Rewind album: Quadrophenia by The Who (1973)
Pete Townshend, The Who's guitarist and principal composer, has since 1968 followed Indian spiritual master Meher Baba, who died in 1969. One of his teachings is that god is like an infinite ocean. To drown in that ocean is to become one with the divine - an idea central to the songs on Quadrophenia, the last great Who album.
Quadrophenia
The Who
Track
Pete Townshend, The Who's guitarist and principal composer, has since 1968 followed Indian spiritual master Meher Baba, who died in 1969. One of his teachings is that god is like an infinite ocean. To drown in that ocean is to become one with the divine - an idea central to the songs on Quadrophenia, the last great Who album.
Ostensibly Quadrophenia is a musical account of a few eventful days in the life of a confused teenager - Jimmy, a mod and Who fan - in 1964. But Townshend, who wrote the songs, also used them to explore the more spiritual questions he had started to address with the 1969 "rock opera" Tommy.
Water imagery flows through the album from the opening track, I Am the Sea, which states four recurrent melodic themes - each representing a member of The Who - to its anthemic closer, Love Reign O'er Me. The reign/rain pun is clearly intended, and sounds of rainfall, thunder and waves are painstakingly integrated with the music.
One of the album's pivotal songs, Drowned, was originally intended to stand alone. Townshend has said it was inspired by Meher Baba, and conceived as a prayer. Roger Daltrey sings it on the album, but since the late 1970s, Townshend has taken the lead vocal live.