Lyrics for the album "Quadrophenia" by The Who

I am the Sea

Is it me, for a moment...
Bell boy...
Love, reign o'er me...
Can you see the real me, can you, can you?

The Real Me

I went back to the doctor
To get another shrink
I sit and tell him about my weekend
But he never betrays what he thinks

Can you see the real me, doctor?

I went back to my mother
I said, "I'm crazy ma, help me."
She said, "I know how it feels son
'Cause it runs in the family."

Can you see the real me, mother?

The cracks between the paving stones
Look like rivers of flowing veins
Strange people who know me
Peeping from behind every window pane
The girl I used to love
Lives in this yellow house
Yesterday she passed me by
She doesn't want to know me now

Can you see the real me, can you?

I ended up with the preacher
Full of lies and hate
I seemed to scare him a little
So he showed me to the golden gate

Can you see the real me preacher?
Can you see the real me doctor?
Can you see the real me mother?
Can you see the real me?

Quadrophenia

[Instrumental]

Cut My Hair

Why should I care
If I have to cut my hair?
I've got to move with the fashions
Or be outcast
I know I should fight
But my old man he's really alright
And I'm still living at home
Even though it won't last

Zoot suit, white jacket with side vents
Five inches long
I'm out on the street again
And I'm leaping along
I'm dressed right for a beach fight
But I just can't explain
Why that uncertain feeling is still
Here in my brain

The kids at school
Have parents that seem so cool
And though I don't want to hurt them
Mine want me their way
I clean my room and my shoes
But my mother found a box of blues
And there doesn't seem much hope
They'll let me stay

Zoot suit, etc.

Why do I have to be different to them?
Just to earn the respect of a dance hall friend
We have the same old row, again and again
Why do I have to move with a crowd
Of kids that hardly notice I'm around
I have to work myself to death just to fit in

I'm coming down
Got home on the very first train from town
My dad just left for work
He wasn't talking
It's all a game
'Cos inside I'm just the same
My fried egg makes me sick
First thing in the morning

The Punk Meets the Godfather

PUNK:
You declared you would be three inches taller
You only became what we made you
Thought you were chasing a destiny calling
You only earned what we gave you
You fell and cried as our people were starving
Now you know that we blame you
You tried to walk on the trail we were carving
Now you know that we framed you

G.F.:
I'm the guy in the sky
Flying high Flashing eyes
No surprise I told lies
I'm the punk in the gutter
I'm the new president
But I grew and I bent
Don't you know? don't it show?
I'm the punk with the stutter
My my my my my mmmm my my my

GGGGG-g-g-g-g generation

PUNK:
We tried to speak between lines of oration
You could only repeat what we told you
Your axe belongs to a dying nation
They don't know that we own you
You're watching movies trying to find the feelers
You only see what we show you
We're the slaves of the phony leaders
Breathe the air we have blown you

G.F.:
I'm the guy etc.

I have to be careful not to preach
I can't pretend that I can teach
And yet I've lived your future out
By pounding stages like a clown
And on the dance floor broken glass
The bloody faces slowly pass
The broken seats in empty rows
It all belongs to me you know

PUNK:
You declared etc.

I'm One

Every year is the same
And I feel it again
I'm a loser - no chance to win
Leaves start falling
Come down is calling
Loneliness starts sinking in

But I'm one
I am one
And I can see
That this is me
And I will be
You'll all see
I'm the one

Where do you get
Those blue blue jeans?
Faded patched secret so tight
Where do you get
That walk oh so lean?
Your shoes and your shirts
All just right
But I'm one etc.

I got a Gibson
Without a case
But I can't get that even tanned look on my face
Ill fitting clothes
I blend in the crowd
Fingers so clumsy
Voice too loud

But I'm one

The Dirty Jobs

I am a man who looks after the pigs
Usually I get along okay
I am man who reveals all he digs
Should be more careful what I say

I'm getting put down
I'm getting pushed round
I'm being beaten every day
My life's fading
But things are changing
I'm not gonna sit and weep again

I am man who drives a local bus
I take miners to work, but the pits all closed today
It's easy to see that you are one of us
Ain't it funny how we all seem to look the same?

We're getting put down etc.

