This is THE quintiscential Who album and without a doubt one of the greatest albums ever made. Of course it was an accident. Well at least when Pete set out to write it, it was supposed to be something very different. It was to be another oprea called Lighthouse. Pete went around explaining the plot to anyone who would listen. Nobody got it. At this point even now, when he recounts what this thing was supposed to be about you can only have a very vauge notion of what it is. After he had a nervous breakdown, he took the remnance of the project and created this album. The only thing that stops it from being a perfect album is that there are some strange lines and refrences in the songs that were part of the original story and don't really hold up on their own. The ideas expressed do.
This is a fine example of the sum is greater that the parts. each player is brilliant and contributes to the whole, but none could exist without the other. Everything comes together and just works. Pete has often complained about Keith Moon's drumming and said that he wished at some point he would just play a straight 2-4 beat. Keith was not capable or least refused to. And thank God for that. Can you imagine this material in any other drummer's hands. I have heard them play this material live after Moon's death and it just doesn't quite work. There is something about how Keith played in a very unconventional way that matched the rest of the guys and most importantly, Pete's writing that is just brilliant.
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