Can You See The Real Me?

When I first blogged about this song, a commenter wrote:

I love this track because EACH part of it, (drumming, guitar, vocals, and bass) is really great and really distinct! It's very easy to concentrate on any one part and notice how great it is...

That, I asserted, was the songwriter's intention, because he wanted to peel back the four layers of character (Quadrophenia) in an analytical way and then put them all back together again.

Notice what Townshend does with his guitar during each of the four sequential "acts" or verses of the story line.  In the first, the "Doctor" verses, he plays very-odd sounding clipped chords instead of letting them ring.  In the second "act" (about his mother) he clips his chords even shorter. He's slowly disappearing, and this has the effect of revealing Keith Moon and John Entwhistle, and Roger Daltrey even more. In the third "act" about the paving stones and the girl, he's factored himself out, disappearing completely!

Who is leading during those verses? Entwhistle, Moon, Daltrey?

In the last and fourth act, the one about the "preacher," Townshend's guitar really comes back and drives hard, herding them and getting them to harmonize, just before they all shatter apart again into divergent paths.

Slogging is blow tonight, sorry about that.