ViewGuide

Created Jul 28, 2012 12:03PM PST • Edited Mar 08, 2014 07:36AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   The complete story of Quadrophenia is essential viewing for Quadropheniacs. You know who you are.

   Pete Townshend takes us on an hour-plus tour through his magnum opus, the greatest of rock operas, followed by twenty minutes of Quadrophenia concert outtakes from the decades. Felt complete to me.

   Roger Daltrey gets a few words in edgewise, consistent with their fraught relationship. Additional commentary comes from members of their early 70s entourage: their sound engineer, the manager who became their manager after they fired their previous manager, their gorgeous office girl and a coterie of Faces and girls from the scene back then. Some perceptive critics also add valuable insights.

   Keith Moon contributes a memorable interview while sitting on a urinal, drink in hand. Moon the Loon.

   John Entwistle also comes back from the dead to bitch about Mod hair, pissed he had to cut his moptop during Beatlemania.

   The ample archival footage includes rare gems.

   • The Who introducing Quadrophenia on British TV with 5:15, the album’s first single. IOW, they opened Top of the Pops with the lyric “Why should I care?” Totally punk.
   • Moon passing-out at the Cow Palace in SanFran, with the now legendary Scot Halpin coming out of the crowd to play drums.
   • Keith singing Bell Boy. He didn’t exactly follow Pete’s direction.

   Quadrophenia itself remains a brilliant evocation of teen angst, expressed in a coherent, extended, complex, beautiful, rocking, consistent, consummate rock opera. It’s angst turned up to 11 – bipolar, self-medicating and doubly schizophrenic. Townshend’s a screwed-up guy, brilliant and volatile, the ideal creator of a poetically screwed-up teen, one old enough to ride a GS Scooter and get into drunken fights.

   Quadrophenia – The Complete Story premiered in a Fathom Events one-night-stand earlier this week. One assumes it will become available OD, if The Who’s current management has a lick of business sense that is. The sooner the better, ’cause the North American Quad Tour begins in November.

   The ‘96 Quad tour was out-fucking-standing (as a fellow Quadropheniac called it), but this one’s gonna be even more special now that we know the complete story.

   Note the two titles for this doc: Quadrophenia – Can You See the Real Me? and Quadrophenia – The Complete Story. Could they make up their mind? Someone’s off his meds.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   The Who

   • Primadonna Pete: Brilliant, tortured, mannered. During his Quadrophenia phase he looks like a rockstar version of Steve Jobs.
   • Dipsy Doodle Daltrey: Rock-chested Rock God, super-manly front-man extraordinaire. With his heman physic, flowing blond locks, twirling mic and massive, leather lung voice, Daltrey was rivaled only by Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant in the pantheon of arena rock singers.
   • Moon the Loon, hyper-drummer and ultimate rock casualty, gave rise to the legend of Spinal Tap’s exploding drummers. The concert scene of Keith singing Bell Boy – vamping for all it’s worth – is worth the price of admission for Quadropheniacs.
   • Thunderfingers Entwistle, badass lead bassist. One of the post-doc concert scenes catches him doing an extended lead-bass solo. Wow.

   The Entourage

   • Kit Lambert & Chris Stamp, the 5th & 6th members of The Who, looked like moviestars.
   • Ethan Russell, the American photog who’d already created the peerless cover of Who’s Next, shot the photos for the picture-book that came with the double album and contributes much narrative to The Complete Story.
   • Ron Nevison, the engineer and special effects man when they recorded it, is at the sound board again, pushing faders while describing how it all came together.
   • Gorgeous Georgiana, who had her ear drums blown out by The Who, relishing in the experience. She’s still hot.
   • Irish Jack – a Face from the height of the Mods – describing how he was part of The Who’s entourage. He’s still looking great.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    Townshend & Daltrey are in fine form describing early 70s events from their mature perch in 2012. The fact that they’ve assembled key contributors to Quadrophenia – along with now grown kids who appeared in the picture booklet that came with the original double album – gives the film unique verisimilitude. The archival footage from the crazy days gone by, now captured forever, gives it timeless resonance.

