A Quick One While He's Away
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"A Quick One While He's Away" is a 1966 medley written by Pete Townshend and recorded by The Who for their album A Quick One. In the performance on their Live at Leeds album Townshend calls the 9 minute "epic" track a "mini-opera" and introduces it as "Tommy's parent". This song tells the story of an unnamed girl who is left stranded by her lover "for nigh on a year." Her friends inform her that they "have a remedy"; the remedy comes in the form of Ivor the Engine Driver (the British word for the operator of a railway locomotive). As luck would have it, the original lover returns near the end to catch the couple "in the act," as Townshend says. The girl confesses her infidelity, and she is forgiven.
This song is The Who's first publicized venture into the rock opera genre, although the song "I'm a Boy" was the result of Townshend's first delve into rock opera, entitled "Quads". A studio recording appears on their A Quick One album, and a live recording appears on Live at Leeds. Curiously, when the song was performed live, instead of "girl", Townshend and Daltrey would make a point to sing "girl guide" (The British equivalent of the Girl Scouts). A video performance was made for The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, and can be seen on that video or on Jeff Stein's documentary film The Kids Are Alright. Another version recorded live at the Monterey Pop Festival can be found on the Monterey Pop Festival 4 disk set or another Who film "Thirty Years of Maximum R&B Live". A mixed studio and live version can be found on the who's four disk set "Thirty Years of Maximum R&B"
The song was used in the soundtrack of the movie Rushmore.
The section where the band repeats the word "Cello" was done as a joke. The band wanted a string section to play in the song but they couldn't afford it, so they just repeated the word where the cello was supposed to play. John: "We wanted to put 'cellos on the track but Kit Lambert said we couldn't afford it. That's why we sing 'cello, cello, cello, cello, where we thought they should be."[link]
It has been suggested that the song is about child abuse. Evidence of this is in the lyrics; when live they would sing "girl guide" instead of girl to signify a young girl. Also the lines "I missed you and I must admit I kissed a few and once did sit on Ivor the Engine Driver's lap, and later with him, had a nap," is said to be evidence that the boy at one time was also abused by Ivor the Engine Driver. This despite the fact that this sentence is spoken by the Girl Guide, and it is her boyfriend that responds to her confession with the lines "You are forgiven..." Pete Townshend has also been known to speak against child abuse.
References
External links
- [Who Tabs]
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