Who: Quadrophenia [2] CD Track Listing

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Who Quadrophenia [2] (1973)
Quadrophenia (Original CD Edition) - Disc 2 of 2\n1985 MCA Records, Inc.\n\nOriginally Released in U.K. as Track 2657 013 on November 16, 1973. It reached #2.\nOriginally Released in the U.S. as MCA2 1000 4 on November 3, 1973, it reached #2. \nCD Edition Released April 1985\nMFSL Gold CD Edition Released June 1, 1991\nRemixed + Remastered CD Edition Released July 2, 1996\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Pete Townshend revisited the rock opera concept with another double-album opus, this time built around the story of a young mod's struggle to come of age in the mid-'60s. If anything, this was a more ambitious project than Tommy, given added weight by the fact that the Who weren't devising some fantasy but were re-examining the roots of their own birth in mod culture. In the end, there may have been too much weight, as Townshend tried to combine the story of a mixed-up mod named Jimmy with the examination of a four-way split personality (hence the title Quadrophenia), in turn meant to reflect the four conflicting personas at work within the Who itself. The concept might have ultimately been too obscure and confusing for a mass audience. But there's plenty of great music anyway, especially on "The Real Me," "The Punk Meets the Godfather," "I'm One," "Bell Boy," and "Love, Reign o'er Me." Some of Townshend's most direct, heartfelt writing is contained here, and production-wise it's a tour de force, with some of the most imaginative use of synthesizers on a rock record. Various members of the band griped endlessly about flaws in the mix, but really these will bug very few listeners, who in general will find this to be one of the Who's most powerful statements. -- Richie Unterberger\n\n\nAmazon.com essential recording\nAn excellent and frequently astonishing album, Quadrophenia is both more ambitious and less accessible than Tommy, the first and most well known rock opera. At its simplest level, Quadrophenia is a coming-of-age story with an awesome soundtrack. The album features some of the Who's finest material, in songs like the enraged "Real Me," the cynical "Punk Meets the Godfather," the wistful "5:15" and "Sea and Sand," and the powerful "Love, Reign O'er Me." The songwriting (courtesy of Pete Townshend) is top-notch, as is the production (the Who actually managed to use synthesizers in an original manner, something few rock bands can aspire to). The mix of powerful songwriting and skillful composition makes this one of the Who's finest moments. --Genevieve Williams \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nThe Who's finest moment, April 7, 2007 \nBy T. Fisher "general nerd" (Budapest, Hungary)\nQuadrophenia is where The Who reached their creative zenith. Who's Next had more brilliant moments, but as an overall album, this is as good as it gets. The scoring is complex, with plenty of John Entwhistle's horns, Rabbit Bundrick's keyboards, and some of the finest musicianship Pete Townshend and Keith Moon ever turned out. Roger Daltry is also at the height of his game -- old enough to put some real power behind it, young enough to hit notes that sadly he might not be able to any more. \n\nThere is a story in here somewhere, but don't spend too much time trying to look for it. I've watched the movie a number of times, and seen the live DVD as well, and I'm still confused. That's the whole point -- it's about Jimmy, a confused teenage mod with a personality disorder. That's all you really need of the story to enjoy this album. \n\nIf you only get one album by The Who, this should be it. If you get two, Who's Next is the other one. But these guys are so good, why would you want to stop there? \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nStill an earfull, February 6, 2007 \nBy J. Parchois (Albuquerque, NM)\nIt's the other rock opera. Some might call it a mod opera. While Quadrophenia is in several respects a more effectively realized piece of work than Tommy, it's also somewhat less memorable. Perhaps it fell victim to the decidedly less serious zietgeist of the early '70s. Too bad because it benefits from better production (despite sundry complaints from individual band members), more narrative focus and greater emotional impact. What the two do have in common are large doses of inspired, Townsend-crafted majesty. Despite a bevy of great tunes like "The Real Me," "I'm the One," "Helpless Dancer" and "Sea and Sand," none of them quite stick in the mind like a "Pinball Wizard" or "Overture." (There were no charting singles stateside, although "5:15" did reach #20 in the UK). Another reason this album has suffered from undeserved neglect is that it's best enjoyed in its 80-minute-plus totality. Not practical, but rewarding. Yes, it's ambitious, overstuffed and complicated, but the record is more than redeemed by its sheer weight of melodic invention. Looking back, Quadrophenia stands as The Who's last great (and consistent) statement of purpose. Feel like you need a fix of quality classic rock that's blessedly off the beaten path? Just call Doctor Jimmy. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nThey Just Don't Write 'Em Like -That- Anymore, December 29, 2005 \nBy Rodger Garrett "raj-in-california" (Loma Linda, CA USA)\nThe emotionally disengaged -- and intellectually dishonest -- may heap their disdain on such stuff, but "deep meaning" lyric lovers of anything from U2's "Boy" to the Moody Blues' "For Our Children's Children's Children" to Alanis's "Jagged Little Pill" will find a real home here. Amateur Developmentalists and Attachment Theory freaks will have -no- problem whatsoever grasping the relevance of Uncle Petey's dimly remembered masterpiece. \n\nTownshend struggled with his demons for decades; 1968's "Tommy" made -that- much clear. This, at least for the reasonably educated psychobabbler, makes it far -clearer-... not in the least because "Q4" is more of a participative collaboration -between- the four High Numbers than a demonstration of Townshend's points of view by each one. Moon gets into a -role- (and reveals -himself- in the process?). Entwistle uses his fingers for new and remarkable purposes. Daltry sheds his strutting. \n\nThe protagonist / narrator goes Schizophrenicly Dissociative, but -we- get to hear all four of his reality states (or ego defenses) in the remarkable lyrics millions dug because of the equally remarkable musical packaging. It's not that the packaging is just so compelling for the sake of marketing, either. Townshend's lengthy tolerance for neurochemical stimulation served him well for years, but I think never so well as here: The Romanticist in him provided an inner ear for -exactly- the musical expressions needed to convey to emotional experiences of his problem (inner) child's verbal expressions. And the mechanic in him and -all- his bandmates -- especially John Entwistle on the keys -and- the knobs this time around -- provided the ability to manifest what he heard (and felt) in his own head. \n\n"They just don't write 'em like -that- anymore," Greg Kihn sang almost a decade later. He could have been taking about -this-. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nGreatest album ever. By anyone., December 9, 2005 \nBy Christopher Curtis "Chris" (Concord, MA United States)\nIf you've read the reviews before mine, you already know that you should have this album. And see the movie. And read the story (if you can find any of the old vinyl copies that contain it). And then think about it. And then do it all over again. \n\nRepeat as necessary. \n\nNo other band has ever grabbed hold of all that Rock has to offer and condensed it into one fully realized work of art (yes, this is opera) before or since. Pete's other two operas pale in comparison (Tommy, which seems a little silly at times when held up to Quadrophenia, and Lifehouse, which was stillborn, and whose tidbits were assembled into Who's Next). \n\nI can't tell you how to react to art, that is part of the joy of it. Just play this album. Loud. And know that there will always be something new to learn from it every time you hear it. \n\nThe first time I saw the Who in concert it started to rain just as Love Reign O'er Me began. When the song ended so did the rain. Pete walked up to the mike and said 'Even the Stones couldn't pull that one off!" \n\nNo, they couldn't; and no one ever has. \n\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\na little dissapointing, March 30, 2005 \nBy Erick Cohn "Erick Cohn" (Seattle, WA)\nI have to admit that I find the remix of the Who's Quadrophenia a little dissapointing. Don't get me wrong, parts of it sound really incredible with clarity and definition. The problem I have is first of the lack of consistancy and then, well the sort of whimpishness of many of the re-mixed tracks. I know that members of the who weren't satisfied with the original mix, but at least it rocked. It had energy and feeling that really made a lot of the