This fall’s flood of ginormous box set re-releases continues in November with two boomer generation classics: The Who’s bombastic early ‘70s rock opera Quadrophenia and The Rolling Stones’ gritty late ‘70s comeback Some Girls. So who’s better? The Who or the Stones? (Sorry, Beatles fans.)
| Quadrophenia | Some Girls | |
| Band | The Who | The Rolling Stones |
| Originally Released | October 26, 1973 | June 9, 1978 |
| Other albums released that month | Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Bob Marley & The Wailers’ Burnin’, The Partridge Family’s Bulletin Board | Other albums released that month: Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town, Bob Dylan’s Street Legal, The Alan Parsons Project’s Pyramid |
| 10-Second Summary | An aging rock band looks back on its early years of drugs, sex and bad behaviour. | An aging rock band looks at its current years of drugs, sex and bad behaviour. |
| Most Scandalous Lyric | “What is it? I'll take it. / Who is she? I'll rape it.” (from “Dr. Jimmy”) | “Black girls just want to get fucked all night/ I just don’t have that much jaaaammmm…” (from “Some Girls”) |
| Hit song | “Love Reign O’er Me,” a rock ode to the awesome power of love | “Miss You,” a disco ode to the awesome power of lust |
| Recorded at | A half-built studio in South London’s gritty Battersea neighbourhood | The tiny Pathé Marconi studio in staid Paris suburb Boulogne-Billancourt |
| Inspired by | 1960s London, mods and rockers, teenage rebellion | 1970s New York, punk rock and disco, adult decadence |
| Fashion Accessories | French crew cuts, scooters and green anoraks | “Tongue” logo t-shirts, drain-pipe pants, heroin chic |
| Drug of Choice | 50 year-old-brandy | pharmaceutical-grade cocaine |
| Praise From Other Artists | Eddie Vedder once said that Quadrophenia “basically saved my life.” | Prince has said that “Miss You” is the only song he wished he had written. |
| Films Inspired | Quadrophenia (1979) – A cult favourite starring scrawny English actor Phil Daniels and featuring a weirdly young Sting. | Some Girls (1988) – A forgotten romantic comedy starring chiselled American actor Patrick Dempsey and featuring a sexy young Jennifer Connelly. |
| Most Over-the-Top Box Set Available | The Director’s Cut (Super Deluxe Edition): Digitally remastered album plus demos and rarities on 4CDs, one DVD with surround-sound mixes, a seven-inch vinyl single, a 100-page hardback book with a new essay by Pete Townshend, and other memorabilia. $117 on Amazon. |
Some Girls Super Deluxe Version: Digitally remastered and expanded two-CD version of the album, plus a bonus DVD, a seven-inch vinyl single with a previously banned sleeve, a hardback book, a set of postcards, Helmut Newton prints, and a poster. $153 on Amazon. |