Re: The Who Digest Vol 3 Num 74

[marini@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Janice K. Marini)]

>Indeed, and it's well said.
>I have always said that TOMMY transcended Rock Music, whereas QUAD defined
>it. Rock, as I see it anyway, is pretty much a male playground with male
>ideas and ideals. Few women have been truly successful at it.
>Certainly Pete was defining Jimmy with the line: "How come the girls..." and
>also defining how a lot of us (and himself as well, I'm sure) felt a time or
>two in our adolescence. So while I can accept your statement that Pete was
>"playing" Jimmy here, I can't completely excuse him from the self-truth that
>lies within the line (of course, this very truth being one of the many great
>things about QUAD). I would say that in QUAD, Townshend laid out how he
>himself felt in his adolescence very honestly and in a graphic way. Which is
>why it strikes such a chord with so many males...however it may affect
>females (I've heard a lot of Who men say that QUAD is their favorite album,
>whereas I cannot recall a woman saying that...help me out here, girls. Is it
>QUAD that's your fav, or some other album...and why? There will be a quiz
>next week...).

Ok, I'll jump in here --

Quad is my favorite Who album by far.  The music, the lyrics, the scale of
it all, the POWER of it all -- it continues to move me, 22 years after I
first heard it.  I have moods where I NEED Quad -- at full volume; I can't
think of anything else that's more cathartic or beautiful.  This drives my
husband crazy, but that's another story. It was great for adolescent angst
-- PT captured the essense entirely -- but it also works as I get older. 
Such emotion -- I really can't articulate it well.  Suffice to say, I am
female, a Who fan since birth from what I can remember, and Quad is by far
my favorite Who album.  Isn't there someone on this list ("OK" Kevin
Winn?) who calls Quad Pete's first (and best) solo record?  That's how I
feel. 

To me it's PT writing as Jimmy (and, yes Marshall, about him at the same
time) -- and lines like "you say she's a virgin..."  and "every one's a
fool" are all part of the story.  Taken separately or out of context,
yeah, they seem anti-female, but I've always been more troubled by the 
"woman in childbirth...recycling trash" lines in Imagine A Man. That's 
incredibly disturbing to me.  

I also have a real problem with Psychoderelict's misogynistic 
underpinnings -- the treacherous woman-as-villain and especially the 
"witch's teats" stuff.  I can't listen to that CD very much -- I play the 
music-only one instead.  

Later,

Jake