THE WHO "QUADROPHENIA Love Reign O'er me"

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red777photo
June 24, 2007

The story covers about five days of the life of a certain Jimmy, a participant in the circa 1964 Mod lifestyle in England. "The story is set on a rock!" announced the composer, Pete Townshend, at one live performance, indicating that the opera represents Jimmy's looking back at the events of the previous day or two that led him into the gloomy situation where he finds himself at the end of the story. The narrative is difficult to derive from the lyrics alone, but becomes clearer with the benefit of a short story (also written by Townshend) related from Jimmy's first person perspective, that is included in the album's booklet.

The first half of the opera consists of songs that allude to the frustrations and insecurities that govern Jimmy's life, including brief glimpses of his home life, his job, his psychoanalyst, and his unsuccessful attempts to have a social life. Halfway through the opera he sings "I've Had Enough", finds himself kicked out of his home when his parents find his box of 'blues' (blue pills of some unnamed drug, possibly amphetamine) (this happens in the song Cut My Hair). Distraught and with nothing better to do, Jimmy takes a large dose of blues and takes a train ride to the coast (Embodied in the song 5:15, which is supposed to be the time when the train departs). During his stay near the beach in Brighton, he encounters the former "Ace Face", the leader of a group of Mods, whom he admires greatly. However, "Ace Face" now works as a bell boy at a nearby hotel. Ironically, this is the very same hotel Ace Face had smashed the windows of two days before. This display of masculine bravado had earned him the admiration of many of his fellow Mods two days before during Jimmy's first stay in Brighton. Jimmy is disgusted to learn that the person he had admired as a Mod had "sold out".

At this point, Jimmy is inconsolable. Everybody from his parents to his girlfriend had disappointed him before, but he had never expected the Mod lifestyle to let him down. Drunk and depressed, he steals the now former Ace Face's scooter from the front of the Brighton hotel where he is employeed, takes it out to a barren rock protruding from the sea, and crashes psychologically. With nothing left to live for he finds redemption in the pouring rain, which is expressed in the final song, "Love, Reign o'er Me".

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cookiemonster2076 (15 hours ago) Show Hide

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I would have loved to of had a mod man them were dam good days... too bad they are dead now. Quadrophenia rules.... these vocals are freaking amazing.....classic......it'll never die... gotta love The Who

E15geezer (1 day ago) Show Hide

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off the cloth moth!

schafflos (3 days ago) Show Hide

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love this song. great stuff.

HewzyLFC (1 week ago) Show Hide

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I would have loved to me a mod man them good days are dead Quadrophenia rules

cevizli1 (1 week ago) Show Hide

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whe are mods whe are mods i remember the 80th- bottom down- docs and donkey jacked thank you red 777 photo

sbritt1994 (2 weeks ago) Show Hide

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powerful song

Joseph364015 (2 weeks ago) Show Hide

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i've lived on 3 different time zones. love it here in colorado. at 51 its still good to hear the who again.

johnxlennonsxlegend (2 weeks ago) Show Hide

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one hell of a tune!

matzchase (3 weeks ago) Show Hide

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Yeah The End is quite an achievement in vocal history...........pffff

OriginEye (1 day ago) Show Hide

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hahahaha

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THE WHO "QUADROPHENIA Love Reign O'er me"

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