“We could be so lucky”: The U2 album The Edge called their ‘Quadrophenia’
Once in a blue moon, an album comes along that changes everything, influencing the future and rendering the past superfluous. Over the course of their tenure, The Who produced more of these albums than most, with Pete Townshend’s songwriting talents constantly evolving and reaching for something more profound and endlessly inventive than any of his contemporaries. In 1973, the band released their magnum opus album Quadrophenia, and the landscape of rock and roll music was never the same again.
Continuing the rock opera exploration that Townshend had started on 1969’s Tommy, the 1973 album follows a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale. Centred around a young mod named Jimmy, the track listing of Quadrophenia witnesses his progression from youthful rebellion to personal struggle, alienation, and suicidal thoughts.
As immortalised in the 1979 film adaptation of the record, the ending of Quadrophenia is left on something of a cliff hanger, with the audience unaware of what happens to Jimmy – whether he is able to regain control of his life and make something of himself, or whether his alienation and mental health struggle drove him to suicide.
An ambitious plot to capture within the grooves of a rock and roll album, Quadrophenia left The Who’s audience in awe, spawning countless future concept albums and rock operas in its wake. In fact, the album continues to influence musicians and writers across the globe to this day, over half a century on from its initial release back in 1973.
The release of Franc Roddam’s film adaptation of the album only boosted its cult following, alerting the blossoming punk subculture to the revolutionary power of The Who’s songwriting. It was around that same time that a young group formed in a Dublin secondary school, taking influence from the emergence of punk and the groundbreaking power of Quadrophenia.
That band, for those who have not yet read the headline of this article, was U2. Although the iconic Irish rockers quickly moved on from their punk rock roots, the influence of The Who’s seminal album always stuck with them. In fact, the 1973 album went on to inspire U2’s 2014 album Songs of Innocence, which you might remember as being the album that was thrust upon everybody with an iTunes account without consent.
An ambitious record blending the influence of William Blake with Bono’s upbringing, the album tells a coming-of-age story in a similar fashion to that of Quadrophenia. “It has a lyrical cohesion that I think is unique amongst U2 albums,” Bono once said of the record. “I don’t want it to be a concept album, but the songs come from a place. Edge laughed and said, ‘This is our Quadrophenia. We could be so lucky.”
From that quote, it seems as though U2 are aware that Quadrophenia poses a kind of unmatchable gold standard when it comes to the world of rock operas and concept albums, but the similarities between the two records is clear to see, in fairness to The Edge. Both tell the tale of a troubled upbringing, and both were pretty inventive in their own ways. The prevailing difference, aside from the lasting and beloved legacy of The Who’s record, is that Quadrophenia was only heard by those who wanted to hear it.
