I was born in '80 in in America. I have no personal connection to the mod culture of 60s London. It doesn't matter. Quadrophenia is my favorite album of all-time. It brings me to tears. Long live The Who.
We didn't need to understand the Mods, as those kids went through the same struggles for acceptance that we all did, no matter the culture. For so many of us, this album was practically "the rock" to which we clung as we fought to just survive the rough seas and heavy rains of those teen years. Oddly, though, I went back to "I'm Free" (on a loop) the night I graduated from high school, and I never took a serious look back at any of it. Only Pete knows what really happened to Jimmy, but hopefully, he made it back to shore, too.
@@QuarrellaDeVil Exactly. Townshend spoke to me with his lyrics growing up (we sound like we're about the same age). Always surprised that the who weren't more popular in the 70s just based on the subject matter of the music. Don't think I would have made it through without Quad.
Quadrophenia is an absolute masterpiece. And not only was punk coming, but a guy in N.J. walks out onstage with a scruffy beard and a beat up telecaster with no light show, just raw rock n roll, and lyrically brilliant.
Yet “my generation” is mentioned in quadrophenia, and “there was an old note pure and easy” is in who’s next. And the motif from Tommy is also in quadrophenia. That’s what I like
Pete's reflections over the years are amazing to know. I always loved the music but had no idea about the depth and complexity of the Who members behind it. One thing that I find incredibly surprising is how thoughtful, articulate, and introspective can be Townshend. For the amount of power and energy their music had, Pete's view had great sensitivity and empathy. It's amazing. And yeah...he's a towering genius.
@Jangle2007: Back in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s (when rock n roll truly was the dominant musical form-sadly unlike today and for yrs. preceding) Pete used to review albums for some of the major Brit music papers (NME, Melody Maker, Record Collector etc). They were....of course....absolutely brilliant, so incredibly articulate and intelligent. Some were occasionally published in “Rolling Stone” but not complete. I wish they had been published somehow but never found the bulk of them. I too worship this man.
the opening section of Q.. is just brilliant: The real me (one of RnR's finest tunes ever) followed by this symphonic instrumental is just pure magic ...
50 years next year, been listening to it for 49 years, not even CLOSE to getting bored, I love love love the playing, lyrics, amazing musical ideas, GENIUS
A masterpiece - Pete one of the all time greatest composers - The Who one of the greatest recording bands - The Who one of the greatest live performing bands - they had it all - i am blessed to have seen them perform both Tommy and Quadrophenia in concert.
Quad is like a perfectly cut diamond. Here you have The Who, STILL the band that gave the world Tommy, the collapse of Life House somehow becomes the sublimely hard rocking Who's Next, then it's a double down on the hard rock with what The Who has always done best, play live - Live at Leeds - and build some separation from Tommy in a marketplace where Prog is still ascending. And then, not just write and produce this deep, personal story of Jimmy the Mod, make a masterpiece of it. It still holds up almost 50 years on very, very well. Great songs, great album.
@@harrambou9468. No. It's a very overrated album. The only great song is baba O'Riley. Behind blue eyes is OK. Won't get fooled again is too long and the rest of the album is just filler. It's just a very normal rock album
You can feel the heart in these comments. It's there for me because this album...well...it feels like a piece of my own identity. The music of Quad leans right up against the pathos of the human condition and manages to temper those sad feelings with an unexpected hopefulness that life can be good. And to me, listening at the age of 15? --- well, the best medicine. Also, The Who, among all the great rock bands, truly created the most unique sound that music lovers who appreciate novelty, can't get from any of the others.
Damn right Pete, such amazing music mate. Whenever I’m near the sea, that song from the album, plays in my head and fills me with such powerful, intense emotions🙌👌👌
great talent and great album. He wrote the entire piece by himself without the others in the band cranked up on speed. Sometimes, good drugs help create really good music. The kind of music written in the 70s, those days and that talent, are gone. So grateful for the 1970s. Period.
I knew Pete T for a time about 25 years ago, I so wanted to tell him how influential Quadrophenia was for me when I was growing up, I was in complete awe of him and could never get the courage to tell him, just how muched I loved The Who and the album Quadrophenia, I was in my late teens at that time and all these years later still feel exactly the same, although I haven't seen him in years
The Mods vs The Rockers. The new clashing with tradition. The past unwilling to yield to the future. And the Who in the middle reporting it all and recording it all and living it all. The Who were the embodiment of Blues and R&B but also punk and new wave. Hell..the Who were the new wave of their day.
