“The Real Me” by The Who

"The Real Me" kicks the door open on Quadrophenia, the Who's second full-length rock opera from 1973, the second track on the album but the first one with words. Pete Townshend wrote it for Jimmy, a young English Mod split four ways inside his own head, who storms from the psychiatrist to his mother to the preacher demanding someone tell him who he really is. Townshend always called it "Can You See the Real Me".

The real star, though, is John Entwistle, whose bass line erupts all over the track like a lead guitar with a grudge; he later said he nailed it in one take while fooling around, and the band kept it. Keith Moon crashes along at full tilt, Roger Daltrey roars, and Townshend's own demo ran much slower. It went out as a single in the US and Canada in 1974.

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