Quadrophenia

I think that before I go any further I should give you my history with Quadrophenia. Three days after my 16^th birthday I saw The Who for the first time, it was amazing, and I remember my brother talking about how much he wanted to hear Sea and Sand, which they did play, but not really knowing the song myself. At this point in time I loved The Who but had never really heard Quadrophenia, I know crazy, right! A few months later my brother told me that I needed to listen to Quadrophenia and then proceeded to lend me his copy. I listened to those two discs pretty much constantly for…I don’t even remember how long. I do remember that I was reading The Return of the King for the first time and now the two are strangely linked in my mind. I listened to Quadrophenia so much because it is amazing, but I don’t think that at the time I really understood what the album would mean to me.

When I was grade 12 I was having a difficult time, all I wanted was to be done with high school and everything that went along with it. One day I went into my room after school and put on Quadrophenia, I turned it up real loud and laid down my floor. For some reason this seemed to help, all the aggression and anger that is held in the album was cathartic, and the one song that I played over and over again was the title track. There are no lyrics on Quadrophenia, the song, but somehow whenever I listen to the song it just feels like me. There is not a proper way to describe the feeling that I get when I listen to Quadrophenia, but there is just something about it that speaks to me. Whenever I get feeling sad, mad, annoyed, or crazy I will crank this song and the world will start to feel right again.

Musically Quadrophenia is amazing, it explores all four of themes that will be played throughout the rest of the album and weaves them together in a way that most composers only wish they could write. It sets up so much without revealing too much, and it makes you excited for what is to come. Every time that I hear the guitar it kills me, I close my eyes and just absorb the music. For a song that doesn’t have lyrics or vocals it expresses so much emotion, more then you could ever imagine to be possible.

The other night I had Quadrophenia, the song, cranked and I thought to myself I can’t believe that I am going to get to hear this song live! And it made me so excited for the concert. I think that my life will be complete after hearing this song live…I might be exaggerating a little bit, but it really will be such an amazing experience for me.  I can’t wait!!