Bell Boy

I had a bad day today and I find it sort of fitting that Bell Boy is today’s Quadrophenia song of the day. Alright, I am going to kept this short. Jimmy is feeling  pretty good, and takes a walk past the hotel that the Mods had smashed the last time he was in Brighton and he someone that he thinks that he knows.

Once Jimmy gets closer he realizes that the person that he recognizes is the ace face. If you remember from our Mod lingo lesson from yesterday that ace face what the person who set the trends even for the trend setters. Well, he was working as a bell boy at that same hotel that the Mod had wrecked. The fact that the ace face in fact a bell boy seems to ruin Jimmy’s day. For Jimmy the ace face needed to be something more than a bell boy that is how high of regard that Jimmy held the ace face. Seeing the ace face in a menial job makes Jimmy lose his faith in being a Mod. This is point where Jimmy loses faith in everything, and that is how his bad day begins.

If you remember Jimmy has four personalities, really how could you forget, and Bell Boy is another. This song brings forth the lunatic, and the Who member that embodies that craziness is, of course, Keith Moon. To make the lunatic really come to life Keith Moon even voiced the Bell Boy, which is just perfect.

Alright Who lovers I really want to write more, but am not really feeling like it due to the bad day thing. Really you are lucky that I wrote anything at all. For now enjoy Bell Boy.

Drowned

Drowned is one of my favourite songs, I know that keep saying that but I can’t help it, and when I fell in love it with was not from the studio album but from the Live at Royal Albert Hall. When I was, I believe, 17 I went on a trip with my cousins to Barrie for shopping, dinner and a movie, and during that trip I bought The Who Live at Royal Albert Hall. I remember watching it for the first time and thinking that it was the best thing ever. Most of all I remember being floored the first time I watched the live version of Drowned which was Pete alone unaccompanied by himself with his guitar and it was amazing! I still don’t think that I have ever seen anyone play the guitar like that, it is mind blowing. Since that day I love Drowned so much.

As for the story Drowned actually doesn’t move it along at all. In the liner notes where there is the short story that explains what is happening the only thing that is written is “The sea is so gorgeous you want to jump into it and sink”. That is it. It doesn’t give much to go on. In my mind I am thinking that Jimmy is probably having another drug trip, and he is looking out at sea just loving it.

Musically while Drowned fits in perfectly with the rest of the songs on Quadrophenia I also think that it is the only one on the album that can stand alone. It is just a great song one that needs to listened too.

 

 

Sea and Sand

If you remember back to first blog I wrote about Quadrophenia you will remember that I mentioned a how much my brother wanted to hear the song Sea and Sand at the first Who show that we went too. Well, here it is Sea and Sand. At first you might think that this is song about the beach, but it is about so much more than that.

When Jimmy arrived in Brighton he was so happy to be out in the sea air and away from all his troubles. However, then he started to think about his life and the last time that he was in Brighton, when there was the riot between the Mods and Rockers. Jimmy feels like it couldn’t get any better than that weekend because everything was so great, the dancing, the girl, and the riot. Then, he starts to think about being a Mod and how he never seems to be able to compare to other Mods. In the end Jimmy still love being by the sea.

One of the really cool things about Sea and Sand is the use of the Mod lingo. To give you a bit of an overview tickets are Mods who know what’s going on and follow all the trends, faces are the tread setters, and the ace face is the person that even the faces follow. This song really kind of talks about what it was like to be a Mod, what the fashion was like, what a dance was like, how Brighton was the place to be, and how you had to follow the trends. I think that it would be tough to be a Mod because you had to follow the trends and they changed weekly, something that was in style one week wasn’t the next, and the way that you danced changed weekly as well. It would have been hard to keep up. Despite all that I still think that it would have been fun, the Mods were this short moment in time, and it would have been cool to be a part of that.

Another really cool thing is that Sea and Sand samples a song by the band The High Numbers called I'm the Face. For those of you don’t know The High Number and The Who are the actually the same band. Before The Who was call just that they were call The High Numbers and they really catered to the Mod crowd. I am the Face would have been the sort of song that Jimmy would have listened too and dance too and I love that there is a little nod back to this song in Sea and Sand.

I'm the face if you want it…

5:15

Who is ready for a train ride? Everyone? Alright let’s hop on the 5:15! This is one of my all time favourite songs. Whenever I put it on I can’t help but want to dance! There is just so much that is great about 5:15; what the perfect Friday night song.

First off let’s talk about what is happening in the story. Last time we left Jimmy he was having a breakdown and crashed his scooter, after the incident he decided to leave and go somewhere that he has good memories…Brighton. To get to Brighton Jimmy needs to take the train which is what he is doing during 5:15. He takes about 20 leapers and has a major trip on the train, feeling like he is floating above his body watching what is happening around him. They lyrics to the song are the hazy memories of the train ride.

