There’s more to say on this topic. It opens up to everything. But I will leave more explanations and references for the links within and below.
Just before the covid pandemic hit us, I wrote an essay for UU Band of Writers called " Fly Away (The Who and Our Generations) ". One of the prompt words was "who," so I immediately wrote "WHO was the best rock music group ever? The Who, that's WHO." What else could I do! The Who are a British band who sometimes used to open for The Beatles. Now I know many people don’t agree with me that The Who are the best rock group ever, or that my favorite rock song, Won’t Get Fooled Again, is the best song ever. And I understand why. Although many do in fact say both. But there's a good story to be told about them in any case. The fact remains that in 2013 I actually liked some music by British boyband One Direction, and one of their songs was called " Best Song Ever." And it was indeed their Best Song Ever, in my opinion. But they were accused of stealing the intro for this song from The Who’s " Baba O’Riley ". It was in fact a tribute to them, since it implied that they thought Baba O’Riley was the best song ever. And it came from the same album as Won’t Get Fooled Again, my own nominee for best song ever.
Ironically, as I wrote in "Fly Away", The Who were thieves too. The Who’s chief composer Pete Townshend had already copied the style of composer Terry Riley for Baba O’Riley, as the title suggests. And he took not only the words "fade away" from Buddy Holly’s song " Not Fade Away " for their youth anthem " My Generation ", but its rhythm and melody structure too. Then after I wrote Fly Away I discovered that The Who had put out an ironic new song just 3 months earlier called " All This Music Must Fade " in which Pete wrote, "I don't mind, other guys ripping off my song, I'd be a liar, if I said I never done no wrong. Oh, this sound that we share has already been played. And it hangs in the air" and "What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine". He was admitting he was a thief too, so why should he care if somebody stole from him? It was a tribute!
The Who were the first to write a rock opera, or it might better be called a music drama, like Wagner’s. Pete explained that the three rock operas by The Who were spiritual journey stories, which is also like the ones in The Hero with 1000 Faces by Joseph Campbell. Pete’s music was often about adolescence. In these thousands of stories the hero is often a young person who had an unhappy childhood. So the hero goes on a search for self and a higher purpose, learns some things, has revelations, and brings something back to share. But it’s only a beginning; there are sequels too! We know that from the hero’s journey stories we know.
The heroes of The Who’s 3 rock operas were Tommy in the first one and Jimmy in the third one called Quadrophenia, and in the second one called "Lifehouse" Bobby led a rebellion against an over-protected society. The Who’s three rock operas each have a song that explains the problem and the purpose, and a climactic finale. In Tommy this finale is See Me, Feel Me, for Lifehouse it’s Won't Get Fooled Again and for Quadrophenia, Pete's masterpiece, it’s Love Reign Over Me. For deaf dumb and blind kid Tommy the song of purpose is come on the amazing journey and learn all you should know. For revolutionary Lifehouse it’s Sally take my hand, it’s only teenage wasteland, the exodus is here. For crazy Jimmy it’s can you see the real me, doctor.
His parents threw Jimmy out of the house for taking illegal pills, so he went down to Brighton, which is to London as Santa Cruz (and nearby New Brighton Beach) is to San Jose. He loved the water and said he’d like to drown. He had trouble fitting into the mod youth culture he idolized. But he dressed the part. Like many mods his favorite music group was The Who. Jimmy said it must be OK just to be crazy; he was not only schizophrenic, he was quadrophrenic. And in hero’s journey stories the greater is often reflected in the lesser. Like most music groups The Who had many quarrels with each other. For Jimmy the greater was The Who, and each one of his own 4 personalities was reflected in a member of The Who. In Quadrophenia each member of The Who is represented in turn by four of the 18 songs in the opera.