My karma tells me
You've been screwed again
If you let them do it to you
You've got yourself to blame
It's you who feels the pain
It's you that feels ashamed

I am a young man
I ain't done very much
You men should remember how you used to fight
Just like a child, I've been seeing only dreams
I'm all mixed up but I know what's right

I'm getting put down etc.

Helpless Dancer (Roger's theme)

When a man is running from his boss
Who hold a gun that fires "cost"
And people die from being cold
Or left alone because they're old
And bombs are dropped on fighting cats
And children's dreams are run with rats
If you complain you disappear
Just like the lesbians and queers
No one can love without the grace
Of some unseen and distant face
And you get beaten up by blacks
Who though they worked still got the sack
And when your soul tells you to hide
Your very right to die denied
And in the battle on the streets
You fight computers and receipts
And when a man is trying to change
But only causes further pain
You realize that all along
Something in us going wrong...

You stop dancing

Is It in my Head

I see a man without a problem
I see a country always starved
I hear the music of a heartbeat
I walk, and people turn and laugh

Is it in my head
Is it in my head
Is in my head here at the start?
Is it in my head
Is it in my head
Is it in my head, or in my heart?

I pick up phones and hear my history
I dream of all the calls I miss
I try to number those who love me
And find exactly what the trouble is

Is it in my head etc.

I feel I'm being followed
My head is empty
Yet every word I say turns out a sentence
Make love to a stranger
Just asking for directions
Turn from being help to being questions

I see a man without a problem

I've Had Enough

You were under the impression
That when you were walking forwards
You'd end up further onward
But things ain't quite that simple

You got altered information
You were told to not take chances
You missed out on new dances
Now you're losing all your dimples

My jacket's gonna be cut slim and checked
Maybe a touch of seersucker, with an open neck
I ride a G.S. scooter with my hair cut neat
I wear my wartime coat in the wind and sleet

Love Reign O'er Me
Love Reign O'er Me
Love

I've had enough of living
I've had enough of dying
I've had enough of smiling
I've had enough of crying
I've taken all the high roads
I've squandered and I've saved
I've had enough of childhood
I've had enough of graves

Get a job and fight to keep it
Strike out to reach a mountain
Be so nice on the outside
But inside keep ambition

Don't cry because you hunt them
Hurt them first they'll love you
There's a millionaire above you
And you're under his suspicion

I've had enough of dancehalls
I've had enough of pills
I've had enough of streetfights
I've seen my share of kills
I'm finished with the fashions
And acting like I'm tough
I'm bored with hate and passion
I've had enough of trying to love

5:15

Why should I care?
Why should I care?

Girls of fifteen
Sexually knowing
The ushers are sniffing
Eau-de-cologning
The seats are seductive
Celibate sitting
Pretty girls digging
Prettier women

Magically bored
On a quiet street corner
Free frustration
In our minds and our toes
Quiet stormwater
M-m-my generation

Uppers and downers
Either way blood flows

(Inside outside) Leave me alone
(Inside outside) Nowhere is home
(Inside outside) Where have I been?
Out of my brain on the five fifteen

On a raft in the quarry
Slowly sinking
On the back of a lorry
Holy hitching
Dreadfully sorry
Apple scrumping
Born in the war
Birthday punching

He man drag
In the glittering ballroom
Gravely outrageous
In my high heel shoes
Tightly undone
They know what they're showing
Sadly ecstatic
That their heroes are news

Why should I care?

Sea and Sand

Here by the sea and sand
Nothing ever goes as planned
I just couldn't face going home
It was just a drag on my own
They finally threw me out
My mother got drunk on stout
My dad couldn't stand on two feet
As he lectured about morality
Now I guess the families complete
With me hanging round on the street
Or here on the beach

The girl I love
Is a perfect dresser
Wears every fashion
Gets it to the tee
Heavens above
I got to match her
She knows just how
She wants her man to be
Leave it to me

My jacket's gonna be cut slim and checked
Maybe a touch of seersucker with an open neck
I ride a G.S. scooter with my hair cut neat
I wear my wartime coat in the wind and sleet

I see her dancing
Across the ballroom
UV light making starshine
Of her smile
I am the face
She has to know me
I'm dressed up better than anyone
Within a mile

So how come the other tickets look much better?
Without a penny to spend they dress to the letter
How come the girls come on oh so cool
Yet when you meet 'em, every one's a fool?

