Customer Reviews

Quadrophenia- The Director's Cut (Super Deluxe Edition)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I love this album. It connects somehow, the frustration of My g-g-g-generation extended to an entire double album, played with the frenetic energy and genius of The Who, and intermingled with a dash of Pete Townshend's mystical leanings. I am the sea.

It is not only the music, the whole package was perfect when it arrived in autumn 1973. The black and white cover with the scooter and the four faces of the band reflected in its mirrors, and a breathtakingly good series of monochrome photographs. If any record deserves a deluxe edition, this one does.

And here it is - or is it? What we have is something half-way between the sumptuous, informative, historic collector's edition which the album merits, and the kind of money grabbing release you get when some record company notices how much people are paying for boxed sets these days and says, "Quick, let's get Quadrophenia out before the CD market disappears completely".

Because there is a lot wrong with this release, though I still cannot give it less than four stars. Still, time to stop rambling and tell you what you get. Within a very solid slipcase you will find a poster advertising the original double album (actually this is a fine reproduction and one of the better things here), a colour envelope holding various bits of memorabilia: reproductions of some of Townshend's draft lyrics, a rather darkly reproduced colour photo of Jimmy (the central character) on a scooter, and a 7-inch single of 5.15 backed with the slightly rare track Water.

Then there is the main event: a 100-page hardback book of photos and an essay by Townshend, within which nestle the original double CD remastered, a DVD with 8 tracks remixed for 5.1 surround sound, and two CDs of Townshend's demos for the album.

The book is certainly nice to have, though bear in mind that the original album came with a 46 page insert which is all included in the book, so that accounts for nearly a quarter of it. I am also upset to report that the quality of those wonderful photographs is poor; I was really hoping that I would get better copies than those in my falling-apart LP but in fact these are noticeably worse; they have that grainy look you get when photos are reprinted from a print rather than from the originals.

Still, the *other* photos in the book are nicely reproduced and the essay is fascinating if you love Quadrophenia half as much as I do. Townshend recounts how he came up with the story that is printed in the front cover of the LP (and also here), when remembering how he slept under Brighton pier once "after a riotous night at the Aquarium ballroom." He also describes how the album came together, how it was recorded, and adds notes on the songs and demos.

If you are a fan, you will definitely want to hear the demos too. They form a sort-of alternate version of the album, lacking the Who's energy but with its own appeal. There are also songs here that are not on the album, and others that did not show up until the soundtrack of the Quadrophenia film. Some of the songs have overdubs which I personally would rather had been omitted.

Note that the standard-price 2CD set has 11 of the demos as bonus tracks. This box has 25 demo tracks.

The 5.1 mix is enjoyable too. This album is ideal for surround sound, especially at those moments when sea noises swirl around.

It's curious though that only 8 tracks have been mixed to 5.1. Why? But the rest of 5.1 Quadrophenia is not the only thing missing.

The important thing to realise is that this is Townshend's deluxe box, rather than The Who's deluxe box. I have not spotted any contribution to the package from Roger Daltrey, despite his massive contribution to the quality of the album, nor even any attempt to collect existing quotes from the two members of the band who are no longer with us, Keith Moon and John Entwistle. There are no outtakes from band sessions, nor are there any live tracks from when Quadrophenia was performed live back in the day; yes I realise that the concerts at the time had some problems but I would still love to hear how they sounded.

Quadrophenia was remixed in 1996 and it is the remix that is offered here (there are small differences in the remaster including a new train noise in 5.15 but no big leap in sound quality), but for completeness I would have liked both mixes to be included, in line with what has been done in deluxe boxes for other classic albums such as Jethro Tull's Aqualung and King Crimson's In the Court of. To my mind the original mix is still important, the Quadrophenia that is as I first heard it in the seventies.

So this is a frustrating production, much less than it should be; but then again frustration is what Quadrophenia is all about so that is curiously fitting. Fans will still want this package, hard though it is to justify the cost. And I suppose when and if the full 5.1 release is done eventually we will be asked to pay again.

Unlike other reviews of this nicely packaged box set, I can attest, at least IMHO, that the inlcuded 2011 CD remaster of the full album is subtly better that the 95 version. The channel seperation is better and clarity of individual instruments and vocal parts is noticeably better than the prior CD.

This can be found immediately in the I am the Sea -> The Real Me > Quadrophenia suite that begins the album, particulary in the segue from The Real Me into Quadrophenia. All previous digitial versions delivered an extremely trebly experience where the individual instruments, particulary the frenetically strummed acoustic quitar, buried each other in the mix. The 2011 remaster is the first digital version I've heard that matches the vinyls ability to clarify and present a soundstage in which the individual instruments can be heard cleanly.

