Album Reviews

Pete Townshend’s sprawling second rock opera, issued in the fall of 1973, uses the troubled teenaged character Jimmy to elucidate adolescent coming of age issues generally and those of post WWII English kids (like the four members of The Who) specifically.

Set in London and the working class seaside resort town of Brighton, the story covers five days in young Mod Jimmy’s confused life as he confronts life’s disappointments, including his relationship with his parents, his girlfriend, his failed attempts to “fit in,” his supposed mental illness, his pill-dependence and ultimately, his disillusionment with his Mod hero Ace Face (played by Sting in the movie), who turns out to be a sellout, working as a bellboy at a Brighton hotel.

That Jimmy’s personality disorder involved four distinct characters, and there are four band members in The Who is not coincidental! At the end of the diary-like story summation found on the inner album jacket, Jimmy finds himself at the end of his rope standing on a bluff overlooking the ocean. He describes himself (and his “quadrophonic” four personalities) as “a tough guy, a helpless dancer,” “a romantic, is it me for a moment?” “A bloody lunatic, I’ll even carry your bags,” and “A beggar, a hypocrite, love reign o’er me.”

Townshend created a musical personality for each of them in the rock opera’s structure and each is interwoven and repeats, sometimes subtly, within the music’s ebb and flow. Daltrey’s theme is “Helpless,” Moon’s is “Bellboy,” Entwistle’s is “Is it Me?” and Townshend’s is “Love, Reign O’er Me.”

Unlike Tommy, which was written to be performed live, Quadrophenia is a complex studio production featuring more involved arrangements (including Chris Stainton on piano, repeating his Joe Cocker “Hitchock Railway” riffs) sound effects, deft mixing and song bridging that didn’t travel well when the band attempted to perform it live.

Because of the complexity of the production and in part because it was recorded in a new studio using “the latest” recording gear, Quadrophenia was a far more polished effort compared to Tommy but at the same time it lacked the earlier effort’s physical power and dynamic drive, with Keith Moon’s drumming pushed further back in the mix and lacking the visceral, skin pounding power found on Tommy.

For some reason, the original The Mastering Lab (TML) mastering on both the UK Track and American MCA originals by George Jones was not up to the usual high standards that came out of Doug Sax’s facility (Townshend used the California mastering studio extensively). It was good, (with the UK plating and pressing, of course yielding better results), but lacked focus, clarity of line and worst of all, solidity. Instead it was diffuse and somewhat bloated, perhaps in a misguided attempt to put the “meat” back in that was missing from the somewhat harmonically sterile, but well-organized (probably all solid-state) recording.

Like Bob Ludwig’s excellent 1996 double CD mastering, Chris Bellman’s new all-analogue edition strives for and achieves stupendous clarity and focus, while not trying to “re-write history” by putting in what’s not there in the first place (not that the CD comes close to the new double LP’s transparency, three dimensionality and visceral power).

When “I Am The Sea” ends, you’ll feel like stopping the record and wiping the salt water off your speakers! This Classic Records reissue is easily the best Quadrophenia ever released: better than either the UK or American original, and better than the Sony/CBS’ Japanese “Rock Best 100” edition (40AP 1259-60), which now sounds somewhat distant and lacking in the transparency and spaciousness this latest mastering delivers with great authority (however, it’s still damn good and better than the 1996 CD). Interestingly, the Japanese ¾ sized booklet attributes the original mastering to Arnie Acosta at TML. Hmm.

For your money, Classic gives you an utterly faithful, beautifully produced gatefold jacket and full-sized booklet heroically manufactured by Stoughton Printing, a modern-day Garrod and Lofthouse (the original UK edition was printed by Euro-Albums in Holland) that does gorgeous printing on stock that’s as close to the original as is humanely possible.

Classic’s new Quiex SV-P 200g “flat profile, but lipped” vinyl is dead quiet and flat (at least my sealed copy was and so far I’ve gotten no email complaints) so hopefully moving forward we’ll get perfection from Classic.

If anyone tells you this isn’t the best Quadrophenia ever, and tries to sell you some “hot stamper” bullshit, tell him to fuck-off! Long live rock!