Pete Townshend on "Sally Simpson": The year before we wrote Tommy we'd done a concert with The Doors and by that time, Jim Morrison was drinking a lot. Now, I drank a bit, but I wasn't in trouble yet and I wasn't doing heavy drugs like Jim. I pulled him aside and said, "You look fucking awful! What are you doing knocking back beer like that?" And I remember him being very...bloated and red and he said "Oh, what the fuck is the point? This is all ridiculous. We are going to go out there and play for a bunch of stupid screaming women."

Then, half way through the show, this girl jumped on stage and Jim didn't see her, so when she grabbed him, Jim was surprised and turned real fast and kind of pushed her away. Then a bouncer got a hold of her and threw her down right in front of me. And she had a gash on her face that was pouring blood. I took her backstage and got her help and when The Doors had finished their set, I went to Jim and said "Listen, you should talk to this girl". He went to her and was really sweet with her. He was really worried about her. He was very nice to her. He apologized and gave her some money. And the whole thing really struck me. So, I wrote this song about this great, charismatic Jim Morrison who's picture had been everywhere looking like Jesus in this beautiful iconic photo. But Jim couldn’t live up to that; no one can. In fact, we all knew Jim was going to die. We just knew it.

In "Sally Simpson", Tommy has become like a rock star/preacher, but he can't live up to it either. The end is near for him in a way as well.

Tommy rescues Sally