I'm One

Hello Folks! It’s John here (Carolyn’s brother). I love what Carolyn is doing going song by song through one of the greatest albums of all time and I had to get in on the action. I asked if I could do my favourite song on the album, I’m One, and she said yes.

This is the song I most identify with on the record. As I’ve grown older, that hasn’t changed even if I have. The song starts out with a quiet, finger picked guitar and Pete starts to sing. I always enjoy when Pete takes lead vocals on a song. It has to be a daunting task having Roger Daltry, one of the best rock singers, in your band. It probably has something to do with the narrative of the story, but I like to think Pete loved the song and simply wanted to sing it himself. The full band kicks in and it’s Who power! It quiets down again before one final bash to the finish. I love the dynamic changes and it shows how versatile this band can be, even in a single song.

This song really captures what it feels like to be a young man and wanting to fit in. A lot of Quadrophenia is about that very thing. This is the one song you could pluck out of the story and it have it stand alone without needing the rest of the narrative. Pete said when he wrote Tommy that he didn’t want it to be simply a song cycle that was driven by plot but he wanted every song to be great. While Quadrophenia is a bit more plot oriented, he does it again.

 When I first got into the album, and this song, I was in high school probably around the same age as the character in the song. I learned how to play it and still play it to this day. The final verse, I feel, could be written for me: “I’ve got a Gibson without a case, but I can’t get that even tanned look on my face. Ill fitting clothes and I blend in a crowd, fingers so clumsy, voice so loud.” I love that verse so much. I wish I would have written it.

I could go on for days about how great this song is, but I’m sure there is a limit I can write.

Carolyn has done a great job describing what the themes of the album are and how it’s such a great teenage angst album. For me, this was my song. Less dramatic than some other ones, but one I could and still do totally relate to.

Enjoy I’m One.

The Punk and the Godfather

The Punk and the Godfather is an interesting song because it is actually a conversation between two people. What happens is that Jimmy goes to see The Who play and he waits for them outside because he use to know one of them. At first the band member doesn’t recognize him so Jimmy shouts at him which is when the exchange happens. Jimmy goes on about how The Who would be nothing without kids like him, that they are the reason for their fame, and the Godfather responds by saying that the punk shouldn’t really be feeling to good about himself at the moment because he doesn’t have that much to be proud of.

 

The next thing that I want to talk about is who I think the Godfather actually is. It has to be member of The Who, but I’ve never read anything that says which member it is. I think that it is Pete Townshend. During the 60’s people thought of The Who as the premier Mod band, and Pete Townshend wrote all these great Mod songs, which would make him the Godfather of the Mods. I think that situations like this probably happened all the time, where some kid would yell at them after concerts, and sometimes people just snap. The last verse is sung by Pete Townshend and I think that it is the Godfathers thoughts, that he saw something in Jimmy that reminded him of himself and he has this thought.

I love how, musically, The Punk and the Godfather has a real argument vibe to it. Roger Daltrey sings all but the last verse and it still sounds like two different people, there are two distinctive voices, one young and angry, and one annoyed and mocking. I also love how The Who was never afraid to mix vocals in a song. Roger was the singer, but sometimes a different quality was needed to drive a point or idea home. In this song you need Roger’s harsh tough guy tone for the argument and Pete’s smoother style for the introspective section. It’s an interesting mix and the voices work really well with each other.

 

Cut My Hair

At the heart of Quadrophenia is Mod culture. Mods were, mostly teens, who dressed in that latest fashions, had the best haircuts, and drove scooters. Jimmy was a Mod, or at least he wanted to be a Mod. He found it very difficult to afford all the things that came along with being a part of this culture and therefore he found it hard to fit in. That is what Cut My Hair is all about. No matter how hard Jimmy tried, he never felt like he really fit in with the Mods, and that no one even seemed to notice that he was there. I think that the sentiment that is expressed in this song is a universal one, no one fits in one hundred percent of the time.

Cut My Hair, to me, is a very melancholy song. I use to relate very closely to this song because I use to care very deeply about what other people thought of me. When it comes down to it most people just want other people to like them. I use to want people to like me a lot…now I don’t care so much. I think that it is more important to do the things that you like, and wear the things that you like. I actually have a recent example, since it has been a bit colder out I have been wearing a toque outside and I like to listen to music. So, what do I do? I put my headphone over the toque. Yes, it looks weird, but I don’t care. People give me strange looks and I just give them a look back that says what, my head is cold. At some point I stopped caring and starting doing whatever I wanted, because I’d rather be happy then have a cold head.

 

Musically, or story-wise, Cut My Hair sets up some information that comes in handy later on in the story. Jimmy holds Mods in high regard, he thinks of them as better than him, and he thinks that being a Mod is what it is all about. As the song ends a news report plays talking about a riot that happened between the Mods and the Rockers in Brighton over the past weekend were they stormed and damaged the Grand Hotel. At first this information seems like just an interesting way to end a song, but if you read the liner notes you learn that Jimmy was there. The incident is revisited later on in the story.

 

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!!