Come sleep on the beach
Keep within my reach
I just want to die with you near
I'm feeling so high with you here
I'm wet and I'm cold
But thank God I ain't old
I should have split home at fifteen
Why didn't I ever say what I mean?
There's a story that the grass is so green
What did I see?
Where have I been?

Nothing is planned, by the sea and the sand

Drowned

There are men high up there fishing
Haven't seen quite enough of the world
I ain't seen a sign of my heroes
And I'm still diving down for pearls

Let me flow into the ocean
Let me get back to the sea
Let me be stormy and let me be calm
Let the tide in, and set me free

I'm flowing under bridges
Then flying through the sky
I'm travelling down cold metal
Just a tear in baby's eye

Let me flow into the ocean
Let me get back to the sea
Let me be stormy and let me be calm
Let the tide in, rush over me

I am not the actor
This can't be the scene
But I am in the water
As far as I can see...

I'm remembering distant memories
Recalling other names
Rippling over canyons
And boiling in the train

Let me etc.

Bell Boy

The beach is a place where a man can feel
He's the only soul in the world that's real
Well I see a face coming through the haze
I remember him from those crazy days

Ain't you the guy who used to set the paces
Riding up in front of a hundred faces
I don't suppose you would remember me
But I used to follow you back in sixty-three

I've got a good job and I'm newly born
You should see me dressed up in my uniform
I work in hotel, all gilt and flash
Remember the place where the doors were smashed?

Bell Boy! I got to get running now
Bell Boy! Keep my lip buttoned down
Bell Boy! Carry this baggage out
Bell Boy! Always running at someone's bleedin' heel
You know how I feel . . . always running at someone's heel

Some nights I still sleep on the beach
Remember when stars were in reach
Then I wander in early to work
Spend my day licking boots for my perks

The beach is a place where a man can feel
He's the only soul in the world that's real
But I see a face coming through the haze
I remember him from those crazy days

People often change
But when I look in your eyes
You could learn a lot from
A job like mine
The secret to me
it ain't flown like a flag
I carry it behind
This bleedin' little badge
Wot says...

Bell Boy!

Doctor Jimmy

(Including John's theme, Is It Me?) Laugh and say I'm green
I've seen things you'll never see
Talk behind my back
But I'm off the beaten track
I'll take on anyone
Ain't scared of a bloody nose
Drink till I drop down
With one eye on my clothes

What is it? I'll take it
Who is she? I'll rape it
Got a bet there? I'll meet it
Getting High? You can't beat it

Doctor Jimmy and mister Jim
When I'm pilled you don't notice him
He only comes out when I drink my gin

You say she's a virgin
I'm gonna be the first in
Her fellah's gonna kill me?
Oh fucking will he
I'm seeing double
But don't miss me if you can
There's gonna be trouble
When she choses her man

What is it? etc.

Doctor Jimmy and mister Jim etc.
Is it me? For a moment
The stars are falling
The heat is rising
The past is calling

I'm going back soon
Home to get the baboon
Who cut up my eye
Messed up my Levis
I'm feeling restless
Bring another score around
Maybe something stronger
Could really hold me down

The Rock

[Instrumental]

Love Reign O'er Me

(Pete's theme) Only love
Can make it rain
The way the beach is kissed by the sea
Only love
Can make it rain
Like the sweat of lovers'
Laying in the fields

Love, Reign o'er me
Love, Reign o'er me, rain on me

Only love
Can bring the rain
That makes you yearn to the sky
Only love
Can bring the rain
That falls like tears from on high

Love Reign O'er me

On the dry and dusty road
The nights we spend apart alone
I need to get back home to cool cool rain
The nights are hot and black as ink
I can't sleep and I lay and I think
Oh God, I need a drink of cool cool rain

Get Out and Stay Out

Get out and don't come back no more
Get out and don't come back no more
Get out, don't come back
Get out, don't come back
Get out, and don't come back no more

Four Faces

He kicked me out, he kicked me out
He kicked me out, he kicked me out
[incomplete]

Joker James

[unavailable]