The album Roger Daltrey called the best The Who ever wrote
Similar to Led Zeppelin in their 1970s pomp, The Who were a band that poured concentrated power and creativity into their LPs during the peak of the album era.
Whether it’s The Who Sell Out’s radio jingle pastiche or Tommy’s wide-eyed fantasy narrative, primary songwriter and powerhouse guitarist Pete Townshend swiftly embraced the LP’s wide-open hinterland to let loose all his conceptual ambitions and anthemic rock grab. Such 12.75″ x 12.75″ sleeves of record escapism would mark a definitive close to the 1960s, hearing little of swinging Carnaby Street or Woodstock’s totemic presence from 1971’s Who’s Next onwards.
With such a concentrated totality contained in every album, the question of the best Who LP effort is a tough exercise for any fan, but when put to frontman Roger Daltrey during an extra interview for 2011’s Carnaby Street Undressed documentary, the Tommy star didn’t waste any time in praising one Who album for immediate acclaim.
“I think one of the best albums ever written was Quadrophenia, which is really about this period of ’64/’65 through the Summer of Love, but the summer of extreme violence on the coast of Southern Britain,” Daltrey states, touching on the Mods and Rockers controversy that gripped the day’s nation.
Adding, “If ever there was an articulate way of putting it into an art form, Quadrophenia is it. It’s amazing, and that stands up today every bit, probably stronger today, mainly because the adolescent dilemma doesn’t change…”
Perhaps that’s the key. Throughout The Who’s oeuvre, Townshend’s always been blessed with an ability to speak to his inner teen, penning lyrical tales of frustrated yearning, explosive passion, and the chase for something bigger beyond the humdrum walls.
Such sensibilities shine all over 1973’s Quadrophenia’s double-album arc, detailing Jimmy the mod’s exploits across London and Brighton as he searches for his true calling. The album’s story fodder would eventually jump to the big screen for the 1979 theatrical adaptation, featuring Phil Daniels as Jimmy and seeing Townshend help with the script.
Townshend’s spiky universalism is probably why The Who were so beloved by the punks. No iconoclastic hatchet aimed at the raucous Mod group and hard rock pioneers, The Who found themselves in the live repertoire of the Sex Pistols’ first ever show in 1975, later drinking sessions together reportedly inspiring Townshend’s comment on the punk upend for 1978’s ‘Who’s Are You’, the last bona fide hit they’d ever dream up.
For Daltrey, whatever made The Who so timeless to different musical chapters and generations could all be understood in Townshend’s Mod drama rock opera, capturing a lyrical knack for imbuing such love letters with a bristling myriad of different emotions, just as life and memories often are.
“I think from the last part of the 20th century that’s one of the most important bits of work because it’s more than just entertainment and it’s more than just stringing clever lyrics together,” Daltrey concluded. “There’s a real spiritual centre to it in a journey that is in a lot of ways very spiteful, you know, it’s kind of ‘whoah…it’s a weird one!’”
