A Quadrophenic Essay (was "Quadrophenia and pete)

[Alan McKendree <amck@thenetdr.com>]

>Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2002 20:02:00 -0700
>From: AnEnglishBoy <campbell@fix.net>

I cannot add to AEB's eloquent ode to Quadrophenia, but I'll append an
anecdote just because I want to...hope you enjoy it...

It's fall 1973, and a college buddy and I are flipping through the
offerings at a local record store.  He says, "Hey, here's the new one by
The Who".  (I believe that at that point we had already bought our tickets
to the Dallas show.)  He pulled out a dark, foreboding double album,
nothing like the intriguing mysticism of the colorful Tommy cover, more
like I imagined a Black Sabbath album to be...gray, black, chrome.  Knowing
nothing of Mods or scooters at the time, I could only wonder,  had the Who
become a biker band?  At the time I wouldn't even have known that it was a
new album as opposed to an earlier album I hadn't discovered yet. He bought
it but I declined, a bit skeptical that maybe this upcoming tour was going
to be to support this unknown, this thing, that wasn't at all like my
beloved Tommy.

The next day I went over to his room and he had been listening to it.  He
put the needle on Side 1 for me, from the top, and let it play through the
side.  I still remember him saying,  "Have you heard a bad cut yet?"  I
freely admitted that I hadn't.  When Side 4 was over, I knew I had a lot to
learn about it still, but I went out and bought my own copy, and took
another step on the journey to being one of the 75% who think it's The
Who's top album.

Cheers,

Alan

"Never never hesitate, communicate, communicate..." --Pete Townshend