Quadrophenia

Pete Townshend was nothing if ambitious. He and The Who were in the forefront of the rock opera--thematic albums whose songs told a story. Tommy, released in 1969, is their most popular, but Quadrophenia, released 40 years ago, is, if not equal to Tommy, a monumental work of popular music.

The story told is not quite as apparent as Tommy. Without a story in the liner notes, we might not have any idea that the songs are linked, except for the repeating musical motifs. A film made in 1979 further helped it all make sense. It's the story of a teenage boy in the mid '60s in England, when youth had broken into two factions: the mods and the rockers. Our boy, Jimmy, is a mod, who wears the new fashion, as outlined in "Cut My Hair:"

"Zoot suit, white jacket with vents,
Five inches long
I'm out on the street again
And I'm leaping along
Dressed right, for a beach fight
But I just can't explain
Why that uncertain feeling
Is still here in my brain."

The Who, as pointed in the story, weren't mods but were popular with mods. Jimmy sees them at the Hammersmith Odeon. He has been diagnosed as a schizophrenic, and does "leapers" (speed). He is getting kicked out of his house, and goes to Brighton, because he loves the sea.

The title Quadrophenia refers to Jimmy's four-part personality, each of which is based on one of the members of The Who, and outlined by a theme. Roger Daltrey is the tough guy, John Entwhistle the romantic, Keith Moon the lunatic, and Townshend as the self-described beggar and hypocrite.

Okay, so all of that is pretty ambitious, but it isn't necessary to know to appreciate the music, which is really more of a symphony than an opera. The songs tell a story that isn't always clear--"The Punk and the Godfather," a classic-rock radio staple, is still unfathomable to me, but listening to the album on a ride to and from New York City last night (repeated a few times because of traffic delays) I found myself more absorbed in the lush music. Townshend has always been a songwriter who has deep connections to the music that came before him, and the use of horns and strings make Quadrophenia an orchestral rock masterpiece.

It is, though, bordering on the pretentious, but just escapes it. The songs are very solipsistic--almost all the songs are about the ego--"I," "Me," or "My." There really isn't an "other" involved, the one song about love, which is the best known song of the collection, "Love, Reign O'er Me," doesn't seem to be about loving someone else, but loving one's self. But, of course, you really can't love someone else properly without loving yourself first, can you?

Sonically, this record is just about perfect. The instrumentation is breathtaking, and the instrumentals--"Quadrophenia" and "The Rock"--are every bit the equal of Tommy's "Overture" and "Underture." The rock numbers, such as "Can You Feel the Real Me," "5:15," and "Doctor Jimmy," are blood-pumping classics. And "Bellboy," which is Keith's theme, and if we are to believe the film, is about a mod leader who is reduced to menial labor, has a particularly sharp sting.

"Love, Reign O'er Me," the closing song, is the most beautiful on the album, and perhaps the most beautiful song Townshend ever wrote. It begins with the sound of thunder crashing, and artfully makes use of the homonyms of "reign" and "rain," as Jimmy wants to be bathed in the soothing balm of water/love:

"On the dry and dusty road
The nights we spent apart alone
I need to get back home
To cool, cool rain.
I can't sleep and I can't think
The nights are hot and black as ink
Oh, God I need a drink
Of cool, cool rain."

This is the soundtrack to a certain generation of baby boomers, and I don't think it's quite been equaled in the forty years since then for beauty and poignancy.