A QUICK ONE, WHILE HE'S AWAY

This really could be the most progressive 7" singles recorded in 1966! When The Who were making their second album that eventually was to be titled A Quick One, their producer and manager Kit Lambert encouraged Pete Townshend to write a longer piece to fill up the album length. 'A Quick One, While He's Away' (9:10) is a suite of six song fragments, and it tells about a girl who has an affair while her lover is away but is forgiven.

The intro 'Her Man's Gone' is a multi-vocal a cappella piece lasting only about 25 seconds, followed by an uptempo rocker 'Crying Town'. 'We Have a Remedy' is a charming movement with its la-la-la-la-la-laa harmonies, and the hilarious 'Ivor the Engine Driver' introduces the other man in the first person. 'Soon Be Home' has a laid-back country feel and The Beach Boys reminding vocal harmonies repeating the title's words. The cathartic finale 'You Are Forgiven' starts the B side of the single. The Who wanted cellos there, but Kit Lambert could not afford it so the band ended up singing "Cello, cello, cello" at the beginning of the movement.

In the performance on Live at Leeds Townshend calls the song a mini-opera and introduces it as Tommy's parents. Indeed it is a clear precursor to the seminal "rock opera" Tommy (1969). Within nine minutes you hear many things that stylistically have an equivalent somewhere along the 2-LP of Tommy. It sure feels very hectic and tightly packed, but that's an essential part of its peculiar charm. The movements follow each other in a hurry, and yet the whole is very coherent. The production is very good for its time.

'A Quick One, While He's Away' has a tragic background underneath its cheerfulness. It was inspired by Townsend's childhood experiences, as he reveals in his 2012 autobiography Who I Am. (I am citing the Wikipedia article.) The song "briefly refers to his molestation as a child, but not explicitly. 'Ivor the Engine Driver' is said by Townshend to be a metaphor for the possible abuser. The 'Her Man's Been Gone' section refers to Townshend's separation from his parents and spending time with his grandmother, Denny. The crying in the 'Crying Town' portion is his own, for his parents to pick him up and to leave Denny, who is said by Townshend to have been the person who brought in unknown men into her home. The 'little girl' referred to in his song is actually a make-believe 'imaginary constant friend' and 'twin girl who suffered every privation I suffered'. 'You Are Forgiven' presents someone coming to Townshend's rescue: his mother. The lyric about sitting on Ivor the Engine Driver's lap 'and later with him had a nap' also hints at what may have happened. The song ends with the verbal chant of 'you are forgiven', which Townshend states that when The Who performed the song, he would always get into a frenzy. He states that those who were being forgiven was everyone referred to in the song's lyrics, including himself."

In 2016, Rolling Stone ranked 'A Quick One, While He's Away' number 4 on its list of the 50 greatest songs by The Who.

The single's B side continues with 'So Sad About Us' which on A Quick One album comes before the epic final piece. It's a good lesser known song from The Who, combining the raw rock energy and The Moody Blues reminding melodicism. I'm tempted to give the breathtaking musical contents of this unique single five stars. The Who definitely were ahead of their time in 1966.