The biggest complaint I have with this box, especially considering the price, is that only 8 songs from the full album are included in the multi-channel DVD. If, as I understand, only the masters for these 8 tracks were found then some more supplemental material should have been included, perhaps even a copy of the excellent Quadrophenia film that came out in 1980.

Here we have the super deluxe treatment of The Who's "third and final masterpiece"...... 1973's Quadrophenia. Pete Townshend has always considered the three studio albums: Tommy (1969), Who's Next (1971) and Quadrophenia (1973) as the band's creative pinnacle in their history.

I've had several people tell me during the last two days that Townshend's comments made a couple months ago that several original 8 track and 16 track masters to Quadrophenia have gone missing ""are simply not true"". The corrected story I'm getting now is that Pete's team simply stopped putting a lot of priority into mixing any further Quadrophenia tracks into 5.1 surround sound. If this is indeed true, it's a major screw-up strategy by Townshend and his team. Anyone that's going to pay whopping $140 for a Quadrophenia box set is going to insist on the ENTIRE album presented in a 5.1 mix. I'll bet this will be addresed soon.

It seems that many of the reviews of this set are from people with no intention of buying it. Which is, of course, their choice, but what they are doing, in essence, is reviewing the listed contents of the box, rather than the box itself. I must admit, I was slightly disappointed to read that the bonus audio would consist entirely of demos, and that only part of the album would be available in 5.1. Still, I ordered the box because, quite simply, this is an album I love.

Having now played the contents of the box a couple of times over, and having read Pete's entire, lengthy liner notes, I can report that a mere list of the contents of this box do not do the box justice. Make no mistake about it--this is not a set where some minion within the Who organization put everything together and then sent it along to Pete's people for his approval. Townshend wrote every word of the liner notes contained within this set--he writes not only of the genesis of the project, but the construction of the studio where it was recorded, the recording of and story behind his demos, and also of what he wanted to achieve with the album's narrative. Call him greedy, call him an egomaniac, or call him what you will, but it is obvious that Pete put a great deal of time and personal effort into this set. Is this an ego project for Pete? For crying out loud, he wrote every note of music and every lyric on this album--who better him to put together a package such as this?

Included in this set is a rather extensive recording diary, along with access to a special web page where one can view the pages and original notations from the actual diary, as well as pictures from the sessions, many taken by Pete himself.

I do want to add a couple of things, however: First of all--the lack of studio outtakes. The fact is, looking at the session diary, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of them--it would appear that only two songs were completed by the band that were not included on the final album--"We Close Tonight" (found on the 1998 "Odds & Sods) remaster) and "Four Faces" (which appeared on the 1979 "Quadrophenia" soundtrack). So, for those complaining about the lack of any "new" studio material in this set, the problem is that there doesn't appear to be any. Pete may well have been able to cobble together "alternate versions" from unused material, much like George Martin controversially did with the "Sgt. Pepper" material in "Anthology 2", but he instead chose to put together an alternate version of the story using his demos. He writes:

"If I don't sequence my demos myself here, someone may attempt to do so. I put my hand on my heart to profess that I am not trying to fix the story by doing this, or make more sense of what might one day appear on the musical theatre stage...All of these demos have been included purely for enjoyment. I've had great fun working with them again (after 40 years in some cases)...Let's face it, if I was dead, a critic would write these liner notes and could posture all over my work as though they knew what they were talking about."

As for the lack of live material, Pete makes it clear that he is not proud of the subsequent tour the band undertook to promote the album. In the liner notes, he describes how after spending the summer of 1973 recording the album, he then spent August 3 through September 12th mixing the album, whereupon Track announced that the album would be released October 13th and the tour would begin October 28th. His plans to take some time to not only prepare a quadraphonic mix of the album, but to properly mix backing tapes for the tour, and to spend some time with his family, were immediately cancelled. He writes:

"What followed were some of the most shameful episodes in our career on stage...if only we had been given time to work together, The Who's Quadrophenia tour of 1974 might have been different. We were all depressed I think, and disappointed...The Who's worn-out stage act had not been revitalized by Quadrophenia..."

No, this set isn't for everybody. But given the amount of material packed into this box--four discs of music, a DVD, a 45, an extensive hard-bound book plus access to a special website where one can peruse scores of documents, photographs and other material, as well as about an hour of interviews with Pete, I can say that the set was worth every penny.