 

The Real Me

At the end of I Am The Sea you hear Rodger’s voice echo the words “Can you see the real me, can you?” and then BAM the music hits you in the face. The Real Me is a song that makes you take notice; after the quiet sea sounds that dominates the opening this is quite a contrast. There is urgency and fear that makes the listener sit up and really listen to what is being said. When it comes down to it The Real Me is the ultimate angst anthem. When you are teenager this song speaks to you.

 

In The Real Me the main character, whose name is Jimmy, is trying to figure out who he really is. He goes to a shrink, his mother, and a priest and asks if they can see the real him.  I’m sure that a lot of people go through this sort of episode during their life, where they feel like they act differently with different people and that none of those facades are really them. Jimmy is trying to find his real self, but each of those people sees him differently. If you read the liner notes you will discover that Jimmy believes that he has a mental illness similar to schizophrenia called quadrophenia, which means that he has four different personalities. Throughout the album the listener can hear the four personalities come through in the themes.

My favourite part of The Real Me is the bass line. In pretty much every song ever written you get just a standard bass line that carries the song along but doesn’t really add much depth to the music, this, however, is never the case with a John Entwhistle bass line. In this song the bass line acts a sort of counter melody; it is very pronounced and has more prominence then the guitar. I often find myself singing along with the bass when listening to The Real Me and I can’t say that I actually do that with many other songs. This bass line is the perfect demonstration of one really awesome thing about The Who, they weren’t afraid to think outside the box. If they wanted to do it, and they thought it sounded good, they did it. AND the really cool thing is that they had the talent to back these ideas up. The other example of this is the horns in The Real Me which were also played by John Entwhistle. The talent was there and they incorporated the talent into the songs which makes them so much more epic!

The Real Me is such a great way to start off this album; it grabs your attention and makes you interested. The music is amazing and the lyrics are one hundred percent relatable. It will always be one of my favourite songs.

 

I Am The Sea

On November 23^rd I get the privilege to see The Who for the fourth time, yes I said fourth time, and at this concert my favourite band is going to play my favourite album from start to finish. Quadrophenia is so honestly so much more to me than just a record, it is what got me through grade 12 and University, it my number one desert island disc and it is such a part of who I am. This is why I have decided to take the days leading up to the concert and write about each song on the album. This might be a crazy undertaking, but I feel like it is going to get me even more excited about the show, although right now I’m not sure how that could be possible.

The first song on Quadrophenia isn’t actually a song but more of an introduction. The sounds of the sea are what fill the speakers with Roger Daltrey’s voice echoing the themes that are played throughout the album. I love this opening because it instills this feeling that there is more to this album than just songs; that there is a story. This is how the tone of the album is set; it introduces the themes in a way that makes you think. Once you listen to the album you are able to figure out what this opening really is and what is really means. It’s like in a movie when at the beginning they show a scene that is the ending to show that the movie is happening in flashback. That is what Quadrophenia is, it is a flashback, and the main character is remembering the events that have led him to this point.

So, here we go. I have undertaken a crazy project and I hope that you enjoy reading about it. If you haven’t heard Quadrophenia yet…what are waiting for? Kidding, I hope that this introduces to a great album and that you enjoy it!

 

This clip I believe is from the movie, the words they have a bottom of screen are from the liner notes.

 

For Alan Arkin and Madeline Kahn

Last Tuesday The Tragically Hip released their new album Now For Plan A, last weekend, being Thanksgiving, my family, being major Hip fans, discussed the album and quoted lyrics to each other all weekend. OK, I know that at this moment you are probably thinking that you can’t believe that I going to talk about the Hip again, but just trust me.

During one of our first family Hip discussions of the weekend my Dad mentioned that he thought that something had happened to the lead singer, and lyricist, Gord Downie like divorce and the rest of thought that he was wrong. Later, I can’t remember if it was that same day, we watched an interview where Gord Downie talked about how, during writing this album, his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer…Dad was close, something bad had happened. Another day later we were listening to Now For Plan A and Dad stated that he thought that the song We Want to Be It could be about going through chemo, and at first I thought that it couldn’t be that obvious, but the more I listen to it the more I think that he is right.

The lyric that make me, and my Dad, think about chemo is simply the word drip being repeated in between lines. In my mind I imagine that these lyrics are the thoughts that are/were going through his head as he sat with his wife watching the chemo drip into her arm. Even the sound/tone of the music feels like this countering of mellow and urgency that I think fits the lyrics perfectly. I find it interesting to hear the thoughts of the person who is supporting the patient; it is one that is very rarely told.

My favourite part is the chorus which repeats “We don’t want to do it, we want to be it”. This line comes from a story that Alan Arkin told about the first time he worked with Madeline Kahn. Arkin asked Kahn what made her want to be an actor and she told him that she wanted to be the music, Arkin thought about it and realized that she was right; we don’t want to do it, we want to be it. I really think that that phrase is so powerful, not just in terms of this song, but for the way that you should live your life.

The more I listen to and think about We Want to Be It the more amazing I think it is. There are so many emotions expressed in this song and the each listen holds something a bit different from the last. Listen, take in the lyrics, feel the emotion behind the vocals, and enjoy.

 

P.S. I couldn't find the album version on youTube, but this live version is pretty good. If you can get your hands of the studio version you won't be sorry.