at least as a plot..the movie of Tommy is unbelievably laughable..the sybolism is driven home with Ken Russell's uber-subtle pneumatic drill! Quad features 5.15, Love Reign Over Me and a watchable movie! Quad for me then!

If the young lad had been good at shove ha'penny I might have been more impressed.

'cos it f**ken rocks! And Tommy doesn't..

Tommy is good, but Quadrophenia is a cut above.

that I think they are both awful?

The Who were a mighty proposition, a superb singles band and a monumental live act - but these two things epitomise all that went wrong with Rock.

Tommy is beyond ludicrous and the sort of thing I can imagine a slightly weird teenager putting together after seeing The Daniel Jazz at school and wanting to make his own, like, "statement"?

Quad - as Bing above says - does at least have some good songs. And the film has a certain scene with the Lesley Ash character in an alleyway which, um, made an impression on the 12 year old me.

As for the film of Tommy - I could happily make a case for it being the worst film ever made. Mind you - Ken Russell gives himself some competition in that contest.

Parallels between Townsend and Russell in that they take themselves far too seriously and seem incapable of subtlety or nuance - but instead hope that piffle with the application of bombast makes for *Significance*

Though I find Tommy perfectly listenable, in fact the opening 5 tracks contain some of my favourite Townshend guitar - and illustrate what an excellent, inventive acoustic guitarist he is.

I don't think Tommy is actually devoid of top tunes either - Christmas, 1921 (especially the harmonies), Acid Queen, Pinball Wizard, Sally Simpson, See Me, Feel Me.

Let's face it, if it wasn't so hard to separate from that silly movie (which I rather like, it has some enduring (baked beans) images)...

Lots of reasons, but mostly because it has The Real Me. I expect most fellow bassists would concur.

Either way Quadrophenia comes out top. As pointed out above all the best tunes are on Quad and at least the film version has a narrative. In fact, Tommy is the ONLY film I have walked out on.

Pub quiz fact: Frank Roddam, the director of Quadrophenia (as well as the only film I have appeared in), invented the Master Chef format. He probably makes most of his money from that nowerdays.

But I like both of them

He says everything he needs to in this.

... I've heard neither. Rock Operas make me ill. But I prefer Pinball Wizard to The Real Me if that means anything.

Sometimes it´s nice to be wrong.

Tommy is NOT a major classic. It's quite poor.

Quadrophenia on the other hand is wonderful.

familiar with both works, who prefers Tommy to Quadrophenia.
Tommy could easily be cut back to a single album and it still wouldn't be the better album, whereas Quad has very little filler. It is easily the better of the two.

I bow to no man in my love of the Who but 34 years since buying both, have to say that a few obvious tracks apart, both are pretty bloody awful