First off, I love The Who and Quadrophenia. I guess that's obvious when I just dropped $130 on this set. However, it is a badly missed opportunity. The remix is well done and the book is interesting. The disapointment I have with this is that only 8 tracks are remixed for multi channel. They chose DVD-A as the format for the multi channel when Blu-ray audio is available and better sounding to my ear. The multi channel is mixed to 5.1; there is no original quad mix on here! Why not have the option to listen to the entire album in it's original Quad mix? Hey Pete, most of the guys buying this will be in their 40's, 50's and 60's. Do you really think we want a poster and a 45 RPM record? WTF? Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull did a much better job with their recent high end releases. All three of those have Blu-ray audio, 5.1 mixes, stereo mixes, and quad mixes for the entire album! The 5.1 mix is pretty good but, it makes me scratch my head why it's not the complete album. Before I bought this, I honestly thought Pete must have gotten sick of remixing and cut it short, now I see he didn't even do the 5.1 mix. This project had enormous potential but, it unfortunately falls short of expectations.

Over $100 for this? a) Only some of the tracks are 5.1. b) No Who demos, all Pete. No Who outtakes. No Who alternate versions. c) Some of the demos have added (redone) drums. d) No extra live stuff either. e) The 5.1 mixes aren't even that great. Tommy was much better. More immersive, more "powerful". Shame. Even if we would have just gotten the whole thing as 5.1 I would have been happy. But no. This is a half effort ... and for over $100. Looks at Dark Side of the Moon or Wish You Were Here for how it should be done.

Ok People, we finally have a much deserved "Deluxe Release" of The Who's classic and amazing "Quadrophenia". I purposely waited a full week before attempting a review to give the CD a good listen 2-3 times and take in all the new demos and the amazing book. I've purchased Quadrophenia now four times on CD and was only 11 when it came out in 1973 so admittedly I do not have a strong connection to the sound of the original vinyl LP as I barely remember it. I did have it for about 5 or 6 years and when CD's came out in the mid 80's, the mix on this was a bit muddy for my ears and I remember always adding a little treble. It seemed the '96 remastered CD was brighter but a little too bright. Based on a recommendation from a die-hard fellow fan I later purchased the Japanese remaster from and was pleased with the sound of that. This new remster is clearly very close to the regular '96 remaster but in doing a PC analysis did find the range was a little wider, so it clearly is not the exact mix.

There's beem plenty of comment on the sound, but overall I do not find it bad and certainly not half as bad as some would have you believe and I can't believe someone would give this package one star. The demos are great to have. I was first nervous to hear there was some overdubbed drums on them, but it turns out that only applies to a few songs and after a few listens, I do not have a problem with them - effort was made to not make then sound too clear or modern. Pete's demos are always amzing and these are no different - it's definitely sometimes refreshing to hear Pete's vulnerable, subtle vocal take on a song rather than Roger's "locomotive" voice.

The book in this package is simply amazing. I've bought loads of boxed sets over the years and I'm not sure there's ever been a better book included with a set - it's simply gorgeous; detailed and full of great photographs - many of which this long-time fan has never seen. I'm surpised others have not commented just how nice it is. Pete gives a very detailed essay about the project and there is a track by track section also. I've added some photos of the book above in the product desciption. A few of the photos do appear a little grainy, but again, this is minor and in fact they were a little grainy in the original release.

Buying the set gives you access to some additional photos and info at on the Web. Originally there was word that there might be some additional music there as well, but sadly this has changed.

I have to give this 5 stars. I think the way to review this is by itself - I disagree giving it one star because you like some other mix better. The album is still amazing.

I personally am not a big fan of sorround music and 5.1, so the lack of entire alum in this format was ok with me.

Is it a little disppointing that the mix is not perfect? Yes, but we are talking about an almost 40 year old recording that has always has its problems. It seems that boxed sets always set you up for amazing hope and they can never live up to the hype and excitement. Even The Who's great "30 Years" boxed set has its share of problems - a couple of weird choices for songs and the unbelievably bad decision to "cross fade" tracks on disc 4.

I say if you really like Quadrophenia and/or if you are a fan of Pete's demos, pick this up - the demos and book are alone worth it.

I bought both the Aqualung and Quadrophenia deluxe boxes and the Tull box is roughly the same price as the Quadrophenia box and I don't feel ripped-out at all with the Tull box, despite it only being a single LP with many different mixes and demos. The ENTIRE Aqualung LP is mixed in 5.1 on a Blu-ray disc and the sound is fantastic. It's a top-notch product that I don't mind spending so much money on.

The Quadrophenia box is a half-finished product, at best. For the same price as the Tull box, Quadrophenia is just lacking. Quadrophenia is a complete work of art and having only selected tracks in 5.1 seems so lazy. I want to hear Quadrophenia as a complete concept CD in 5.1, not what this box set offers.

