife, his demeaning office job, and the mods' legendary beach rumbles against their cultural nemesis, the “Rockers.” The collection marked the first release of all of Pete Townshend's fully produced one-man-band demos for Quadrophenia - including the tracks which ended up on the 1979 film soundtrack, along with previously unheard titles.įor Quadrophenia, Pete Townshend created a song cycle chronicling the life of “Jimmy” - a pill-popping fashion conscious R&B loving “Mod” from London in the mid-'60s. In 2012, the Who released the critically acclaimed Quadrophenia “Director's Cut” Box Set. The collection is released in seven different configurations - including a five-disc metal box. The set was recorded on July 8th, 2013 during the band's tour-closing concert at London’s Wembley Arena. In June 2014, the Who released the live package, Quadrophenia: Live In London. The team hit the road last year for five high-profile performances of the production in New York, the Chicago area, and Los Angeles. The new ‘symphonised’ version was orchestrated by Townshend's wife, musician and composer, Rachel Fuller, with a studio version of the work also released on CD. Pete Townshend's long-awaited orchestral version of Quadrophenia, titled Classic Quadrophenia, premiered on July 5th, 2015 at London's Royal Albert Hall starring Townshend and Alfie Boe singing Roger Daltrey's original parts with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Oriana Choir conducted by Robert Ziegler. The Who returned to the road in North America and Europe in 20 for their critically acclaimed “Quadrophenia & More Tour,” which saw the band reviving the album with a new, state of the art production. A film version based around the album was produced by the band and released in 1979. The set featured such classic Who songs as “The Real Me,” “5:15,” “I'm One,” “The Punk And The Godfather,” “Drowned,” “Sea And Sand,” and “Love Reign O'er Me,” among others. It was 47 years ago today (October 19th, 1973) that the Who released their second double album, the watershed 1973 collection, Quadrophenia.
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