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", and a precursor to their later, more ambitious project Tommy. 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 and the latter film's soundtrack album. Another version recorded live at the Monterey Pop Festival can be found on the Monterey Pop Festival four-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 original version is sung by all four members of the band. The a capella intro is sung in multiple harmonies with no clear lead voice. The "Down Your Street" section is sung by Keith Moon. "We Have A Remedy" is sung by Roger Daltrey. John Entwistle plays "Ivor The Engine Driver" in that section. "We'll Soon Be Home" is sung in harmonies led by Daltrey. Finally, "You Are Forgiven" is sung by Pete Townshend -- atypically, his only lead vocal on the album (except, on some versions, part of "Heat Wave"); even Moon sings another song on the album. (Note: the preceding "section titles" are not official.)

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. (And at this point in time, just before Tommy was released, the band was tens of thousands of pounds in debt.) 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."[1]