Love, Reign o'er Me

"Love, Reign o'er Me"
Single by The Who
from the album Quadrophenia
B-side	"Water"
Released	27 October 1973
Format	Vinyl
Recorded	May 1972 at Olympic Studios, London, England; additional tracks recorded on 8 June 1973 at "The Kitchen"
Length	5:48 (Album version) 3:07 (Single edit)
Label	Track/MCA
Writer(s)	Pete Townshend
Producer(s)	Glyn Johns, the Who
The Who singles chronology
"5:15" (1973) "Love, Reign o'er Me" (1973) "The Real Me" (1974)
Quadrophenia track listing 17 tracks Side one "I Am the Sea" "The Real Me" "Quadrophenia" "Cut My Hair" "The Punk and the Godfather" Side two "I'm One" "The Dirty Jobs" "Helpless Dancer" "Is It in My Head?" "I've Had Enough" Side three "5:15" "Sea and Sand" "Drowned" "Bell Boy" Side four "Doctor Jimmy" "The Rock" "Love, Reign o'er Me"

17 tracks
Side one "I Am the Sea" "The Real Me" "Quadrophenia" "Cut My Hair" "The Punk and the Godfather" Side two "I'm One" "The Dirty Jobs" "Helpless Dancer" "Is It in My Head?" "I've Had Enough" Side three "5:15" "Sea and Sand" "Drowned" "Bell Boy" Side four "Doctor Jimmy" "The Rock" "Love, Reign o'er Me"

"Love, Reign O'er Me"
Single by Pearl Jam
Released	23 February 2007
Format	Digital download
Recorded	2006 at Studio X, Seattle, Washington and Southern Tracks Recording and Doppler, Atlanta, Georgia
Length	5:34
Label	Monkey Wrench
Writer(s)	Pete Townshend
Producer(s)	Brendan O'Brien, Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam singles chronology
"Gone" (2006) "Love, Reign O'er Me" (2007) "The Fixer" (2009)

"Love, Reign o'er Me", subtitled "Pete's Theme", is a song by English rock band The Who. Written and composed by guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend, it was released on 27 October 1973 as the second single from the band's sixth studio album and second rock opera, Quadrophenia. It is the final song on the album, and has been a concert staple for years. The song peaked at number 76 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 54 on Cash Box.

"Love, Reign o'er Me," along with "Is It in My Head?"(also from Quadrophenia), date back to 1972. Both songs were originally intended to be part of the unreleased autobiographical album, Rock Is Dead—Long Live Rock! This later evolved into Quadrophenia.

"Love, Reign o'er Me" concerns the main character of Quadrophenia, Jimmy, having a personal crisis. With nothing left to live for, he finds a spiritual redemption in pouring rain. As Townshend described the song:

[It] refers to Meher Baba's one time comment that rain was a blessing from God; that thunder was God's Voice. It's another plea to drown, only this time in the rain. Jimmy goes through a suicide crisis. He surrenders to the inevitable, and you know, you know, when it's over and he goes back to town he'll be going through the same shit, being in the same terrible family situation and so on, but he's moved up a level. He's weak still, but there's a strength in that weakness. He's in danger of maturing.

"Love, Reign o'er Me" was released as a 7" single. The single release version of this song is shorter than the album track, missing the introductory falling rain sound and the first piano intro and timpani and gong crash, slightly different sequence of the lyrics and ends on string synthesizers with piano rather than the drum solo, guitar, gong and brass explosion as on the album. The single was released with a B-side titled "Water." The song peaked at number 76 on the Billboard Hot 100. Outside the US, the single was released in Belgium and the Netherlands.

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Wikipedia