I definitely think this was the Who’s peak, but I also think many great bands were at their best in 1973: Dark Side of the Moon, Houses of the Holy, Topographic Oceans (Yes), etc. A great year where afterwards things began to tail off for a great period of music.
Thank you, 1000 times thank you, Mr. Townsend, for sharing your quite considerable musical talent and full-on genius, with Planet Earth 🌏 . From the U.S.
Quadrophenia was one of the first albums I ever bought, as a kid and I purchased it on a whim. I knew nothing about it but the cover art made me curious. Still my favorite album !
Isn’t it interesting how predictably Pete omitted that curious period between ‘76 and ‘81? You know, when all that he insisted on writing were polkas (e.g. The Kielbasi & Cabbage Polka, The Squeeze Box Polka, Accordions Away, etc). Though that period opened up a massive new audience in Eastern Europe, it provincial, narrow-minded base in Britannia and US&A didn’t like it at all. They were further infuriated by Pete adopting the stage name Pete Townsky. The rest of the band following suit just added fuel to the philistines’ fire. So too did performing shows in provincial cities, dressed in embroidered shirts and 3/4-length pants, and singing their hits in Hungarian, Slovenian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Lithuanian. Luminaries in the arts loved that phase, but smashing up so many priceless accordions, and giving away so many millions of pounds of kielbasi and Czech beer during that experimental period, eventually caught up to them. The rest of those exploits, including jaunts and Maypole danceswith jaw-droppingly beautiful Eastern European babes just could not be sustained. Thus, that epoch became forgotten Who history.
Quintessential composer of rock as illustrious and a visionary as Richard Wagner Raid of the Valkyries, Franz Listz La Campanella, and Richard Strauss your rock opera a magnus opus. Garner your inspiration through dream interpretation, life experiences, tonal poems reminiscent of Richard Strauss. Cheers Sir Peter I also listen to jazz pianist and vocalist Diane Schiff the best of album whom I had the pleasure of seeing at the Blue Note.
Pete Townshend, my Punk Sage, created a mirror image of myself in this great album. That's what he intended to cover in the album, but I'm not completely sure he intended his audience to take it personally, as I did. I like to think Pete wrote our life sketch. I will consider it to be my album, though I had nothing to do with its production. Art is allowed to do that, and the artist I suppose is completely fine with us adopting his work as our own.
Greatest album. It is an amazing, that one man can create a livelihood and business where people have made tremendous livings off Petes creativity and the world of followers who have been drawn to his music. He is like the big three auto industry who have made a lot of people money on the back of this one God given soul. Thanks for your contribution to music, fundraisers, and especially, teen cancer. God Bless Pete
I don't understand the points made about Quadrophenia. To me, this album is *the album about being a teenager in most parts of the world*. It affected me to a huge degree. I feel it affected most teenagers, then and now, to an incredible degree. When I first heard it, I had no idea what a mod was. It did, however identify with what it was like to be a teenager, both male and female, more than any piece of art I had ever encountered. I know it was hard for you to write it and the band was having problems. Thanks for writing it anyway, Mr. Townshend. It may not have saved my life at the time, but it sure did help. I really do not understand why internet influencers will not talk about Quadrophenia, even though hundreds if not thousands people have requested them to do it. Thanks again.
mottthehoople684 But that's because, like everyone else's, Pete's perspective on the past changes. It's nothing new. He's as human as are the rest of us.
No. Director chose many original cuts, and had to tinker with some new additions to move the story on filmaticaly. This is true album rock so I suggest listening to original vinyl start to end ( may hear digital, but know crucial bits are missing or altered to less than)
Greasy, Lispy, Catholic, paella munchers, loved a fascist fella named Franco.. like to see a ropey tart stamp on the floor and call it dancing cos there's an old fella strumming his banjo ;) ...etc' easily beaten by the English in the days of Empire and by invading hooligans in more recent years etc 'The Spanish' a brief history. Q:: Difference between an African elephant and a Spanish grandmother.?? A:: 20lb and a black dress
![Rare 1979 interview with Quadrophenia cast [ITV 'Alright Now'] Phil Daniels, Sting, Leslie Ash](/img/n.gif)
I was born in '80 in in America. I have no personal connection to the mod culture of 60s London. It doesn't matter. Quadrophenia is my favorite album of all-time. It brings me to tears. Long live The Who.
