Re[2]: What Was The Encore Saturday Night?

All: 
Just ran across this glowing celebration of Quadrophenia from the St. Paul
Pioneer Press. Note the positive comparison the writer makes between Quad and
"Zen Arcade," a great, loud album (IMHO) largely penned by someone we all know
and love, Bob Mould (from the great Husker Du years).

Also, I just heard that Quad is being re-released on the big screen and shown at
an artier theater here in Chicago, the Music Box. Not sure about widespread
release. Time to fire up the Vespa...
DW

 The Who's Quadrophenia, re-released this month, remains timeless
  
   By Jim Walsh
   Knight-Ridder Newspapers
   (KRT)
   At the St. Paul Civic Center on a Saturday night, 17,000 rock fans were
gathered in the name of Kiss. The Melvins had just finished their typically
thunderous warm-up set, and now the crowd waited impatiently for their
superheroes to take the stage. Though there could be no substitute for the main
course, the mammoth p.a. offered a few recorded appetizers. Stones. Westerberg.
AC/DC.
   Heads bobbed, people checked out their watches and each other and quaffed
beer. It was a typical arena rock ritual, until the strains of The Who's ``Baba
O'Reilly'' filled the cavern. A cheer rose up, thousands turned toward the
stage, as if The Who themselves had just entered the building. They sang along
to the chorus of ``We don't get fooled again,'' and when Keith Moon's crazed
drum solo gave way to Roger Daltrey's cathartic ``Yeaaaaaaaarrrrrrrr,''the
entire crowd came to its feet on cue, as if responding to a pastor's ``Please
rise.''
   Such is the enduring quality of a record made more than 20 years ago. But for
me, there is another work by The Who that has withstood the test of time even
better: ``Quadrophenia,'' the 1973 rock opera that was re-released this month
and is being commemorated by the surviving members of the band with concerts in
London and New York. And while I suppose I wouldn't mind being there, the
digitally remixed and remastered double CD has been more than enough over the
past few days.
   Sonically, some might say that ``Quadrophenia'' sounds dated. But lyrically,
it is unquestionably as timely as ever. Pete Townshend's often profound passion
play about a young mod struggling with that isolating blink of an eye between
adolescence and adulthood contains, at its core, an empathy that no artist
before or since has captured quite so eloquently  ``Zen Arcade'' and ``Mellon
Collie and the Infinite Sadness'' notwithstanding.
   Nostalgia? Hardly. ``Quadrophenia'' contains everything that is universal to
growing up: sexuality, style, stimulants, suicide and, of course, music. It
perfectly depicts that awkward pinprick of puberty, where fitting in is as
important as individuality: ``Why should I care if I have to cut my hair?,''
sings Townshend. ``I have to move with the fashion, or be outcast/I know I
should fight, but my old man is really alright/And I'm still living at home,
even though it won't last.''
   In addition to ``Quadrophenia'' being The Who's finest moment of pure,
unadulterated Townshend, the main thing that songs such as ``The Punk and the
Godfather,'' ``The Real Me,'' ``I'm One,'' ``Love, Reign O'er Me,'' ``5:15,''
and ``Drowned'' do best is to chronicle the uncertainty of youth. ``I feel I'm
being followed/My head is empty, and every word I say turns out a sentence,''
Townshend wails, eerily, Cobainlike, on ``Is It in My Head?''
   Then on ``I'm One,'' Townshend sings, ``Every year is the same, and I feel it
again/I'm a loser, no chance to win.'' That lyric, written 25 years ago, would
have been right at home two weeks ago at the H.O.R.D.E. festival, where the
stoned throng sang, long and loud, to Blues Traveler's brief rendition of Beck's
``Loser.'' What's more, the war between the Mods and Rockers that provides
``Quadrophenia'' with its underlying tension is as real a struggle as the one
that rages between, say, the Bloods and Crips today. Which is why it's not too
much of a stretch to call ``Quadrophenia'' a precursor to ``Straight Outta
Compton'' or ``The Chronic.''
   But the most vivid moments are when Townshend juxtaposes his young anti-
hero's night life with his uneasy relationship with the straight 9-5 world.
``Bell Boy'' mocks an ultracool Mod leader-turned-ordinary day laborer (played
by Sting in Franc Roddam's unforgettable 1979 film adaptation), while ``5:15''
is the portrait of a young man homeward bound on the 5:15 train, jacked up on
speed just seconds after punching the time clock.
   Like all great coming-of-age stores, ``Quadrophenia'' pulls no punches. And
the liner notes themselves, penned by Townshend, are alone worth the rediscovery
of this classic. ``I was in a pretty blasphemous mood when I left for
Brighton,'' the despondent Mod writes. ``Brighton cheered me up. But then it let
me down. Me folks had let me down, rock had let me down, women had let me down,
work wasn't worth the effort, school isn't even worth mentioning.
   ``But I never thought I'd feel let down by being a Mod. I pinched this boat,
first time I'd ever been on a boat at sea. I had another few leapers (white
crosses) to keep from coming down, and I felt a bit bravado. So I headed for
this rock out off the coast. It was sticking up very jagged, but very peaceful.
I didn't know then what I was up to, but I know now.''
   Townshend was a guest on the Conan O'Brien show the other night. It was a
connect-the-dots interview, with O'Brien asking dusty questions about (snore)
smashed guitars and The Who's legacy as the loudest band in the world. But one
shred of interest got through when Townshend recounted a story about how Daltrey
had punched him and knocked him out during a 1973 rehearsal for
``Quadrophenia.''
   Moments later, such a display of uncurbed passion seemed altogether
unfathomable, given the sight of Townshend playing ``Barefootin''' with Max
Weinberg and the Hired Guns. He bounced around and grinned uncomfortably, like
some foolish old man seeking his footing or respectability; a godfather trying
to quash the punk in him.
   But thankfully, once upon a time, Pete Townshend had his finger on the pulse
of what was important about being young, and he put it down for posterity in all
its raw glory. In a world that has become increasingly insatiable for stories
that quote-unquote define the youth of today, ``Quadrophenia'' remains the most
accurate and the most timeless.