Greyly outrageous in my high heel shoes

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

25/11/73 : Quadrophenia - The Who

The Who have been an odd one so far - whilst there are quite a few tracks of theirs I like, I think I'm yet to meet an album of theirs that I've greeted with anything better than "meh".  And I really didn't get Tommy, which I believe it pretty close to this so I can't say I'm rushing to it with any great enthusiasm.

Well, the good news is that, for me, it's better (or more instant, at least) than Tommy - there were at least a couple of tracks that I managed to engage with.  I think part of the problem with "rock operas" is that you're supposed to listen to them over and over and really get into the characters - and I'm just not going to do that here.  I think I'll just go for a somewhat generous "it's fine" and leave it there, if that's OK with you. 

We're at #3 in the charts this week on its third week of a 12 week run, having peaked at #2 in its first two weeks on the chart.  The rest of the top five is made up of the Davids Bowie and Cassidy, Perry Como and Roxy Music (a new entry).  The only other new entry in the charts is Frank Sinatra with Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back (#31) which I thought was one of his more successful albums, but actually only got as high as #12.   And yes, Karen is the highest woman (#13) and yes, she's still got four albums in the charts (along with Richard, let's not forget him!).

Wikipedia has a reasonable amount on the album (233 millPeppers) which actually doesn't go into the album in that much depth - although it does tell us that the band decided they needed to build a new studio to record it, but five months in they didn't have a mixing desk so ended up just borrowing Ronnie Lane's mobile studio.  

A lot of the entry deals with the problems surrounding the tour - because of all the other instruments on the album, they decided to play over backing tapes which started badly because they "only allowed two days of rehearsals with the tapes before touring, one of which was abandoned after Daltrey punched Townshend following an argument".  So when the tour started, they weren't ready, the machinery kept failing and Keith Moon was taking whatever he could find - "Towards the end of the show,..., he passed out over his drumkit. After a 20-minute wait, Moon reappeared onstage, but ... collapsed again, and was immediately taken to hospital. Scot Halpin, an audience member, convinced promoter Bill Graham to let him play drums, and the group closed the show with him".  

It was toured more successfully in '96/'97 and there a few other shows in the 2010s including this monstrosity "In September 2017, Townshend embarked on a short tour with Billy Idol, Alfie Boe, and an orchestra entitled "Classic Quadrophenia"".  There's also the film version as well - which I've not seen, but apparently the music doesn't feature strongly in it and it's got quite an eclectic cast, to say the least (including Timothy Spall's second film role).

The critics liked the album and still view it favourably today and Pete Townshend considers it to be their last great album.  It also did well commercially - #2 in the US, selling over a million copies there.  "Customers also listened to" Yes, Jethro Tull and Jimi Hendrix - I have yet to meet a Jethro Tull album on my travels (and that looks unlikely to change this year).  As with Tommy, I don't think you can expect to "get" this album on first listen but there were more high points on this for me which means I'd be more likely to revisit it.  I mean, I won't - but it's still statistically more likely than "not gonna happen ever".

18/11/73 - Well.  Yes.  Quite.
02/12/73 - Surprisingly enjoyable