songs meaningful to me. The re-mix pushes the vocals to the front, most of the time and the guitar tracks to the rear. There is a sacrifice of energy for the sake of "cleanliness". I am not impressed with most of the re-mix. I mean, if this album expresses teen angst, then there should be a lot of raw energy and maybe even a lot of distortion. Maybe the vocals should be a little buried most of the time to exemplify the alienation that a lot of teens feel, not being able to express themselves effectively. This is my favorite Who album and although I might keep a copy of this re-mix, I will refer to my vinyl original mix to enjoy the album as I feel it should be, for better or worse. So what if the Who weren't happy with this mix, it is what the mix was for over 20 years and the re-mix falls flat for the majority of the time. I wish it weren't the case. I do enjoy hearing the clean tracks and things you can't hear clearly in the original mix. It just doesn't move me as much. It is too clean. The vocals are front and center all of the time. The guitar tracks that rocked are now buried. Sure the bass sounds incredible and the drums do too, the overall mix lacks consistancy. It is suprising to me how different this mix is from the original. The other thing is how this mix is all over the place. It isn't just set a certain way and then applied to all the tracks, it differs on all the tracks. This provides a lack of cohesiveness that makes this mix effort fall short. I appologize for the negativity, I really wish that this was the great incredible mix that should have been applied in the first place, but I don't hear it that way. Maybe they should try to mix it again. Get the vinyl mix and hear it at least better than what was released in 1996. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nRemastered Mess, September 1, 2004 \nBy M. Ernst (Eau Claire, WI)\nEven though Quadrophenia is my favorite Who album, this remastered version pales in comparison to the original CD version released in the early 90's. It's actually muddy in spots, and as a result sounds that you're used to hearing have been quieted or lost altogether. For example, in "The Dirty Jobs," after Daltrey sings, "You men should remember how you used to fight," there used to be what sounded like seal noises (which fit in well with the ocean and water images and sounds of the album), perhaps to indicate how spineless these "men" have become. In the remastered version, these noises are gone. Later, in "Drowned," the piano is reduced to a less prominent role, particularly in the central section where the horns come in and overpower the piano, and that's a shame since the playing on the original is so inspired and thrilling. But, perhaps the greatest tragedy of this remastered version is how forced to the background Townshend's rhythm guitar is during "Love, Reign O'er Me", especially in the solo--and we're talking ferocious, adrenaline-causing strumming in the original. Find a used CD copy of the original or buy the gold CD. Anything but this mangled version. It's as if the person in charge of remastering the album didn't appreciate the finer points of the original production or wasn't even a Who fan. Maybe, in overseeing this, Townshend didn't have his hearing aid in, and Entwistle was too busy snorting coke. Either way, they goofed. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nThe Who at the height of their musical powers, February 10, 2003 \nBy "pvsdkn" (Redwood City, CA United States)\nOn its initial release in late 1973, Quadrophenia appeared in the U.S. around the same time as the movie "American Graffiti" and, on the Broadway stage, a controversial British psycho drama called "Equus" starring Anthony Hopkins was at the height of its success and popularity. As a work of art, Quadrophenia harkens to both of its cinematic and theatrical contemporaries as a sort of musical cross between the two (note: Pete Townsend later wrote a book of short stories called "Horse's Neck"). While "American Graffiti" was the "Happy Day's" nostalgic look at late 50s, early 60s American teenagers on the brink of extinction, Quadrophenia was a look back at the early and mid 60s British youth known as the Mods and Rockers. The LP, unlike the CD, included a black and white "photo" album depicting this story in a style evoked from the existential, overcast, grayness, of the British cinema of the early 60's called "angry young men" films; especially, Tony Richardson's "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner". But, alternatively, Quadrophenia, is also like its more colorful predecessor "Tommy", by being an even more ecstatic, soaring, symphonic, rock opera, whose lyrics continue on the themes of psychological wounds and trauma induced by fear and alienation as a result of family abuse, self-consciousness, poverty, and personal/social rejection. A lot of the songs like "The Real Me", "Is It in My Head", and "Dr. Jimmy" represent the madness, drug abuse, despair and violent reactions to these conditions. Other songs like "Cut My Hair", "The Dirty Jobs", and "Bell Boy" simply focus on work, i.e. the lack of it, or the ... of it. Yet, other songs, like "Drowned" and "Love, Reign O'er Me" express great joy, hope and release. Musically, it represents the Who at the height of their musical powers. It influenced often diametrically opposed musical styles like Punk and Prog Rock. But the production values made it, for many years, a studio bound work, which became a rock around the collective necks of a rock band known for it's tremendously, spontaneous, live performances. Consequently, it never got the recognition for being the work of genius that it truly is. Nonetheless, it stands as possibly Roger Daltrey's best work as a singer and also the best instrumental work of the band. \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nCAN YOU SEE THE REAL ME?, July 17, 2002 \nBy J. C. Bailey (East Sussex United Kingdom)\nIn common I'm sure with many other fans, the tragedy of John "The Ox" Entwhistle's premature death a couple of weeks ago drove me to dig out my dusty old Who albums and have another listen. Now the Who are a band you can always go back to after a break - from decade to decade they go on sounding fresh and challenging. But I was particularly moved by my re-acquaintance with Quadrophenia, and to my own surprise I have discovered (or re-discovered) that it still ranks as one of my favourite albums of all time.\nOf course Quadrophenia was an exercise in nostalgia from the outset, and as such it still works as a window on an earlier time. The Who had a massive following in their early years from a British youth style cult of the mid-sixties called the Mods. Unlike their arch-rivals the Rockers (who favoured beer, greasy motorcycles, black leather and rock'n'roll), the Mods went for pills, heavily accessorised Italian motor-scooters, fashion suits and R&B. Hundred of both tribes from inner London used to descend on south coast resort towns on warm summer days, and for a couple of years riots were commonplace. They weren't good times, but this was the first generation of British kids for whom the dream of mobility and escape had a decent chance of realisation, and the multiple-mirrored Lambretta was a potent symbol of freedom. \n\nBut Quadrophenia wasn't just about nostalgia. Its point seems to have been to explore the inner life of urban tribalism (in the same way that "Tommy" had done for religion and stardom). In that sense its insights still hold true, and it's no surprise that even in the more dangerous streets of today, special big-screen showings of the movie "Quadrophenia" (made a few years after the original album) still attract sizeable audiences. \n\nIn the eyes of some hard-core fans, the project was a failure. "Why can't Townsend stop trying to produce another Tommy, and get back to playing proper rock" was a typical comment from this segment of the band's following. But in Quadrophenia the Who arguably realised fully what Tommy only managed in part. It offers a cycle of thematically connected songs of uniformly exceptional quality. Together they tell a poignant story in an almost impressionistic way, that's to say they don't get bogged down carrying the burden of a literal event-by-event narrative. Each of the band's four members seems to have hit their personal peak performance at the same time. Even the instrumental interludes, a conceit that brought many concept albums of the era grinding to a halt, are miniature triumphs of musical eloquence, and the sound quality was good even before re-mastering for the current CD edition. \n\nThe title "Quadrophenia" (i.e. four-way schizophrenia) is the key to a further (and now the most poignant) theme of the album, namely introspection by the four members of the Who into their own inner lives. "Can you see the real me?" asks the band, through the vehicle of Daltrey's first raging vocal. And the answer is a resounding Yes. While every one of the Who's projects is somebody's favourite, it is hard to resist the conclusion that Quadrophenia captures one of the greatest rock bands of all time at its all-time peak. My copy will not be making a return journey to the attic. \n\n\nHalf.com Details \nContributing artists: Chris Stainton \n\nAlbum Notes\nThe Who: Pete Townshend (vocals, guitar, keyboards); John Entwistle (vocals, bass, horns); Roger Daltrey (vocals); Keith Moon (drums, percussion, vocals).