(Additional info:

I'm a big Who fan from way back and I saw them perform live several times with the original line-up of Moon, Daltry, Entwistle, and Townshend. I've bought all their LPs, cassettes, CDs over the years in many different remastered forms. I am not a big fan of Jethro Tull, but appreciate a lot of their music.)

The Quadrophenia box set turned out to be a big disappointment.

First of all I should qualify this: Quadrophenia is my all-time favorite Rock album by my favorite band. That being said, this release is a must-have for a Who fan.
The album itself has been remastered, and sounds great. It's a bit smoother and warmer yet brighter than the European remix/remaster from the 90's. This is a remaster of that remix, not from the original mix (as is the Deluxe Tommy). Anyone who considers themselves a serious Rock fan should get the 2 disc version of this package just to have the best sounding version of the album.
The 5.1 mix of selected songs sounds great (the DVD-Audio track; I haven't listened to the DVD-Video track yet), albeit not perfect. I suppose I should be happy to get any of it in 5.1, but I'd love to hear a 5.1 mix of Sea And Sand, The Punk And The Godfather, The Dirty Jobs and I'm One...for four. In all the drums are suitably thunderous, and the mix reveals much about the music. This mix reflects the original mix, as the vocals removed from The Real Me at 1:13 are back, and it sounds as if this isn't the original vocal at 1:10 but the rest of the song does. Odd, that. They have added some sound effects at the end of the song Quadrophenia, you can hear a car pull up with the song Anyway, Anyhow Anywhere on the radio, the door opens and shuts, then it drives away...followed by the sound of a Vespa driving away. There are a few flaws in the mix, for instance the electric guitar in I've Had Enough isn't as up-front as it should be, Love Reign O'er Me has too much reverb on Roger's voice making it sound too distant...also it would have been clever to have the four themes (in The Rock) move from the four speakers into the middle as the themes blend in the song. More than anything else, this begs for the release of the entire album in 5.1 with a few fixes.
The real treasures in this set are the demos and the book. Some of the demos have been released on the Scoops and others have been available on bootlegs, but this has several tracks are unheard and quite revealing. The demo of We Close Tonight puts an end to the question of whether John Entwistle wrote it or not...clearly not if Pete made the demo! There are several songs not on the final album. The book has commentary about each demo, which reveals much about how the story started and morphed into the resulting album. The book also includes everything that was in the booklet included with the original album, the lyrics, a commentary about the album by Pete as well as a "studio diary" chronicling the recording sessions. I've only skimmed the book at this point, but it's got a lot of information I was unaware of.
It would have been nice, in this "ultimate" release, to have included the entire album in 5.1, a concert version (perhaps the King Biscuit concert which was promised to us but never released) and the "other" cuts by The Who for the album such as Joker James and Four Faces (both are here as demos). But I've been listening to this since I got it on Tuesday, and I'm happy enough with what we got.

Since when is the director's cut edited shorter than the original? I am very dissappointed with the 5.1 Quadrophenia-lite version included in this box. Sure, some of the 5.1 mixes are quite good. The 5.1 mix of Dr. Jimmy is an exception. It sort of lays flat in the speakers which doesn't fit the otherwise dynamic performance. I might have been less critical if the 5.1 "E.P." had at least included the best song on the whole album - "I'm One". Well, at least we get Keith's great "Sea and Sand" drums mixed in 5.1.
I do like the demos even with the modern added drums on 4 or 5 tracks. If you want the original unadulterated demos in excellent quality, you can get them on bootlegs. For my money, the added drums on some tracks makes them more listenable. In fact, I would have preferred it if Pete took off his sloppy drums on the other demo tracks and replaced them with the professional drums. (Yes, I also prefer colorized movies -- throw stones now)
I go along with other reviewers who are dissappointed that no Who outtakes are included. I think the book is fairly good with Pete's discussion. Some words from "Roj" would have been welcome as this material has been a good part of his bread and butter in recent years and the way he sings "Love Reign Over Me" is one of if not THE great thrusts of the album. The new stereo mix of is not significantly different from the 90's remix. I do like the 90's mix, and this one, better than the original as they lopped off a good amount of the excessive reverb that was part of the original mix (compare original and new versions of "I'm One" for the most evident example). I also would like to have seen vinyl in this set as we got in the "Aqualung", "Smile" and "Station to Station" super deluxe sets.
Here's hoping we get to buy a 6th version of this album (I'm including soundtrack lp and cd versions) when they release a complete 5.1 mix.