Tommy
April 9, 2001The Who
Tommy
(MCA)
While not rock's first opera -- that distinction is generally ascribed to the Pretty Things' SF Sorrow -- the Who's Tommy is its greatest. Though Pete Townshend's tale of the deaf, dumb, and blind kid who ends up a Christ-like figure isn't exactly a masterpiece of plotting -- in fact, it's pretty silly -- it's powerfully told in Townshend's songs and the incredible musicianship of the Who.
The story: Tommy's father, presumed dead in a war, returns to find his wife with a lover; the father kills the lover in a struggle Tommy witnesses, rendering the boy deaf, dumb, and blind -- yet able to play pinball so well he becomes a demi-messiah, until ego and fickle followers bring about his downfall. Goofy and somewhat structurally muddled, Tommy is an audacious musical effort, the sound of Townshend breaking through the limitations of the pop-song form.
Townshend had already experimented with longer-narrative tunes -- in particular, the 1966 "A Quick One (While He's Away)" mini-opera and "Rael" (from 1967's The Who Sell Out), which is replicated in part in Tommy's "Underture." But with Tommy, he fully pulls off the odd story by penning indelible tunes such as the classic-rock staples "Pinball Wizard," "I'm Free," and "We're Not Gonna Take It." The latter's "see me, feel me, touch me, heal me" refrain is stunning, as are the gorgeous instrumental passages of "Sparks" and "Underture."
Tommy eventually became something larger than just an album, its impact lasting well past its release. For starters, its songs served as the blueprint for the Who's incendiary live shows of the era, as the Woodstock documentary and the version of "Amazing Journey/Sparks" on 1970's Live at Leeds amply prove. Perhaps most importantly, Tommy further fueled Townshend's interest in narrative rock, leading to the Lifehouse project, the collapse of which evolved into 1971's monumental Who's Next and 1973's fantastic Quadrophenia.
As a work, Tommy has been diluted, with Townshend periodically returning to -- and tinkering with -- it, spawning a ludicrous 1975 Ken Russell film, an early '90s Broadway-stage version and special-event Who concerts with buffoons like Billy Idol and Phil Collins desecrating the material. Even so, Tommy's place as one of rock's finest hours is entirely secure.
Matt Hickey
CDNOW Contributing Writer