Disappointed, Jimmy gave up on being a mod, so in my favorite song from the opera, Dr. Jimmy and Mister Jim, he stole a boat and went out to a majestic rock in Brighton Bay. This was also John Entwistle’s song in the opera, because he earlier wrote a Who song called Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. John was the stabilizing bass player for the group, but sometimes he got crazy too. Like when he wrote Boris the Spider. Jimmy’s Mister Hyde came out on the boat after he drank some gin. But then we hear "Is it Me, for a Moment?" As he approached the rock he heard music from heaven playing in his head. This for me is a revelatory peak for The Who, and for all music. Jimmy was going through changes. On the rock his 4 personalities came together, and he was his real me, even if only for a while. He asked Love to rain on him and reign over him. Pete brings the 4 songs together that represent the parts of Jimmy and The Who in the instrumental song The Rock. I can play a brief excerpt of each theme and then how he brings them together. It is rock music alchemy.
Keith Moon's theme " Bell Boy "
John Entwistle's theme " Is it Me? "
Roger Daltrey's theme " Helpless Dancer "
Peter Townshend's theme " Love Reign O'er Me "
Integration, 4 themes combined
Many of us go through changes and journeys like this, especially as we come of age. I am Eric the Green. Laugh and say I’m green, I’ve seen things you’ve never seen. Talk behind my back, I’m off the beaten track. Like Jimmy sang in Dr. Jimmy. After my own unhappy childhood, I was questioning everything. In the Summer of 1966 I had a revelation. It was like love raining down on me. Powerful new music uplifted me. My family took me on a trip to our favorite town Mendocino to see where The Russians Are Coming movie was made. The movie had a submarine in it, and the Russians stole a boat like Jimmy did, and The Beatles came out that month with the first and greatest psychedelic song from the epic Revolver album, and it had a submarine song in it too. The images from the trip, the town, the movie and the music came together and stuck with me for years. I was feeling high and bravado in 1966. We went over to Clear Lake to take a boat ride, but just like Jimmy I went out at night and stole a boat and went out on the lake by myself. It was so calm and inspiring. I saw a loving couple on the next pier too. I brought the boat back and everything was fine. But my Dad was angry with me for taking this risky adventure. He saw me behind my back. I went off the beaten track, just like Jimmy. Jimmy had his fictional experience in 1965; he would be about my age or a year or two older. In the music of The Who, and especially Quadrophenia, I later saw and heard my own journey reflected.
So much opened for me after those days. I had never experienced such beauty or such connection. 1966 was a magnificent Awakening of Spirit. I felt something in the air, and saw the hippie culture explode. Garage bands worldwide, psychedelic art and music, love ins and rock festivals, human potential movements, new subjects opening up, breakthroughs in science and technology, liberating social movements, and many friends telling me they had had similar experiences to me simultaneously. And soon I saw that the planets had aligned in just the way I expected. I brought something back, some books, music and ideas. But many sequels lay ahead. Many more journeys needed. It was only a beginning of what I want to feel forever.
LINKS
Each of the 3 Who rock operas also has two great instrumentals. Tommy features an Overture based around its themes, and a unique Underture, the latter of which is a great classic. Quadrophenia includes two instrumentals built from its four themes. The Rock comes near the end when the four themes are heard and then blended together. The title track acts as an overture and portrays the four themes magnificently. It also includes a calm, visionary section that reminds me of my excursion on Clear Lake. In Lifehouse the two instrumentals appear as synthesizer episodes in its two chief songs Baba O'Riley (which One Direction imitated) and Won't Get Fooled Again.
Lifehouse was released as a collection only in later years; at first many of the songs were included on the album Who's Next and others were released as singles and/or appear on other albums. Hooligans is a good collection that includes some of the singles. Odd and Sods is another. Lifehouse is incredibly prophetic, describing a society being swallowed by "the grid" and protected against pollution in ways that feel familiar today.
Classic Quadrophenia with singer Alfie Boe and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. UU Writers Bandmate Mike says this might just be pop music played by an orchestra, not real classical music. I say, on the contrary, the original Quadrophenia in its articulate and soaring grandeur is real classical music played by a rock band.