It is the Who's best album. Better than Who's next. Better than Tommy.
We didn't need to understand the Mods, as those kids went through the same struggles for acceptance that we all did, no matter the culture. For so many of us, this album was practically "the rock" to which we clung as we fought to just survive the rough seas and heavy rains of those teen years. Oddly, though, I went back to "I'm Free" (on a loop) the night I graduated from high school, and I never took a serious look back at any of it. Only Pete knows what really happened to Jimmy, but hopefully, he made it back to shore, too.
@@QuarrellaDeVil Exactly. Townshend spoke to me with his lyrics growing up (we sound like we're about the same age). Always surprised that the who weren't more popular in the 70s just based on the subject matter of the music. Don't think I would have made it through without Quad.
Quadrophenia is an INCREDIBLE album. Definitely The Who's best.
agreed
And a even better film.
One of the best double rock albums of the 70's. The others being Physical Graffiti and Exile On Main Street.
Hard to top an album like Tommy… Yet they did it
The album is incredible. The film is shit 😂
Quadrophenia has been so significant in my live. Love you Pete.
A genius not only in writing music and melody but one of the greatest lyricist there is. Always, great lyrics.
Quadrophenia is an absolute masterpiece.
And not only was punk coming, but a guy in N.J. walks out onstage with a scruffy beard and a beat up telecaster with no light show, just raw rock n roll, and lyrically brilliant.
Of all the rock legends still alive - when Pete finally goes I will be absolutely devastated. A world without Pete. I can't fathom it.
Is the trully ROCK LEGEND .. no rolling stones and beatles.. THE WHO
He will NEVER be replaced or replicated. I hope all is well with him today!
Wow! Your comment took me back!
I love Pete
Well get on with it mate,we all Croke
the fascinating ting about the Who is that every album is completely different then the one that preceded it
I tink you are right
@@laurentdubois2268 I was tinking, and I also tink you're right.
Yet “my generation” is mentioned in quadrophenia, and “there was an old note pure and easy” is in who’s next. And the motif from Tommy is also in quadrophenia. That’s what I like
You should be proud pete,quadrophenia is a masterpiece
The GOAT.
Pete's reflections over the years are amazing to know. I always loved the music but had no idea about the depth and complexity of the Who members behind it. One thing that I find incredibly surprising is how thoughtful, articulate, and introspective can be Townshend. For the amount of power and energy their music had, Pete's view had great sensitivity and empathy. It's amazing.
And yeah...he's a towering genius.
@Jangle2007: Back in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s (when rock n roll truly was the dominant musical form-sadly unlike today and for yrs. preceding) Pete used to review albums for some of the major Brit music papers (NME, Melody Maker, Record Collector etc). They were....of course....absolutely brilliant, so incredibly articulate and intelligent. Some were occasionally published in “Rolling Stone” but not complete. I wish they had been published somehow but never found the bulk of them. I too worship this man.
Can't get enough of Pete Townsend explaining things............
the opening section of Q.. is just brilliant: The real me (one of RnR's finest tunes ever) followed by this symphonic instrumental is just pure magic ...
The actual song Quadrophenia alone is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever, at least in rock history.
Desert island record. My favourite for 40+ years. Thanks Pete.
50 years next year, been listening to it for 49 years, not even CLOSE to getting bored, I love love love the playing, lyrics, amazing musical ideas, GENIUS
A masterpiece - Pete one of the all time greatest composers - The Who one of the greatest recording bands - The Who one of the greatest live performing bands - they had it all - i am blessed to have seen them perform both Tommy and Quadrophenia in concert.
Quad is like a perfectly cut diamond. Here you have The Who, STILL the band that gave the world Tommy, the collapse of Life House somehow becomes the sublimely hard rocking Who's Next, then it's a double down on the hard rock with what The Who has always done best, play live - Live at Leeds - and build some separation from Tommy in a marketplace where Prog is still ascending. And then, not just write and produce this deep, personal story of Jimmy the Mod, make a masterpiece of it. It still holds up almost 50 years on very, very well. Great songs, great album.
I love this man. Fantastic musician/showman/nose/artist/legend
Quadrophenia - a magnum opus.
This is a man with not one, not two, but three absolute masterpieces to his credit. Four if you include Empty Glass, which I do. Gah! Utter genius.