There is so much about 5:15 that I love. Roger vocals are so amazing, I think that I love the way that he sounds in this song more than any other Who song. There is also the back and forth between Roger and the background/Pete’s vocals that work so well, they show that Jimmy is on an actual train and is interacting with other people. The horns are so cool and add something very unique to the song, and the piano is somewhat reminiscent of Jerry Lee Lewis and Great Balls of Fire. The drums are cool because they sound sort of like a train, or at least that is what they remind me of. There is a real forward motion contained in 5:15 that really makes me feel like I am moving forward by the way that the song slowly begins and then starts to slow again at the end. I have been on a train before and this song just screams train ride through the whole thing.

5:15 is such a great way to start the second disc, it pumps the listener up and gets you excited for what is to come. This is probably the song that made me fall in love with Quadrophenia. It is well written and the performance is amazing.

Here is the studio version of 5:15 and the John Entwhistle bass solo from the Live at Albert Hall version which is the great bass solo of all time.

 

I've Had Enough

If you want a song that is full of emotion then listen to I’ve Had Enough. This song hops around to all the different emotions that Jimmy is feeling at the moment. The furthering of Jimmy’s breakdown is caused by something that probably won’t surprise many people…a girl. He sees the girl that he likes out with his best friend and something just snaps.

The first emotion that Jimmy feels is anger, he is just pissed off at his luck and that his life isn’t going the way that he wanted it too. I feel like during the angry sections of I’ve Had Enough he is yelling at himself about how crap everything is and how it’s all his fault. Jimmy sort of mentally beats himself up about the way his life is going.

Then Jimmy goes into a short I can do better section where he talks about being the perfect Mod. It is like he rallies a bit and thinks if he does everything right and becomes the model Mod then he might be able to win the girl back. This feeling doesn’t really last long.

Lastly, Jimmy slides right into full on depression. He basically says that he is tired of everything, he is giving up. I love realistic this segment is; I can image someone saying these lines over and over in their head or even out loud. The desperation comes through in the vocals and conveys that the feelings that Jimmy is having is not something to take lightly.

I think that it is really interesting how the emotions don’t go in a straight line; they circle around until they end with depression. It makes the whole breakdown seem more real. Thoughts don’t happen in a point A to point B sort of way, they weave around each other affecting/creating each other. I’ve Had Enough really demonstrates how Jimmy’s mind is working at this point in time.

In the end Jimmy is pushed over the edge and he crashes his scooter. You get to hear the sound of the crash happening at the end of the song along with Roger screaming the last line. This is such an interesting way to end the I’ve Had Enough, it shows that the feelings took over Jimmy and this is the consequence. Plus it sounds cool.

End of disc one.

Is It In My Head?

Yesterday, when we left Jimmy he was questioning the world and thinking that it was all messed up, and today we head into the part of the story where Jimmy is feeling a bit paranoid. Mods took pills and in Quadrophenia they are referred to as leapers. I don’t know anything about drugs so I’m not really sure what sort of high you get when you take leapers, but Jimmy had about 200 in his possession and I can imagine that they were probably messing with his already crazy brain.

I think that the combination of the thoughts that Jimmy was having and the pills led him into the state that he was in at the time. He was questioning issues within the world and then when he took the pills and he brought the questions closer to home.

I love the chorus where Jimmy asks if it is in his head or in his heart. I think that the head means that everything that he is thinking is not real and that if it is in his heart then it must be true. It is an interesting concept that because his head is so messed up Jimmy relates fake with his head. The heart part is easy to make out; people are always giving advice to follow your heart. In the end Jimmy is having a real trip and I don’t think that he really knows what is going on.

It’s hard to write about Helpless Dancer, Is It In My Head, and the next song I’ve Had Enough because it all could be describe in one sentence: Jimmy is having a breakdown. Yes that is probably an over simplification of the situation, but that is what it all boils down too. This is what you need to remember when you are listening to these three songs. This isn’t just teenage angst, although that is part of it, this is a full on mental breakdown.

 

Helpless Dancer

Pete Townshend wanted to write an album that was sort of about how different each member of The Who is to each other, and over time it evolved into what we now know as Quadrophenia. As you know Jimmy has four different personalities, like schizophrenia, and Townshend made each personality reflect a member of The Who. Helpless Dancer is the first time that we get to see one of these personalities come through.

The first personality that we meet is that of Roger Daltrey who is cast as the tough guy. Roger was a bit different from the other members of The Who because he never once saw himself as a Mod. He was more of a Rocker in Mod clothes. Before Roger was in The Who he was a sheet metal worker, and that made him quite tough. He never seemed to take any crap from anyone and often seemed a bit gruff in videos.  Roger’s voice lends perfectly to the tough guy motif and helps to drive home the point that is being made in Helpless Dancer.

As for Jimmy he is fed up with, well, with the world. In Helpless Dancer he is questioning things that are still poignant today. The way that the ideas are coming out of Jimmy’s head is sort of a stream of consciousness presented in one long verse instead of the verse/chorus arrangement that is found in so many songs. The way the song is structured makes it sound more frantic, and it makes the listener believe that something is happening to Jimmy. This is where Jimmy first starts to crack; he is looking at the world and thinking that it is so screwed up. From here things just keep getting worst.