The Who
Quadrophenia

In the original version, the one from the album, the protagonist of Quadrophenia kills himself. He kills himself in the same way that Pythagoras did, a thousand years earlier, after rumors spread about a number that should have remained secret.

Those a few years older than me (and I find it hard to believe it's possible) remember, in Franco Roddam's film, the mush seller, a must and a legend, on the streets of London back then. So they say, so I read.

Boh, what Quadrophenia is, I really don't know. I know what I remember.

I remember Pythagoras, and the different choice in the film, seen at the time, and never again. In the film, instead of the boat, there's a Vespa. And the white cliffs of Dover. And the music, which must express madness, despair.

The camera that follows our poor friend. Who rides, mad, desperate, out of his mind, on a Vespa, on a lawn as green as only an English lawn can be. And the Vespa (just the Vespa or also the protagonist?). That falls from the white cliffs. While a scream says LOVE REIGNS ON ME. I remember we also asked the Italian teacher, at school: but do you think he jumps too or does he just throw the Vespa?

That's what I remember. That doubt.

Then I remember two kids, in the public bathroom. One's a mod, the other a rocker. They're in two adjacent bathtubs. They're bathing. And singing. The same song. They don't know who they are, for the rest of the film they'll be fighting.

I remember 5:15, right after Sting's fleeting appearance. Out of my brain on a train.

I remember a guy, like twenty or thirty years younger than me. I let him hear 5:15, he asks if it's Blink 182.

I remember a shag, in an alley, during a day of struggle and fights.

Shame on those who don't have the courage to admit what a dream it was, secret and unconfessable.

And the white cliffs of Dover. And a Lambretta that falls. And a desperate boy on a train.

No, they're not Blink 182. Or maybe yes. I still don't know.