What are the Who singing about in the second verse? “He man drag in a glittering ballroom, gravely outrageous in MY high heel shoes…”
Mod fashion.
The whole song is about a guy on the 5:15 to Brighton high as a kite, so I am not sure the lyrics have much meaning beyond that.
“Out of my brain on the five-fifteen”
In case the OP is not aware, I should point out that 5:15 is part of the Who’s lesser known rock opera, Quadrophenia.
Quadrophenia is the story of Jimmy, a teenager in early '60s London who suffers from mood swings and has an erratic, four-sided personality (the titular “quadrophenia”, a play on “schizophrenia”, and the album basically tells the story of his attempts to find “the real me” by taking drugs (amphetamine pills mostly), getting into street fights, and becoming a Mod (a youth subculture based around American R&B, motor scooters, and a suave manner of dress reminiscent of the teddy boys). At the point in the story where 5:15 happens, he’s on a downward spiral - he’s lost his job as an office gopher, wrecked his Vespa, and his parents have kicked him out after finding his drug stash. He’s even become disillusioned with his favorite pop idols (the Who, naturally) after seeing them play a concert and realizing that they aren’t even real Mods, just phonies moving with the trends.
At this point, Jimmy decides that the best time he had in his life so far, the time when he felt most like he belonged to something and he was in touch with who he really was inside, was chasing Rockers (the Mods’ rivals, who favored rock & roll and the biker look) through a hotel lobby with dozens of other Mods during the Brighton beach riots a few months earlier. With the little money he has left, he gathers up his things and hops on the train to Brighton - and, to pass the time on the way, decides to take some LSD. That’s basically where he is at that point - staring out the train window, tripping balls, with no real plan for the future.
Now you’ve ruined it for me.
Oh, and one more thing -
- the line about “high heel shoes” is a reference to this song, originally by Tommy Tucker, here covered by a Mod group.
Smapti, thanks a million! No, I did not know the song in question comes from Quadrophenia, nor did I know it was a lesser rock opera. Thanks for clearing this up!
You have a chance to see Quad live coming up. It ain’t the real Who, but it’s all we’ve got. I can’t wait to see Pete play again.
Excellent recent documentary on the story:BBC: Quadrophenia: Can You See the Real Me?
If you have a lot of money to throw around the “Director’s Cut” boxed set is worth the investment. It’s beautifully packaged with some excellent liner notes and it sounds great.
Last but not least, the new Criterion DVD of the 1979 movie is really, really well done. The restoration, especially the sound, is one of the best jobs I’ve ever seen/heard.
My favorite album, hands down. Just listened it this morning on the way to work.
How long is your commute?!?
Well summarized. Just a note to add that “Quadrophenia” is defined as above - and also said to be linked to each of the band’s four personalities (and if you know anything about the band, they were a VERY diverse set of personalities). So all of those types contained within Jimmy the Mod…
A lesser rock opera? BURN THE HERETIC!
it is genius and one of my favorite albums of all time
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Pete’s autobiography, Who Am I, came out last week. It’s a rather odd book (and perhaps worthy of a separate thread), but certainly worth reading if you’re a fan.
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Oh yeah; I’ve been circling it and will read it sooner rather than later. I agree that the excerpts I’ve read are very Pete - intense, overthought, insightful but you worry about the guy. Not quite the same as Keith Richard’s book 
:smack:
Way too late for the edit window, the title is Who I Am.
Yeah. Less known, but not lesser. Better than Tommy (and I love Tommy).
What season and what episode was it in?
