Looking for the BEST Version of Quadrophenia?

emailists, i hear ya. to me, the whole band died when moon died. its easier to think of them that way. touring w/o ox is almost comical in its money grab nature. ---and that's not the who. the who is teenage angst meeting wagner in a blender on puree.

they came to town a few months ago; i never even considered buying a ticket.

RIP, the Who.

btw, what is "the track version" you speak of.

I saw them live a half dozen times at the zenith from 1969-1974, once in 1985, and finally in 2007. With minor concessions for aging, the quality & energy level of last year's performance was impressive. PT's guitar technique has actually improved over the years, and the youthful & worthy back-up band of Starr & Pallidino have deep lineage in R&R. In the old days just as now, Daltry was sometimes hoarse. Moon was often drunk and Townshend pissed at Moon. While some of that friction served the music, it obviously couldn't sustain for the long term.

The original great-sounding vinyl was issued on Track Record/MCA. I'm foggy on this but recall reading somewhere that the original mix was compromised by layers of analog tape overdubs used to create this complex album. One of the later CD remasters may have tried remixing using first-generation multitracks.

>>06-02-08: Emailists
I have the orig Track UK, which some people felt is the best<<

Agree.

I have both UK and US original pressings; the US is very very close to the UK.

There is no digital version approaching either.

There is an original Track version LP on ebay now I think.

I have the original Track record and I have not found anything better. Most digital and vinyl recordings that came after lack a sense of bass and the guitars seem veiled--especially on opening track "Can you see the real me?" and "Bell Boy." My copy really rocks.

MCA is always problematic to collect. IMHO, Who's Next and By Numbers are the better sounding work--Glyn Johns did excellent production on both these and I think they are the ones to seek out. They were mic-ed perfectly around drums. Pete played a big Gretsch on Who's Next and you really hear this on the best copies.

The numerous remasters issued by MCA don't hold a candle to the original issued copies--hard to find master tape quality here but nirvana when you do. You will go through a sea of dead-sounding vinyl to find the diamonds. I had to dig pretty deep to get my copies. All these albums got heavily played by their owners and it is hard to find pristine clean-sounding copies. When you find the master tape quality ones, they really outshine anything that followed. Many of the current reissues come from a substandard tape called the "German master." Try to avoid these.

While this is not an endorsement of his etail store, Better Records, Tom Port just completed a massive shootout this week of this title and has a nice review of two albums that won out. check out www.dccblowout.com