| "A Quick One, While He's Away" | ||||
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| Song by The Who from the album A Quick One | ||||
| Released | December 9, 1966 | |||
| Recorded | IBC Studios, Pye Studios, and Regent Sound: early November 1966 | |||
| Genre | Rock, power pop, pop rock | |||
| Length | 9:10 | |||
| Label | Reaction Records (UK) Decca Records (as "Happy Jack", U.S.) |
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| Writer | Pete Townshend | |||
| Producer | Kit Lambert | |||
| A Quick One track listing | ||||
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"A Quick One, While He's Away" is a 1966 medley written by Pete Townshend and recorded by The Who for their album A Quick One. The song also appears on the album BBC Sessions. In the performance on their Live at Leeds album Townshend calls the 9 minute "epic" track a "mini-opera" and introduces it as "Tommy's parent". This song tells the story of an unnamed girl whose lover has been gone "for nigh on a year." Her friends inform her that they "have a remedy"; the remedy comes in the form of Ivor the Engine Driver. When the lover returns, the girl confesses her infidelity, and she is ultimately forgiven.
The song has six distinct sections. The brief harmonized a cappella intro is titled "Her Man's Gone". The "Crying Town" section is sung by Roger Daltrey in an atypical low register. Daltrey also sings "We Have a Remedy" in his more usual voice. John Entwistle plays "Ivor the Engine Driver" in that section. Then comes "Soon Be Home", another harmonized section. Finally, "You Are Forgiven" is sung by Pete Townshend — his only lead vocal on the album (except, on most versions of the album, a small part of "Heat Wave") The Who wanted cellos at the final "mini"-movement, "You Are Forgiven", but producer and manager Kit could not afford it so they ended up saying "Cello, cello, cello".[1]
This song is The Who's first publicized venture into the rock opera genre,[2] although the song "I'm a Boy" was the result of Townshend's first delve into rock opera, entitled "Quads", and a precursor to their later, more ambitious project Tommy. A studio recording appears on their A Quick One album, and a live recording appears on Live at Leeds. Curiously, when the song was performed live, instead of "girl", Townshend and Daltrey would make a point to sing "Girl Guide". A video performance was made for The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, and can be seen on that video and on the documentary film The Kids Are Alright. It also appears on both films' soundtrack albums. Another version recorded live at the Monterey Pop Festival can be found on the Monterey Pop Festival four-disk set and on another Who film, Thirty Years of Maximum R&B Live. A mixed studio and live version can be found on The Who's four disk set Thirty Years of Maximum R&B.
Another version of this song is available on the DVD, At Kilburn 1977 + Live at the Coliseum, with Townshend's long explanation of the song and constant humorous comments by Keith Moon. However, because of problems with the cameras, part of the performance is lost, and was replaced by stylised footage.
The section where the band repeats the word "cello" was done as a joke. The band wanted a string section to play in the song but Kit Lambert said that they couldn't afford it, so they just repeated the word where the cello was supposed to play.
The Live at Leeds version of the song was used in the soundtrack of the movie Rushmore (though the Rock and Roll Circus version, specifically "You Are Forgiven", was used in the film).
A short tease of the final section, "You Are Forgiven", was used to end a concert at the Wembley Arena on November 16, 2000. That was the first time any part of the song was played live by The Who since 1970, and also the last time so far. Pete Townshend played the song in its entirety on several dates of his 1993 PSYCHODERELECT solo tour.
The song was rehearsed for inclusion in The Who's 2006/2007 North American Tour, but was not part of any set list.
The name of "Ivor the Engine Driver" was influenced by the UK TV series Ivor the Engine.
Graham Coxon performed the song in late 2004 at the Queens of Noize Christmas Party.
My Morning Jacket performed a cover of the song at the 2006 Bonnaroo Music Festival and on several European dates during their stint as an opening act for Pearl Jam in the same year, when the latter's frontman Eddie Vedder would join them on stage. One such occasion (9/19/06, PalaIsozaki, Torino) is documented as a bonus track on the DVD version of the Pearl Jam concert film Immagine in Cornice. My Morning Jacket covered the song again during the encore of night 4 of their 5-day concert series at New York City's Terminal 5 in 2010.[3]
Green Day recently recorded a cover that was included as a bonus track on deluxe editions of their recent album 21st Century Breakdown. They have also performed all six sections of the song at sound checks. The band performed the song in its entirety at their July 28, 2009 concert at New York City's Madison Square Garden and also on April 25, 2010 at New York City's Bowery Electric as their side-project Foxboro Hot Tubs.
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