Editing Quadrophenia (section)

== Background ==
1972 was the least active year for the Who since they had formed. The group had achieved great commercial and critical success with the albums ''[[Tommy (The Who album)|Tommy]]'' and ''[[Who's Next]]'', but were struggling to come up with a suitable follow-up.{{sfn|Marsh|1983|p=395}} The group recorded new material with ''Who's Next'' collaborator [[Glyn Johns]] in May 1972, including "Is It in My Head" and "Love Reign O'er Me" which were eventually released on ''Quadrophenia'', and a mini-opera called "Long Live Rock – Rock Is Dead", but the material was considered too derivative of ''Who's Next'' and sessions were abandoned.{{sfn|Marsh|1983|p=396}} In an interview for ''Melody Maker'', guitarist and bandleader [[Pete Townshend]] said "I've got to get a new act together… People don't really want to sit and listen to all our past".{{sfn|Neill|Kent|2002|p=315}} He had become frustrated that the group had been unable to produce a film of ''Tommy'' (a [[Tommy (1975 film)|film version]] of ''Tommy'' would be released in 1975) or ''Lifehouse'' (the abortive project that resulted in ''Who's Next''), and decided to follow [[Frank Zappa]]'s idea of producing a musical soundtrack that could produce a narrative in the same way as a film. Unlike ''Tommy'', the new work had to be grounded in reality and tell a story of youth and adolescence that the audience could relate to.{{sfn|Atkins|2000|p=177}}

Townshend became inspired by "Long Live Rock – Rock Is Dead"'s theme and in autumn 1972 began writing material, while the group put out unreleased recordings including "[[Join Together (The Who song)|Join Together]]" and "[[Relay (song)|Relay]]" to keep themselves in the public eye. In the meantime, bassist [[John Entwistle]] released his second solo album, ''[[Whistle Rymes]]'', singer [[Roger Daltrey]] worked on solo material, and [[Keith Moon]] featured as a drummer in the film ''[[That'll Be the Day (film)|That'll Be the Day]]''.{{sfn|Marsh|1983|pp=396,397}} Townshend had met up with "Irish" Jack Lyons, one of the original Who fans, which gave him the idea of writing a piece that would look back on the group's history and its audience.{{sfn|Marsh|1983|p=399}} He created the character of Jimmy from an amalgamation of six early fans of the group, including Lyons, and gave the character a four-way [[split personality]], which led to the album's title (a play on [[schizophrenia]]).{{sfn|Neill|Kent|2002|p=317}} Unlike other Who albums, Townshend insisted on composing the entire work, though he deliberately made the initial demos sparse and incomplete so that the other group members could contribute to the finished arrangement.{{sfn|Marsh|1983|p=413}}

Work was interrupted for most of 1972 in order to work on [[Lou Reizner]]'s orchestral version of ''Tommy''.{{sfn|Marsh|1983|p=400}} Daltrey finished his first solo album, which included the hit single "[[Giving It All Away]]",{{sfn|Marsh|1983|p=405}} fueling rumours of a split in the press. Things were not helped by Daltrey discovering that managers [[Kit Lambert]] and [[Chris Stamp]] had large sums of money unaccounted for, and suggested they should be fired, which Townshend resisted.{{sfn|Marsh|1983|pp=406}}