My choices would be Quadrophenia, Tommy and sell out
António Zúquete not Who’s Next? Haha
@@harrambou9468. No. It's a very overrated album. The only great song is baba O'Riley. Behind blue eyes is OK. Won't get fooled again is too long and the rest of the album is just filler. It's just a very normal rock album
The who by numbers is my favourite
Quad, Tommy, American compilation Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy, and to an extent Next and Are You are all equal masterworks
Quadrophenia - Awesome!
You can feel the heart in these comments. It's there for me because this album...well...it feels like a piece of my own identity. The music of Quad leans right up against the pathos of the human condition and manages to temper those sad feelings with an unexpected hopefulness that life can be good. And to me, listening at the age of 15? --- well, the best medicine. Also, The Who, among all the great rock bands, truly created the most unique sound that music lovers who appreciate novelty, can't get from any of the others.
Don't forget the movie as well
My favorite all time "album" mod 69. Thank you Pete!
Who's Next, Quadrophenia and Live at Leeds. The Holy Trinity of rock n roll.
Damn right Pete, such amazing music mate. Whenever I’m near the sea, that song from the album, plays in my head and fills me with such powerful, intense emotions🙌👌👌
Me too- the splash of Moon’s cymbals as well
Best album ever made. Happy birthday Pete
He should be proud of it. I am proud of him for writing it and extremely grateful.
great talent and great album. He wrote the entire piece by himself without the others in the band cranked up on speed. Sometimes, good drugs help create really good music. The kind of music written in the 70s, those days and that talent, are gone. So grateful for the 1970s. Period.
He really is a genius.
Quad, one of top 10 albums in history
I think so
Many say Whos Next is the best, but for me Quadrophenia was the best Who album.
I knew Pete T for a time about 25 years ago, I so wanted to tell him how influential Quadrophenia was for me when I was growing up,
I was in complete awe of him and could never get the courage to tell him, just how muched I loved The Who and the album Quadrophenia, I was in my late teens at that time and all these years later still feel exactly the same, although I haven't seen him in years
The Mods vs The Rockers. The new clashing with tradition. The past unwilling to yield to the future. And the Who in the middle reporting it all and recording it all and living it all. The Who were the embodiment of Blues and R&B but also punk and new wave. Hell..the Who were the new wave of their day.
Imagine if they'd reconnected with the mod aesthetic as well
They piece meal it. You can get a good lapel pin…
Great man, Great album
I try to collect any live performances of Quadrophenia I can get my hands on. Just the greatest music in the world.
I definitely think this was the Who’s peak, but I also think many great bands were at their best in 1973: Dark Side of the Moon, Houses of the Holy, Topographic Oceans (Yes), etc. A great year where afterwards things began to tail off for a great period of music.
I actually think Zep peaked two years later with Physical Graffiti.
Peter = genius. The soul of Rock n Roll...
Brilliant man.
Can't overstate how great of an album Quadrophenia is.
I never heard Quadrophenia until i saw them live about 8 years ago,first time i heard it and it was brilliant.
great album
I like that a lot, how jimmy is not physically all the band members but sees himself in all of them. More grounded and poetic
Could listen to Pete talk all day.
He should be proud. Brilliant album. Top five for me and I’m a huge Beatles fan.
Watch as Pete explains how The Who had to be both progressive rock and also be part of the Punk Rock movement.
Thank you, 1000 times thank you, Mr. Townsend, for sharing your quite considerable musical talent and full-on genius, with Planet Earth 🌏 .
From the U.S.
Quadrophenia was ahead of its time! It will be performed 200 years from now. It was The Who At they're "Zenith!"
Herculean task, but succeeded admirably
Quadrophenia was one of the first albums I ever bought, as a kid and I purchased it on a whim. I knew nothing about it but the cover art made me curious. Still my favorite album !
Isn’t it interesting how predictably Pete omitted that curious period between ‘76 and ‘81? You know, when all that he insisted on writing were polkas (e.g. The Kielbasi & Cabbage Polka, The Squeeze Box Polka, Accordions Away, etc).
Though that period opened up a massive new audience in Eastern Europe, it provincial, narrow-minded base in Britannia and US&A didn’t like it at all. They were further infuriated by Pete adopting the stage name Pete Townsky. The rest of the band following suit just added fuel to the philistines’ fire. So too did performing shows in provincial cities, dressed in embroidered shirts and 3/4-length pants, and singing their hits in Hungarian, Slovenian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Lithuanian.
Luminaries in the arts loved that phase, but smashing up so many priceless accordions, and giving away so many millions of pounds of kielbasi and Czech beer during that experimental period, eventually caught up to them.
