Love, Reign O'er Me

just finished listening to quadrophenia for the first time OMG ONE OF THE BEST ALBUMS I HAVE EVER HEARD. nearly every song is great, its creative, and its entertaining. love the puns throughout the album (can you sea/see the real me; love rain/reign o'er me; those are the ones i found). i think i kinda understand the ocean references now: the character, Jimmy, guess, has kind of an ebbing and changing personality, but what he really wants to be (and i guess achieves at the end) is a stable rock, who can endure the pounding sea and rain (making this up off the top of my head so stick with me). about the song, i guess tryin to redo the emotion they put into Listening to You, and did a pretty good job of it too. i have a Quadrophenia shirt, but i wore it a lot before i downloaded this album so now i feel really bad about myself. looks like im goin to have to see the movie now! ;-)

Unbelievable song, probably my favorite song by The Who, maybe my all time favorite song ever. I love the part starting 'On the dry and dusty road'. This song is so great, Roger just tears it up with his voice. To me, this song is a sad, emotional, heart rending defeat of the main character, Jimmy. He's given up completely, and it's incredible. Best sogn ever!

I particularly like the play on the word 'reign'. Townshend's song is essentially a plea for love to dominate, control and "reign o'er" him. However, there's also strong references to rain and the cleansing effect of water in the song.

It's not about any particular person, though. It has to do with the schizophrenic Jimmy choosing to take his life down a sturdier, less violent path than that of the mods.

The song concerns the main character of Quadrophenia, Jimmy, having a personal crisis and stealing a boat to go off to a small island.

As Pete Townshend described the song:

[It] refers to Meher Baba's one time comment that rain was a blessing from God; that thunder was God's Voice. It's another plea to drown, only this time in the rain. Jimmy goes through a suicide crisis. He surrenders to the inevitable, and you know, you know, when it's over and he goes back to town he'll be going through the same shit, being in the same terrible family situation and so on, but he's moved up a level. He's weak still, but there's a strength in that weakness. He's in danger of maturing.

I had a strong spiritual experience with this song years ago. The rain started falling as I was in a prayer circle with three other camp counselors. The song wasn't playing at the time but it immediately came to mind as the rain fell on the roof of the chapel. After three years the song still resonates in my soul.

^^^^Because In Quadrophernia each side of Jimmy(he had four sides) represented a band member. Each band member had a song representing this. Pete's was Love Reign O'er Me, Keith's was Bell Boy, Roger's was Helpless Dancer and John's was Is It Me?

Quadropheia is a story and at the end of the story, Jimmy steals a boat and takes it to a rock out on the sea. What happens out on the rock is described in this song.

Jimmy has taken a boat out to the rock and climbed up, only for the boat to float away. The wind is strong, there is thunder in the distance and it has started to rain. Jimmy is convinced he is going to die and begins to focus on what is going on around him. He realises that every drop of rain is going into the ocean and becoming part of it. He finally understands that he is like the ocean and his four personalities are drops of water. He has to accept that he can't be a tough guy, a romantic, a bloody lunatic or a hypocritical beggar in isolation; he is and always will be all four. He must learn to love and embrace this, and Townshend has said that ultimately the hypocrite becomes the dominant personality because of this acceptance of the four incompatible aspects of Jimmy.

I don't think Jimmy dies in the end. In the movie, you only see his scooter go flying off the cliff. It's always been very abstract. In my opinion, at the end of the story, Jimmy grows up some. He recognizes the multiple conflicting aspects of his personality and he chooses the lover to be the dominant one.

I just watched the film with Sandler as well. This song really spoke out to me. It's beautiful and it's really helping me get through a rough time in my life. I'm going to listen to Quadrophenia today while cleaning around the house.