Post #94105 by Scrimshaw on Wed, Jun 2, 2004 11:04 AM

The Jab's right on about the Who's moddom. They themselves didn't identify as mods - in fact Daltry had been a Ted (he did always seem the odd man out. He was also the Who's token sober guy... but I digress).

By the time Quadraphenia came out, mods had lost their feel for the Who, and vice versa. That movie is all about the emptiness of the mod movement, or any movement built around uniforms and a strict canon of pop music. Jimmy the mod peels the onion to find the heart of mod. There is none. Ace Face, super mod, is only a bell boy. All Jimmy's mates tell him they just do it for a lark, really. That movie is genius in its dissection of fashion+music orthodoxies, and is ironically both solidly anti-mod and a great send-up of mod culture. Kinda like Clockwork Orange in that the side efect of its critique is a sort of ambivalent glorification.

Townsend has a great song about marching out in uniform that applies as well. Off "Empty Glass" maybe?

The Jam seemed to embrace their mod following a bit more. Well, a lot more. And they did a wicked cover of David Watts.