NP - James Wood on Quadrophenia

[John Carvill]

Credit where due etc., here's something by James Wood that I actually like:

"... The energy of the music has its counterpart in the lyrics.
Townshend never wrote better words than here. The narrative of the
"mod kid" - from teenage rebel to down-and-out, from London to
Brighton, a boy both following the fashion and left behind by it -
gives the lyrics shape and tautness. One of the sadnesses of being
"trained" in English literature is that it makes you snobbish or
uncertain about the literary quality of rock lyrics. When I was a
teenager, I used to think that Bruce Springsteen's phrase "the lonely
cool before dawn" (from "Thunder Road") was great poetry. Nowadays, I
still think it is pretty good rock writing, though a bit kitschy too,
and to think like this is to have lost some essential trust.
Townshend's writing can be pretentious, but at its best was more
sociologically acute even than Springsteen's - less sentimental, and
brilliant with one-liners: "I was born with a plastic spoon in my
mouth" ("Substitute); "Hope I die before I get old" ("My Generation");
"Teenage wasteland" ("Baba O'Riley"); "And the parting on the left /
Is now the parting on the right . . . Meet the new boss / Same as the
old boss" ("Won't Get Fooled Again"). ..."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/30/quadrophenia-seminal-album-who