Doctor Jimmy from Classic Quadrophenia
What makes Love Reign O'er Me, Love Rain on Me so great? by Rick Beato
author's intro to Won't Get Fooled Again: From Lifehouse to Quadrophenia by Richie Unterberger
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson by Britannia. The wikipedia article is good, but does not mention The Who songs, nor the Perry Mason episode " The Deadly Double " based on the story. And it's also about "The Double" 's son Tommy!
My subsequent essay explores more related topics: What Floats My Boat
Best Song Ever by One Direction This good article mentions the controversy over copying Baba O'Riley and Pete's response. Also notable is that the day it came out on youtube the song's video preceded by a comic skit had the most one day views ever to that point. On that same date, even before hearing the song, I hosted a beach party near Santa Cruz with my friends including UU Band of Writers members Mike and Catherine Pelizzari. Also, One Direction gave their first public performance of this song in San Jose.
This wikipedia article on Brighton mentions Quadrophenia.
My own quadrophenia I describe with my horoscope. I was born under a virtual grand cross of planets and primary luminaries that I've had to deal with. They are a cardinal cross of the four elements. My Moon in fire sign Aries, 90 degrees apart or square to my Ascendant and Uranus in water sign Cancer, which in turn is in square to Mercury, Sun and Neptune in air sign Libra, John Entwistle's sign (he was born on Oct.9, myself on Oct 6 Greenwich time). Jupiter makes a wide square to almost complete the cross in earth sign Capricorn. But Jupiter does not complete a square to the Moon, but they are 71 degrees apart, making a virtual quintile, one fifth of the zodiac circle instead of the one-fourth fraction of the square. This to me symbolizes the presence of the fifth element in my cross, known as the quintessence of the other four or the element of Spirit, offering hope for my integration like Jimmy experienced on The Rock.
The four themes of Quadrophenia combined and integrated on The Rock represent the four elements, and each Who member resembles an element. Roger, whose song Helpless Dancer represents a "tough guy" according to Pete, is fire. Pete himself and his theme Love Reign O'er Me or Love Rain on Me is water, passionately asking for redemption. John, whose song Is it Me?, the climax of Dr. Jimmy, is air, representing his dual split personality, both calm and rational but also romantic and somewhat dark and demented in his preoccupations. Keith, the lunatic drummer who bangs out rhythms, tears up hotel suites but also dutifully serves a hotel in the opera as a bell boy, is earth. Alchemy seeks transformation by bringing opposites and the four elements together in the quintessence, related to the philosophers stone. See my recent essay reflection Alchemical Democracy for links on alchemy.
This account of the hero's journey ends with a scene of a boat on a rock
The tarot in many versions also presents a hero's spiritual journey story through the numbered trump sequence of its 22 major arcana cards. The final card in the order The World represents integration and the quintessence, showing symbols of the four elements grouped around Sophia, a central figure representing wisdom. This is also related to the Throne of God mentioned in the Bible in Ezekiel and Revelation which also inspired the Muslim creators of the Taj Mahal in India. The Who's The Rock thus also expresses the tarot's World card.
An even more notable example of this kind of musical alchemy was provided by Mozart in the finale to his final symphony. Ernest Alba comments on this video that this brilliant and dramatic movement proved the existence of God. Five themes are combined at the end, something only God is able to follow, according to Woody Allen. As far as "the best music ever" is concerned, this is about the best example that exists.
For me, another nominee for this honor is Bach's Toccata in F #540, which is also a hero's journey story that links up with all the others.
The Prisoner by Patrick McGoohan is also a hero's journey story that follows the tarot sequence. The Ultimate Gift is a lesser-known but excellent such coming-of-age hero's journey story. My summary of The Tarot Journey is here
My choice in order of the best songs ever from 1956-1977, the golden age of rock