Re: WW1 18/7

Gary M., Re:

> My only criticism is [...] the Daniels explanations were unnecessary. After
> the bad press in the 70's about explaining Quad to audiences I wonder why PT
> doesn't just drop these didactic elements. Let the songs speak for
> themselves...

Hm.  The problem might be that the songs don't really give a clue about what
kind of story Quadrophenia is all about.  They contain some hints, provide some
slightly related musical and lyrical patterns, but without further explanation
it is rather difficult to understand what is going on with Jimmy...

Just to give you an idea how the narration could be helpful even to some
younger Who fan:  Before the Hyde Park show, I didn't have a good picture of
Quadrophenia's story.  I knew all of the songs very well, and I had read the
album's notes several times, but still I didn't see a close connection between
those notes and the arrangement of the songs.  After Hyde Park, however,
everything was suddenly very clear to me.  That's certainly Phil Daniels's
merit...

Of course you can now say:  `If only you had seen the Quad movie, if only you
had read more books about The Who, if only you had asked us other listers,
etc.'  But that's not the point.  If the narration is already helpful to a
dedicated Who fan like me, how much more will it be appreciated by the casual
audience?  The non-fans also deserve to understand what is going on...

BTW, from an artistic point of view I still think that the narration was a
wonderful part of the performance.  It wouldn't have been such a great show
without Daniels.

Cheers,

Bernd