Tommy made The Who international stars. Critics drooled over it, a full-blown rock opera about a deaf, dumb, and blind boy, performed by a four piece band across four sides of vinyl. Pete Townshend was hailed as a genius. Its plot might have some holes and too many songs are there purely to move the story on but there is much to be thrilled and excited by. I’m Free, Pinball Wizard, Sensation, Christmas, We’re Not Gonna Take It, and the ten-minute instrumental Underture are all excellent, full of solid pop melodies, delivered with power and grace.
Most bands only manage to release one double studio album, if any. A few years later, The Who released a second ambitious rock opera. This time, the story reflects the band’s own struggle to come of age in the sixties, featuring a confused four-way split personality, one for each band member. Hence the title Quadrophrenia. The songs are less tuneful than on Tommy but are much more direct and rock harder. The Real Me, 5:15, The Punk Meets The Godfather, I’m One, Bell Boy and Love, Reign O’er Me are all tours de force. It is the album on which the rock synthesiser comes of age.
In between these two magnum opi, The Who released a definitive live album and their finest studio album of all, Who’s Next. Ironically, that was originally intended to be another double rock opera as well, called Lighthouse. I think we can all agree that three doubles by one act would have been too much (I’m looking at you, Prince).
My question is; you are only allowed one double, which do you choose? Tommy or Quadrophrenia?
I never liked Tommy, though it made Roger Daltrey, the singer. Quadrophenia much the better – both film, music and the fantastic gatefold album.
Well, FWIIW, I am not bothered if I never see another minute of Tommy, whereas I love Quadrophenia, so its out of my brains on the 5:15 for me.
Christ, this is really difficult. Quad is good all the way through but has nothing as good as Overture, Amazing Journey or P*nb*ll W*z*rd. Also Quad works as a concept better even though he clearly didn’t know how to end it. So I suppose it’s Quad, even though there’s a rawness about Tommy’s sound which I really like.
Tow the bladdy baggage owt….
Quadrophenia for me too. The songs, the production, the musicianship, the lack of novelty/Entwistle numbers, the proper mic’ing of Keith’s drums, the evenness of song quality and so on.
Quad for me
It’s more of a Who album.
Tommy is good, but the story is somewhat fanciful and some of the songs seem “engineered” to drive the story along.
D
The Quadrophenia story is more rooted in reality and just seems to flow better.
I may get shot down here, but it is all killer and no filler.
Plus it spawned a pretty decent film adaptation, jnlike Tommy which was a bit of a mess.
Yep, Quadrophenia – Tommy has some great moments for sure, but so does Quadrophenia, and taken as a whole piece it’s the superior work.
What Bargy said.
Neither – I’ll go for the 2LP that could have been, in between: Who’s Next plus all those great songs that sneaked out on singles around the time (Let’s See Action, Don’t Even Know Myself, Join Together, Relay) plus the stuff that trickled out on subsequent comps (Mary, Naked Eye, Pure & Easy…). A killer double. Quad is stodge, Tommy is twaddle (bar two or three moments each)…
And here’s some rare TV of ‘I Don’t Even Know Myself’, the one that got away:
In that suit, I’d suggest Pete Townshend set out to demonstrate to the youth of the nation the damage that can ensue from excessive consumption of LSD.
Thanks for the excellent clip Colin. Am I right in thinking that clip doesn’t appear in The Kids Are Alright? Which then begs the question: Why not?
I believe it was ‘lost’ for decades. And then someone – a chap who calls himself Bomber Hurley – found the crackly off-air version in the clip.
Here’s my Lighthouse:
Baba O’Riley
Let’s See Action
Bargain
Relay
Love Ain’t For Keeping
Join Together
My Wife
Too Much Of Anything
The Song Is Over
Pure And Easy
Getting In Tune
Naked Eye
Going Mobile
I Don’t Even Know Myself
Behind Blue Eyes
Water
Won’t Get Fooled Again
It’s Lifehouse, no?