The rest of those exploits, including jaunts and Maypole danceswith jaw-droppingly beautiful Eastern European babes just could not be sustained. Thus, that epoch became forgotten Who history.
Quintessential composer of rock as illustrious and a visionary as Richard Wagner Raid of the Valkyries, Franz Listz La Campanella, and Richard Strauss your rock opera a magnus opus. Garner your inspiration through dream interpretation, life experiences, tonal poems reminiscent of Richard Strauss. Cheers Sir Peter I also listen to jazz pianist and vocalist Diane Schiff the best of album whom I had the pleasure of seeing at the Blue Note.
Pete Townshend, my Punk Sage, created a mirror image of myself in this great album. That's what he intended to cover in the album, but I'm not completely sure he intended his audience to take it personally, as I did. I like to think Pete wrote our life sketch. I will consider it to be my album, though I had nothing to do with its production. Art is allowed to do that, and the artist I suppose is completely fine with us adopting his work as our own.
Greatest album. It is an amazing, that one man can create a livelihood and business where people have made tremendous livings off Petes creativity and the world of followers who have been drawn to his music. He is like the big three auto industry who have made a lot of people money on the back of this one God given soul. Thanks for your contribution to music, fundraisers, and especially, teen cancer. God Bless Pete
Quadrophenia is number 1, but a very close second is Empty Glass & White City.
Perfect - mod, had a bad day, ends up on a rock. The end.
I don't understand the points made about Quadrophenia. To me, this album is *the album about being a teenager in most parts of the world*. It affected me to a huge degree. I feel it affected most teenagers, then and now, to an incredible degree. When I first heard it, I had no idea what a mod was. It did, however identify with what it was like to be a teenager, both male and female, more than any piece of art I had ever encountered. I know it was hard for you to write it and the band was having problems. Thanks for writing it anyway, Mr. Townshend. It may not have saved my life at the time, but it sure did help. I really do not understand why internet influencers will not talk about Quadrophenia, even though hundreds if not thousands people have requested them to do it. Thanks again.
Pete a été est et restera le meilleur long live PETE TOWNSHEND ( Guy platteau Marseille France)
That is my favorite album
Quadrophenia is in the top ten best albums ever,every track is great
Love him.x
modsheff1 nice profile pic b
Ironically. The Jam who were initually part of the firsr wave of punk. Eventually crossed over to Mod.
The emergence of Punk affected Pete differently than the rest of the world.
One thing about Pete...his opinions on his work changes every decade
mottthehoople684 But that's because, like everyone else's, Pete's perspective on the past changes. It's nothing new. He's as human as are the rest of us.
Idc I could listen to Pete all day...especially when he gets “too honest”
Happy birthday, Pete!
Brilliant
He should be proud of quadrophenia
"Oh, lonnnnnng, lonnnnnng time."
Pete is the godfather of punk rock.
What an interesting bloke.
Quadrophenia is a masterpiece.
a quick one was the best who album
Interesting choice - I actually think that’s their worst but only because it is fragmented compared to the later works
Best Who album.
We got to have our cake and it it two. Prog + Roots
Gabriel se promener en pot de fleurs ha ha ha 😂 sacré PETE TOWNSHEND BOSS ( Guy platteau Marseille France)
I am ashamed to say I have never heard the Album! Are all the tracks featured in the movie?
@West Bay K. I really need to check it out for sure.
@@ericgeorge5483 Really... please do. 🙏
@@sirandrelefaedelinoge I will, thanks.
No. Director chose many original cuts, and had to tinker with some new additions to move the story on filmaticaly. This is true album rock so I suggest listening to original vinyl start to end ( may hear digital, but know crucial bits are missing or altered to less than)
I JUST KNOW PETE WOULD LIKE SAVAGES! SOMEONE SHOULD TELL HIM, IF HE DOESN'T ALREADY KNOW... EH?
I WOULD IF I HAD HIS EMAIL, BUT I DO NOW, THANK YOU!
SPANISH PLEASE
Greasy, Lispy, Catholic, paella munchers, loved a fascist fella named Franco.. like to see a ropey tart stamp on the floor and call it dancing cos there's an old fella strumming his banjo ;)
...etc' easily beaten by the English in the days of Empire and by
invading hooligans in more recent years etc
'The Spanish' a brief history.
Q:: Difference between an African elephant and a Spanish grandmother.??
A:: 20lb and a black dress