\n\nAdditional personnel: John Curle (spoken vocals); Chris Stainton (piano).\nRecorded at The Kitchen, Battersea, England.\nIncludes a 56-page booklet.\n\nBy 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.\nSet 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.\n\nIndustry Reviews\n8 (out of 10) - ...it is only now that a fully remastered...full, double CD version has been released....Townshend's windmilling riffing arm has never been busier, John Entwistle remains the finest bass player breathing, and Keith Moon...is truly magnificent...\nNew Musical Express (06/29/1996)\n\n5 Stars - Indispensible - ...it abides as one of The Who's peaks because...its instant, push-button atmosphere is always lifted from the realms of ham by some heartfelt Daltrey shout'n'croon, a bit of comedy Moon...and the antemic elegance of the last two tracks...\nQ (08/01/1996)\n\nROLLING STONE REVIEW\nQuadrophenia is the Who at their most symmetrical, their most cinematic, ultimately their most maddening. Captained by Pete Townshend, they have put together a beautifully performed and magnificently recorded essay of a British youth mentality in which they played no little part, lushly endowed with black and white visuals and a heavy sensibility of the wet-suffused air of 1965.\n\nNonetheless, the album fails to generate a total impact because of its own internal paradox: Instead of the four-sided interaction implicit in the title and overriding concept, Quadrophenia is itself the product of a singular (albeit brilliant) consciousness. The result is a static quality which the work never succeeds in fully overcoming. Townshend has taken great pains with the record, has carried it within him for over a year, has laboriously fitted each piece of its grand scale in place. Yet in winning the battle, he's lost the war and more's the pity.\n\nThe hero of Quadrophenia is Jimmy, a young motor-scooted Mod in the throes of self-doubt and alienation. Unlike Tommy, to whom he's destined to be inevitably compared, Jimmy is no simplistic parable or convenient symbol. His loner qualities set him apart from both friends and foes, and though he's more than willing to be led, somehow even that security seems to elude him. Torn between identities, Townshend has gifted him with four, all competing for top seed in Jimmy's confused psyche. In one he is forceful and determined, a master of his fate; another finds him full of brazen daring and rollicking jingoism; yet another softens and romanticizes his nature, giving him a quiet inner strength; and still another reveals him as insecure, searching, the promise of salvation granted and hovering over the next hillrise.\n\nSuch is quadrophenia, schizophrenia times two, and Townshend maneuvers this conflict on several levels, each to noticeably good (if fairly evident) effect. Most important of these manifold hooks is the Mod generation out of which the Who sprang, and only secondary (though admittedly the most personally interesting) is the Who itself, four themes ("Helpless Dancer," "Bell Boy," "Is It Me?" and "Love Reign O'er Me") wrestling, congealing, splitting apart throughout the album. As for Jimmy, his frustration at being unable to resolve his separate selves suddenly overwhelms him, so that he smashes his scooter, flees to Brighton on the shore, finally putting to sea in a boat with the vague aim of suicide. This is where we find him at the beginning of side one, lost amidst his flashbacks and disjointed memories, and this is where we leave him, on a note of spiritual uplift and transcendence, at the end.\n\nThese are not new concerns for the Who, by any means. Whereas the Kinks always seemed preoccupied with the staid and comfortable middle class in an archetypal love-hate relationship, Townshend and Co. early on turned an affectionate camera eye to their contemporaries, culminating in such landmark classics as "Substitute," "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere" and a flailing "My Generation" yet to be equaled in definitive power.