I like some of those additional songs, but then I like Who’s Next as it is. As you say, three doubles would have been pushing it.
And if I had to choose, I would go for Quadrophenia, even though that would rob us of the transcendent performance of Tommy’s finale at Woodstock.
Damn spellchecker!
Water is the worst song they ever recorded, but probably would fit on “Lighthouse” but not Lifehouse …
The saying no to somebody’s daughter is the bit that I struggle with. Got to be one of the most sexist/patriarchal/unfortunately phrased rhymes in rock music.
Unforgivable if you think of the other available rhymes:
Kinda sorta
Give no quarter
Why I oughta
Oh! Mr Porter
Well yes, so how do we feel about “who is she, I’ll rape it” ?
“Gonna rape you” perhaps not the first thing that comes to mind when debunking a icon.
That’s Townshend voicing Jimmy’s character, not a declaration of his own intent.
Jimmy is hardly a cuddly, non-threatening Guardian reader, is he?
That’s the answer I would give too. OK, just checking it’s still fine to like it
My quote is from Tommy – We’re Not Gonna Take It
Aha! I thought you were quoting Doctor Jimmy.
Funny enough I listened to The Tommy songs from ‘Live at Leeds’ deluxe edition this morning in the shower! Moon’s live drumming really is something!
That’s one hell of a loooong shower!
A strange one for me – prefer Tommy as an album but Quadrophrenia as a film. However agree with @ColinH that the stuff that came out on singles at the time was better.
Pedantry alert – It was going to be Lifehouse, not Lighthouse.
Tommy for me, although I do really like Quadrophenia too. I just prefer the songs. The best version is the Live At Leeds one – that will convince anyone – although I have a sneaky liking for the orchestral Tommy as well.
Shaaaaat aaaap! It’s bleedin’ opera innit!
Tommy. Quad gets a bit repetitive. The movie Tommy is absolute dreck though.
I would like to hear the expanded 4 cd version of (Mama’s Got a) Squeezebox and that one with all the long mouth organs.
I have long felt that Tommy should have been a single album. Remove the dross and there’s a decent album there.
Quadrophenia does it for me. I think Love Reign O’er Me is one of Townshend’s finest songs and one of Daltrey’s finest performances.
With respect to Lifehouse can I direct you to the Albums That Never Were blog where the the excellent and obsessive soniclovenoize recreates albums like Lifehouse
Thanks Carl. That’s a very interesting blog!
Quaddie for me, though the excerpts from Tommy at Woodstock , Leeds et al are spine tingling.
Didn’t take long for me to go for Quadrophenia. It’s more consistent; Tommy’s highlights are wonderful but there’s too much that’s not so great. It helps that Quadrophenia’s songs were actually written for it (you can tell that some of the songs on Tommy were shoehorned in). Lastly, it includes Entwistle’s finest moment, The Real Me.
I suspect a newcomer, knowing how they were received at the time, would find Tommy slightly underwhelming and Quadrophenia better than expected.
(More pedantry – it’s Quadrophenia, not Quadrophrenia)
I’m going to crawl into a dark corner and have a word with myself and my spell checker. No! You don’t know what I mean!!
I love you Tigger. That is all.
I love you too. 😍
Tommy constituted everything that was conservative about the ’60’s without adding anything new, other than the ‘rock opera’ dressing up.
Quadrophonia on the other hand embraced the angry, inventive sounds of the early ’70’s and the album and the group was much the better for it.
Quadrophenia for me. A far better bang-for-buck ratio and the LP packaging was absolutely superb.
I never did much go for Tommy. Too much filler and a rubbish concept too.
I’d go for Quadrophenia
I like Tommy but agree that there are a few songs that just are there to push the narrative on
Quad stands up much better as an album, although I find I need to be in the right mood to listen to it. If I am then it’s brilliant, if not then after a while it gets a bit wearing.
Its pretty much Who turned up to 11 either musically, lyrically or both all the way through – there’s not much light and shade.