Townshend and Daltrey: Quadrophenia's enduring relevance
Daltrey says simply: "I've always said about music: you don't give it up, it gives you up, it leaves you."
The Who are back on stage in the UK this month, touring with a full-length performance of their classic Seventies album, Quadrophenia.
Pete Townshend calls Quadrophenia a "quintessentially English piece". The music tells the story of Jimmy, a rebellious and conflicted teenager who searches for an identity, first in the characters of The Who, and then as a member of a gang of Mods.
Townshend says: "It's about a young man who sees himself in the four members of the band." But that ultimately "this is a story of any young man who is struggling".
The context for Jimmy's story, Townshend says, is "the whole period in which we grew up, the whole post-war condition, all of the elements of life when the Mods and Rockers were meeting on the beaches down in Brighton" - a life which produced what he calls "those kind of strange tensions in the young".
Singer Roger Daltrey says the tensions are still there. Asked about the summer riots in England two years ago, he says: "That's the point about it; the adolescent dilemma is exactly the same as it ever was. In that sense it's timeless."
The other reason for Quadrophenia's longevity is of course the music itself. It's recognised as some of The Who's finest material, and is still feted by critics as one of the greatest rock albums of the era. The album interweaves several musical themes, creating a mood which is by turns exuberant, defiant and wistful. But while it's ambitious, it's far from inaccessible.
Townshend says the band were at their peak as musicians when they recorded Quadrophenia, and the songs bear that out in their energy and immediacy. Townshend had written it "shut away pretty much on my own" - but in the recording studio, the other band members had a transforming influence.
"Roger's performances surprised me, because some of the songs that I'd intended to be quite bleak and poignant and painful and shy, like Love Reign O'er Me, Roger performed with immense passion, and yet still delivered the same kind of poignancy and vulnerability that I thought wouldn't be possible with such a bravura performance.".. read more:
