TOWNSHEND’S CLASSIC IMMORTALITY
‘QUADROPHENIA’ WILL LIVES ON IN FULL SYMPHONY
When Pete Townshend decided to revisit The Who’s Quadrophenia, the 1973 rock opera he crafted for the band, his chief intention was to get “a score to put in a drawer.”
That is, Townshend, who turned 70 this May, wanted the work fully orchestrated, “so that on my dying day, I could say” — Townshend adopts the creaky, ragged voice of an old fogey — “‘Go and open the drawer, and my music will live on!’ ”
He didn’t have to look far to have his wish granted. Rachel Fuller, Townshend’s longtime personal partner and sometime artistic collaborator, is a classically trained musician and composer with extensive experience. “So I handed it to Rachel as a project. … I wanted her to write something that would allow the music to live on live, not just on record.”
As it turned out, the project produced an album: Classic
Quadrophenia, out Tuesday, with Fuller’s orchestrations played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The classically trained English tenor Alfie Boe sings the role of Jimmy, a drifter and “mod” — a member of a youth subculture that sprang up in 1960s Britain — while other parts are played by Townshend, Billy Idol and Phil Daniels, who appeared as Jimmy in the 1979 film adaptation of
Quadrophenia.
The London Oriana Choir also is featured, and it will join the aforementioned artists when
Classic Quadrophenia has its live world premiere July 5 at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
Though Townshend has tour commitments with The Who, he still finds time to write songs. When the band had to cancel a few recent dates “because Roger (Daltrey) had a bad voice, I had six days in a little Nashville studio, and hired a couple of musicians, and the songs just poured out. If I were to go back for another six days, I’d have an album.”
Age is a concern, he concedes. “I hated going from 20 to 30, but when I (turned) 40, 50 and 60, I didn’t care. I think 70 is more like 30. It seems like a doorway that’s going to take you to another area of difficulty and challenges.”
Townshend is hardly ready to start wrapping things up. “My father died when he was 69, and he seemed quite content to die. I was with him on his deathbed. He got very angry only on the very last day that he was in hospital — and that’s because at his request they turned off his morphine drip. Then he got very irritated. But prior to that he seemed quite content. ... I don’t think I would be happy to be passing right now.”