The Who - Qudrophenia (single disc) - 1973

In the latest installment of my half off double album series we are going to take apart a Who classic. While everyone else is concerning themselves with reconstructing Rock Is Dead - Long Live Rock, a concept album envisioned by Pete Townshend as a musical history of The Who told through song, I want to address the album that it became. Namely the double album rock opera Quadrophenia. A concept album that concerns itself with the conflicts in mid 60s London between two rival cliques, Mods and Rockers.

While I admire Mr. Townshend's ability to not only dream up these things but also, bring them to life, sometimes I think the man thinks too much. I want songs, not operas. So, in the spirit of the Lifehouse to Who's Next transition I was wondering if the same idea could be applied to Quadrophenia. Could there be a great single disc album hidden within?

Side One
01 The Real Me
02 Cut My Hair
03 5:15
04 Sea And Sand
05 Drowned

Side Two
01 The Punk And The Godfather
02 I'm One
03 The Dirty Jobs
04 Is It In My Head?
05 Love Reign O'Er Me

Reality Notes

To be completely honest here, before I started this project I had never listened To the album straight through. I knew the classic songs more from best of collections and I expected a lot more filler material than there was. I have yet to see the movie and I have never listened to the soundtrack version.

This probably better qualifies me to take this project on. I am not attached to any underlying narrative that may be hidden within each song. I needed to be plot agnostic and choose songs that could stand on their own and dispose of songs that were obviously there to further the storyline.

I started with the four songs I was familair with (The Real Me, 5:15, Drowned and Love Reign O'Er Me) then fleshed out the tracklist from there. I dropped any instrumental over/underture interludes. I was drawn to Sea And Sand, I'm One and Is It In My Head? and included those bringing my track count up to seven. From what was left I eliminated Doctor Jimmy for being too long and a few more for being too entrenched in the plot line. This left me with Cut My Hair, The Punk And The Godfather and The Dirty Jobs to fill out the album.

I shuffled those around for flow and timing Keeping The Real Me and Love Reign O'er Me in their respective opening and closing spots. I trimmed or removed as much of the audio clip transitions between songs as I could. The musical structure of Cut My Hair and the intro to 5:15 are the same so I used the TV announcer/teapot at the end of Cut My Hair to transition into 5:15. Worked out beautifully.

I resisted the urge to include Join Together and Relay or any other unused song from the abandoned Rock is Dead project. Like my single disc The Wall project I wanted to make a concise Quadrophenia, not an alternate Rock is Dead. Are the results worth it? I've played the album through many times now without feeling the urge to skip any song. While still not as great as Who's Next or even Who By Numbers it can now rest comfortably along side those albums and it no longer feels like a chore to get through.

I kept the original cover. Its a great cover. I didn't change the name of the album, Why change the cover?