The Who --- Quadrophenia --- I Am The Sea

Mrs. Cooper (Jimmy's mother): Where you been? Jimmy: Fell asleep on the train. I wound up in bloody Neasden. Mrs. Cooper (Jimmy's mother): Ridin' about on them motorbikes all night, I'm not surprised. It's not normal. Jimmy: Oh, yeah? What's normal, then?

James Micheal Cooper lived in Shepherd's Bush, West London, barely a mile from the Goldhawk Social Club. He had left school and worked as a binman in the West End. Like most of his contemporaries he earned decent money for his age - seventeen - and spent this, according to a strict hierarchy of necessity and choice, on a variety of things. His mother took board from him at two pounds a week. Then the rest of his £15 wages went on clothes, dancing, records, magazines and pills. Not aspirins or Victory Vs but pep pills: leapers, french blues, purple hearts and black bombers. Amphetamine, or Benzedrine, the stuff that dreams are made of. He also paid religiously the regular weekly installments on a hire purchase account. It was for a motor scooter, a Vespa, Gran Sportique. A G.S. The scooter had five spotlights, four mirrors, front and back racks, trimmed with fur, and chrome side panels. It had cost him half-a-crown a square inch to have them done but, looking at the burnished metal and the beauty of it, the expense seemed worthwhile. So did the money he'd lavished on appropriate clothing, like an authentic US Army Parka with fur-trimmed hood. The two went together and made him visible to the street. It was impossible not to notice what they meant and signified. Jimmy Cooper was a mod.

Jimmy returns to London from Brighton, only to discover his mother has found his drugs and throws him out of the house. He walks out of his job after being disciplined for a bad attendance, and after discovering Girlfriend has taken up with his best friend decides to head back to Brighton.

Jimmy's life is stripped away, piece by piece, until he has no anchor, no magnet, and no direction in life.

Without his familiar crutches (hooliganism, drugs, girlfriends, Mod clansmen, job, parents, home and 'scooter'), Jimmy is faced with a terrifying realization that he - alone.........

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Quadrophenia
• The
• Who
• Am
• Sea
• mods
• vespa
• lambretta

[fudoodled]

1 of the bestalbums i ever bought

[tilerman]

i must confess,not listened to this album for something like 15 years. What got me here tonight? A documentary on telly last night on unlikely 70's heartthrobs including David Soul, Demis Roussos and, Leo Sayer, who worked with Roger Daltrey. On this program they played Roger and Leo singing 'giving it all away'. What a track. So here i am, going through the whole Quadraphenia album. What a treat and its turning into a great Saturday evening!

[DarylJCheetham]

@Mazza4Azza yeah, completely unlike The Who :)

[Mazza4Azza]

@DarylJCheetham

Gene Vincent was one of the best of his time and is still looked at in the same way today

[DarylJCheetham]

@Mazza4Azza I'm saying you could cook a fry up on his head on a warm day...

[Mazza4Azza]

@DarylJCheetham

And you're saying Gene Vincent hadn't?

[DarylJCheetham]

@barzini66 cuz he was cleanly shaved and had heard of washing

[barzini66]

Yeah Jimmy..you shoulda joined the Rockers...why did you ever join those Mod wankers??

[Magicman70s80s]

Do U Rember The Cinci Concert,Trampled on People,Bless Them People That Got Hurt.The Next Show Was At New Haven Ct. I Was There...The Show Sold Out In A Few Hours...But I Did'nt Give Up, I Snuck in Through The Roof.The Funny Thing Is,Roger Was Throughing The Mic In The Air With One Hand And Cathing It With The Other,He Backed Into The Speakers And Disconnected Something With Electrical,45 Min.Pause.But All Good Came Out Of It They Played Untill 11:30 That Night...Dec.15TH 1978.Great Show.

[MrOldknight]

salford knights sc,we r the mods we r the mods great times