For me, this is the ultimate Who recording. It is all about the time of their emergence among Mods and Rockers in 1960s London, but told from the more mature and cynical perspective that age brings. I bought the LP when it came out and played the hell out of it. The weaving together of the themes in “Love, Reign O’er Me” is amazing, especially with headphones. I’d always thought that Townshend was a genius, but this proved it to me.
I also remember that he was drunk or high when mixing the album, and that Daltrey was disgusted with him at the time. I seem to recall that Townshend went back to the studio later (presumably sober) and remixed the album, which was re-issued.
The trouble is that I loved the original mix, and didn’t much care for the “corrected” mix when I heard it. It was probably a case of what I was familiar with, rather than what was “correct”. And it was all academic to me at the time; I had my LPs and didn’t need another copy. But now I am thinking about picking it up on CD, and I see the “Original recording remastered” designation. Does this mean that they’ve gone back to PT’s original mix, or is it just a cleaner version of the remix?
It’s the remix. All the Who’s stuff currently available on CD is remixed. Ya know what bugs me most about the remixed Quadrophenia? On the original mix there’s a tiny bit of background studio chatter in “Cut My Hair” just before the line “The kids at school have parents that seem so cool.” This has been mixed out of the remaster–and understandably, since it was obviously an accidental inclusion in the first place–but hearing the song without that meaningless little blip of speech is like not being able to scratch an itch. Funny how something so incredibly trivial can make such a difference to some of us, innit?
I’ve just confirmed that the little bit of chat is present on the audiophile remaster, Mobile Fidelity UDCD 2-550. That’s a deluxe remastering of the original mix. It’s been out of print for a long time, and will cost a lot of money if you can find one (they were about $45 new for one disc - this is two - and the prices have gone up, even though all extant copies are used). But it’s out there somewhere.