Quadrophenia

Product Description:

The Who: Pete Townshend (vocals, guitar, keyboards); John Entwistle (vocals, bass, horns); Roger Daltrey (vocals); Keith Moon (drums, percussion, vocals).

Additional personnel: John Curle (spoken vocals); Chris Stainton (piano).

Recorded at The Kitchen, Battersea, England.

Includes a 56-page booklet.

This 1996 digitally remastered reissue of QUADROPHENIA contains remixed versions of "The Real Me," "Quadrophenia," "Dr. Jimmy" and "The Rock." It comes with a 52-page booklet.

Originally released on MCA (10004).

The Who: Roger Daltrey (vocals); Pete Townshend (various instruments, background vocals); John Entwistle (horns, bass instrument, background vocals); Keith Moon (drums, background vocals).

Additional personnel: John Curle (spoken vocals); Chris Stainton (piano).

By the early 1970s, rock & roll had been around long enough to begin to examine its own past. In the States, this resulted in Sha Na Na, but in Great Britain, where the popular culture of the young was more complex and coded, the Who's QUADROPHENIA was the most powerful example of this nostalgic view. Reviews at the time focused primarily on the obscure psychological aspect of the story--supposedly, the four sides of the original double-album set are meant to examine the four sides of the main character's personality, each one represented by a different member of the Who. However, the most interesting aspect of QUADROPHENIA is its seamy but poetic depiction of London's early-'60s Mod subculture, from which the Who originally sprang.

Set during the weekend of a climactic seaside gang fight between the Mods and their archenemies the Rockers, Townshend's story follows Jimmy, the archetypal Mod. The impressionistic songs tell an elliptical tale, but also function on their own as vintage '70s Who at their hard-rock height--the sneering "The Punk and the Godfather," the driving "5:15" and the anthemic, redemptive closer "Love, Reign O'er Me" are among Townshend's finest work.

By the early 1970s, rock & roll had been around long enough to begin to examine its own past. In the States, this resulted in Sha Na Na, but in Great Britain, where the popular culture of the young was more complex and coded, the Who's QUADROPHENIA was the most powerful example of this nostalgic view. Reviews at the time focused primarily on the obscure psychological aspect of the story--supposedly, the four sides of the original double-album set are meant to examine the four sides of the main character's personality, each one represented by a different member of the Who. However, the most interesting aspect of QUADROPHENIA is its seamy but poetic depiction of London's early-'60s Mod subculture, from which the Who originally sprang.

Set during the weekend of a climactic seaside gang fight between the Mods and their archenemies the Rockers, Townshend's story follows Jimmy, the archetypal Mod. The impressionistic songs tell an elliptical tale, but also function on their own as vintage '70s Who at their hard-rock height--the sneering "The Punk and the Godfather," the driving "5:15" and the anthemic, redemptive closer "Love, Reign O'er Me" are among Townshend's finest work.