Lost and Found: Quadrophenia Part II
by Ric Stewart
The Record -- Greyly Outrageous
 As
a 28 year-old writing these songs Townshend peaked as a guitarist, lyricist
and bandleader-- Quadrophenia is his finest hour. Similarly, Moon, Entwistle
and Daltrey hit cohesive heights on the album. Townshend's probing social
observations put him in a class with Dylan and Lennon. Stylistically different,
Townshend romped on stage and courted hero worship-- responding to the
mod thirst for heroes or "faces." "I'm The Face If You Want It," he screams
on "Sea and Sand" quoting a High Numbers single he wrote as a teenager. The album was well received going gold and
reaching number two in the U.S. and England. Yielding radio hits such
as "Love Reign O'er Me," "5:15" and "The
Real Me" the album could never commercially
outdo Tommy but did heavily influence Pink Floyd's The Wall, and
spawn Frank Roddam's 1978 film version of Quadrophenia which in
turn incited a substantial mod revival. Quadrophenia stands apart
from The Wall in that it offers a way out for the underdog. Jimmy the
mod has an ocean of endless possibilities before him. Townshend provides
hope for the underdog as the guy with a beak and limited vocal range who
develops the windmill, auto-destruction ending, Union Jack Jacket, Marshall
Stack and Rock Opera to draw attention from an audience which may otherwise
not have noticed. The same type of hope is offered in "I'm One" where
the narrator (so many Townshend songs are first person) looks at his clothes,
his lack of grace, and his loneliness as a strength-- an epiphany of a
unique identity.
The Themes -- Number 4
The opera has four major motifs connoting
the four bandmembers: Roger "The Helpless Dancer"; Keith "The Bell Boy";
John thinks "Is it me for a moment?"; and Pete reserves "Love Reign O'er
Me." All the while the number four keeps showing up (4 sides of the record,
the temporary craze for a 4 speaker Quadrophonic mix and Soundtrack cut
"Four Faces"). Townshend's uncanny ability to write parts for the other
members of the group came to light with the release of his recorded demos
as Scoop (1983) and Another Scoop
(1987) which he presented to the band in complete arrangements. Casting
identities onto the other players caused a bit of friction; however, Moon
did relish the gruff Bell Boy-- a cockney character he loved to play on
stage. Quadrophenia is, as Townshend put it even after the release of
Who Came First (1972) and Rough Mix (1977), his "first solo
album"-- he employs the band for sessions more to inhabit these characters
than to reconvene the quartet of the early years. It was the end of an
era. The band had great difficulty recreating the complexity of the arrangements
live and their creative spirit was on the wane.
Glam Rock -- The End of Rock
 The
Who were no strangers to Glam Rock, the fad of cross-dressing, sexual
ambiguity, flash and pomp that strutted across Rock's stage circa 1969-75.
After all, Ken Russell's Tommy catapulted the opus into Elton John's
bag. Other glammers such as Bowie, Marc Bolan of T. Rex, The New York
Dolls, Lou Reed (who paid tribute to Townshend in 1994 with a cover of
Psychoderelict's "Now and Then"), Gary Glitter and the "It's Only
Rock And Roll" era Rolling Stones carried the make-up, long hair and myopia
of this music to excess. Now revived by bands such as Space Hog, REM and
Oasis this sound still resonates in the 90's. As Townshend put it in 1972's
"Put The Money Down": "There are bands killing chickens, My hero's gettin'
pushed around." Glam is all about the fall of the hero into treachery
of his own art, an overaccumulation of surface. The best example of the
pomp and glam on Quadrophenia is 5:15.
5:15
He man drag
In the glittering ballroom,
Greyly outrageous
In my high heeled shoes.
Tightly undone,
Know what they're showing
Sadly ecstatic
That their heroes are news.
Who?
By 1973, The Who had little artistic headroom
left as did Rock overall. While more bombastic acts were derided by Seventies
punks as ponderous overcompensated old farts and deserters of power chord
rock, the same DIY punks now suffer the paradox of mature rock. "Punk
Meets The Godfather" addresses this "Before I Grow Old" dilemma on Quadrophenia
as the Godfather tells the Punk "I've lived your future out, by pounding
stages like a clown."
Perhaps (as ever) to cement an identity
for a band named "Who", Quadrophenia looked back to revise the
image of the old days-- but where to head next was murky. The movie appeared
to end in a suicide, the album by the sea in a glorious nervous breakdown,
and from 1975-82 the band played oldies for arena and stadium audiences
while offering sporadic releases of uneven material with recurring themes
like "aren't we too old for this?" Townshend's dabblings in Sufism, excellent
solo LP's and Moon's '78 demise at age 31 indicated that The Who were
no longer his best vehicle. In the Eighties Townshend edited for Faber
and Faber at T.S. Elliot's old post, while his passion for theater resulted
in two musicals: The Iron Man in 1989 and a Tony winning Broadway
rendition of Tommy in 1993. In 1996, Townshend has seen fit to
revive his magnum opus combing theatrical and literary elements into the
record's elaborate song cycle. Despite the many hats he has worn, Townshend
does his best work on stage with an acoustic guitar. As he sang convincingly
to the front rows on the Sunday show in San Jose, "And I can see that
this is me, I will be, You'll all see that I'm the one."
Quadrophenia
I Am The Sea
 Cut My Hair
The Punk And The Godfather
I'm One
The Dirty Jobs
Helpless Dancer
Is It In My Head?
I've Had Enough
5:15
Sea and Sand
Drowned
Bell Boy
The Rock
Love, Reign O'er Me all songs by Pete Townshend ? 1973 Fabulous
Music Ltd. except "Love, Reign O'er Me," ? 1972 Fabulous Music Ltd.
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