Chet seems to be a swinger of sorts these days. Who knew nerds had it in them? Hmmm….

Oh, man, do I remember Quadraphonic as a miserable failure of an audio format. It was even worse then the Beta vs. VHS clash of the 80s. Here it was 2 vs 4 speakers. The biggest problem with the format was there was *NO* definitive format. There were at least 4 or 5 different formats fighting and on top of that there were technical issues with Quad records and so the format never took off. Today you may recognize Quad as Surround sound!

“Quadrophenia” was a 1973 double album release by the Who which returned once more to the Rock Opera format that they created with “Tommy” back in 1969. I think this outing was much stronger than its predecessor, not only in the overall production and sound (which is driven by Keith Moon’s impecible drumming) but Pete Townsend had really found himself as a composer and musician. I received “Quadrophenia” as a Christmas present from my first girlfriend (well, first girlfriend I could *actually* take out on dates as I had a driver’s license finally). I felt like a real turd as I had gotten her a Jethro Tull album for FREE by joining the Columbia record club (remember those damn “no album this month” cards you had to return or you’d end up with a Barry Manilow album?). She had dropped like $10 on me and I spent, um, nothing. I’m a cheap date. 🙂 Remember, in 1973 you could, like, buy a house for $10 so it was a *lot* of money for a 16 year old girl to spend on her cheap boyfriend. She was also the first girl to “french” me and what a discovery that was at age 16. “What the hell is that?” I remember asking her. Ew! How unsanitary! I remember thinking. I quickly forgot about the germs…
🙂

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