\n\nQuadrophenia, in taking that time in retrospect and examining its implications, lingers over the artifacts of the period as if they might in themselves provide a clue. Tea kettles whistle over the ominous voicings of the BBC, hints of the Who in concert cut in and out of Jimmy's fragmented dreamings, slim and checked jackets mingle with seersucker and neatly cut hair. To the American mind, Quadrophenia might thus seem as strange as portions of American Graffiti could appear to English experience, but it's to be assured that the appeal of semi-nostalgic shared memories must perforce work as well for one as the other.\n\nIt is to Townshend's credit that his is not a disengaged overview, pious and self-righteous after all these years. In seeking to understand Jimmy, he apparently is also trying to understand the roots of the Who, its attraction as rallying point and its eventual rejection by such as Jimmy ("The Punk Meets the Godfather") and--more appropriately--himself. To set the stage for Jimmy's final leap to faith, Townshend must question why the religion of rock & roll (as well as GS scooters and purple hearts) had to be replaced by something less temporal and untrustworthy, detail the steps toward the higher goal, describe its draining holocaust.\n\nThe interior episodes where all this is hashed out are the most successful on Quadrophenia, impeccably outlined by Townshend and stunningly executed by the Who. Jimmy attempts to mesh with his family, his peer group, his girl, and yet remains an outsider, wondering why in his just-so clothes "the other tickets look much better/Without a penny to spend they dress to the letter." Meeting an old idol on the beach, now reduced to subserving as a local hotel bellboy, he is moved to remember: "Ain't you the guy who used to set the paces/Riding up in front of a hundred faces?"\n\nAn effective moment, yet when judged against the broader scope of Quadrophenia it seems as if all Townshend has constructed is a series of such effective moments. Pete, for better or worse, is possessed of a logic riveting in its linearity, and if in effect we are being placed in the mind of an emotionally distressed adolescent, neither the texture of the music nor the album's outlook is able to rise to this challenge of portraiture. Despite the varied themes, Jimmy is only seen through Townshend's eyes, geared through Townshend's perceptions, and the aftermath as carried through four sides becomes a crisis of concept, the album straining to break out of its enclosed boundaries and faltering badly.\n\nThis is reflected in the songs themselves, vastly similar in mode and construction, running together with little differential to separate them. Only a few stand on their own as among the best the Who have done ("The Real Me," "Is It in My Head?," "5:15," the Townshend theme of "Love Reign O'er Me"), and of those it's interesting to note that several are holdovers from the lost Who album Glyn Johns and the band worked on before the onset of Quadrophenia. Also, given the inordinately complex personalities that make up the group, little is sensed of any Moon, Entwhistle or Daltrey contributions to the whole. Their roles are subdued, backing tracks when they should rise to shoulder the lead, pressed on all fronts by the sweep of Townshend's imagination.\n\nOn other Who albums this might be acceptable, even welcome; surely Pete has been the Who's guiding force, their hindsight and hellbound inspiration. It is his mastermind that has created the tour-de-force recording breakthroughs of the album, the realistic and panoramic landscape of pre-Carnaby Street England, arranged the setting so that each member of the band could give full vent to his vaunted and highly unique instrumental prowess. Indeed, it might easily be said that the Who as a whole have never sounded better, both ensemble and solo, proving unalterable worth and relevance in an age that has long passed others of their band's generation into fragments of history.\n\nBut on its own terms, Quadrophenia falls short of the mark. Jimmy Livingston Seagull, adrift on a stormless sea, with only his shattered wings and sharded memories to keep him company--so close, and yet so far. (RS 150 -- Dec 21, 1998) -- LENNY KAYE
This rock cd contains 7 tracks and runs 41min 42sec.
Freedb: 4309c607
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: Music

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: music songs tracks rock Rock & Roll

1. Who - 5:15 (05:01)
2. Who - Sea and Sand (05:02)
3. Who - Drowned (05:28)
4. Who - Bell Boy (04:57)
5. Who - Doctor Jimmy (08:39)
6. Who - The Rock (06:38)
7. Who - Love, Reign O'er Me (05:52)