The Who – Quadrophenia: The Directors Cut
Universal Music
Rating: B+
While many people consider Tommy to be
the Who’s highest artistic mark, many diehard Who fans
thumb their nose at them as they believe 1973’s
Quadrophenia dwarfs the deaf, dumb
story by miles and miles.
Perhaps they are correct, as with the latter Pete
Townshend wrote more personal lyrics and the main
character, Jimmy, is a conglomerate of the four
personalities of the band. This
is a very rich album in terms of imagination,
creativity, songwriting, musical ability and gut
wrenching honesty.
The newly released Director’s cut includes the
original album surrounded by a ton of extras that
will have Who fans both excited and a bit miffed.
Lets start with good stuff. The Director’s
Cut contains five discs and nearly 60 tracks.
The first two discs are remastered versions
of the original album while discs three and four
include 25 demos from Pete Townshend’s achieve.
Among these 25 are five tunes that have never
been released. The last disc is
an eight-track DVD that contains 5.1 mixes of
certain songs on the album.
Other collectables are a 7 inch replica of the
classic hit “5:15”
and a 100-page hardback book that includes over
13,000 words by Pete, which see the maestro
discussing the albums recording in depth.
There is also a track-by-track commentary to
the demos.
The other side of the coin is that many fans are
upset that the entire album is not featured in 5.1.
They feel this will be a money grab by the
band that they will have to pay for down the line.
That said, there is more than enough here for
any fan of Quadrophenia.
Hours can be spent listening to the hits,
which include “The Real Me,” “5:15,” “Cut My Hair,”
“Doctor Jimmy,” “Love Reign O’er Me” and “Drowned.”
The rest of it, the demos, the photos and the
book are just gravy that will thrill the fans and
justify the over a hundred bucks price tag.
By Jeb Wright