    The documentary’s episodic nature was necessary to tell all the tales, but did have the effect of breaking up the flow of music, which is mostly seamless on the album. Oh well, was worth it even if it interrupted the reverie from time to time. That said, don’t expect the entire album. Hell, the running time of the doc (sans the post-credits concert outtakes) is less than the album itself.

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

12. Play Great 4.0

13. Music Perfect 5.0

    Sides 2 & 3 are the connoisseur sides, with Side 2 more reflective and Side 3 more anthemic.

    Side 1

    • I am the Sea – opens with ambient noise and echoes of the four themes
    • The Real Me – BAM! Rock’s greatest opening salvo.
    • Quadrophenia – the title track is an instrumental introduction to the four themes. It opens with a perfectly crystalline Townshend lead guitar line.
    • Cut My Hair – first real song, Jimmy the Kid’s gotta cut his hair to fit in with the Mods.
    • The Punk Meets the Godfather – Townshend meets a ghost from his past.

    Side 2

    • I’m One – heartbreakingly beautiful. “Ill fitting clothes, I blend in the crowd, Fingers so clumsy, Voice too loud.”
    • The Dirty Jobs – exquisite self-pity. “I’m getting put down, I’m getting pushed round, I’m being beaten every day.”
    • Helpless Dancer – single finger piano, but it works for Roger’s theme
    • Is It In My Head – plaintive cry. “I pick up phones and hear my history. I dream of all the calls I miss. I try to number those who love me, And find exactly what the trouble is.”
    • I’ve Had Enough – wishing to end it all never sounded so good.

    Side 3

    • 5:15 – killer great song. Not a single, yet became the highest charting single from the ultimate single-spurning concept album.
    • Sea and Sand – the quintessential Quadrophenia song. “The girl I love is a perfect dresser, Wears every fashion, Gets it to the tee. Heavens above, I got to match her. She knows just how she wants her man to be. Leave it to me.” Perfect teen angst. Male teen angst.
    • Drowned – Self-Soothing Song
    • Bell Boy – Moon’s power drumming opens his theme song. “I don’t suppose you would remember me, But I used to follow you back in sixty three.”

    Side 4

    • Dr. Jimmy – balls2walls rock intercut with orchestral questioning. Uniquely The Who. John’s theme is the orchestral counterpoint Is It Me?
    • The Rock – the four themes reprised instrumentally
    • Love Reign O’er Me – Pete’s theme, as magnificent as rock anthems get, capped by Daltrey’s primal scream and Townshend’s full length guitar slide. Roger and Pete describe in The Complete Story how The Scream was produced.

    Perfect teen angst from four angles, wide if not necessarily deep. The depth comes from evoking a specific time and place – the British seaside in the early Sixties.

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0

    Expounding on the Mod’s trim haircuts, the documentary footage shows some longhaired lads. Hey, isn’t that Brian Jones? And Mick and Keith? Why yes, yes it is.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.2

    The Who were rockstars when rock was a life-or-death endeavor, when drummers were truly explosive and blood was known to be shed. Sex and drugs and rock-n-roll had yet to become cliche when Townshend, Daltrey, Moon and Entwistle were top of the pops.

17. Sex Titillating 2.3

18. Violence Gentle 1.5

19. Rudeness Profane 2.7

21. Reality

    Natural 1.0

    Townshend had to come up with something big for The Who in 1973. They’d raised the bar on artistic achievement with Tommy and Who’s Next, so mere hits would no longer do. Quadrophenia fit the bill. He came up with it in absentia from the rest of the band, who took umbrage at his high handedness, even though this was just a click beyond his usual role as their writer.

    The fact that he came up with something that called up a bygone era, that worked for American kids with no personal knowledge of Mods and Rockers, that exceeded the high bar set by Tommy and that crystallized teen angst (rock’s eternal theme) is a pop cultural accomplishment of the highest order.

    He couldn’t have as done it alone. A significant part of the alchemy are the contributions of Daltrey, Moon and Entwistle, as thematic subjects and as powerful musical forces. Daltrey points out in The Complete Story that he was alone in the studio when recording vocals, Townshend not allowed in. Take that Pete!

    Finally, props to Dave Van Staveren for creating Quadrophenia.net.

22. Circumstantial Natural 1.0

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0