The Who - Tommy

Released - May 1969

Genre - Rock

Producer - Kit Lambert

Selected Personnel - Roger Daltrey (Vocals/Harmonica/Percussion); Pete Townshend (Guitar/Keyboards/Vocals); John Entwistle (Bass/French Horn/Trumpet/Keyboards); Keith Moon (Drums/Percussion)

Standout Track - Pinball Wizard

It seems odd these days that the concept of the "rock opera" was heralded as so alien and revolutionary and unprecedented as it was in the late 60s. After all, the idea of applying a narrative to music had existed for hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years - since mankind first started dabbling in musical performance, they had used it to tell stories, and by 1969 Broadway had become a thriving business making money out of telling a story onstage that was set to music. The idea of applying the same specific narrative approach to popular rock music seems a no-brainer these days, and the rave response to the sheer idea of the Who's Tommy seems from a modern perspective to be a bit of an impenetrable puzzle. Nevertheless, when it was released it immediately became a global sensation, setting the precedent for every rock opera and concept album in the future and cementing the Who as one of the most significant rock bands in the world, joining the Beatles and the Rolling Stones as the "holy trinity" of British rock. Of course, music had been moving in this direction for a while - from the first conceptual whispers around the edges of Pet Sounds to the fictional framing of Sgt. Pepper's..., artists were becoming increasingly interested in the idea that an album was capable of being something more than just a collection of potential singles surrounded by a few items of filler. Pete Townshend, who had quickly become the creative centre of the Who, had expressed frustration prior to the recording of Tommy at the artistic limitations imposed by writing songs to be radio hits, despite the band's success as a singles band up to this point, and had begun dabbling with more conceptual frameworks on their 1967 album The Who Sell Out, presented in the style of a fake pirate radio broadcast. This album represents the next logical step, and it's just a surprise nobody beat them to the idea first.

Tommy and the Who's later rock opera masterpiece, Quadrophenia, are real showcases for Townshend's skill as a symphonic writer. While he'd already written hit songs such as "My Generation" and "I Can See For Miles," here he began to demonstrate his ability at wrestling with huge musical ideas. Songs segue into reprises of earlier themes, melodies are echoed and woven into the pattern of the complete work to recur throughout. Musically, it's probably the most complex and artfully constructed album yet to be presented to the mainstream market at this time. In general, this masterful "album as grand canvas" approach has negative as well as positive effects on the finished product - it means that a number of songs become little more than narrative bridges to get from Plot Point A to Plot Point B, feebly reprising an earlier melody or inventing a new one that barely even registers on our consciousness merely to tell a new bit of the story, and for me this is where Tommy falls down ever so slightly, in its slavish devotion to narrative above musicality. Songs like "Do You Think It's Alright?" or "There's A Doctor" serve no purpose other than to advance the story. Clearly as a live spectacle, in the band's early live performances of the show in full, they would have had their place. But today, as a listening experience, they rob the music of its momentum and cheapen the overall experience. In general, the best concept albums are those that aren't too slavish to the idea of narrative, that perhaps leave gaps in the actual story of what we're listening to, but allow the listener ample room to fill in those gaps imaginatively, and consequently never lose any sense of their own coherence or forward momentum - Ziggy Stardust, for instance, never bothers to actually stop and explain what its characters are actually doing at any given moment, instead opting to sketch the major beats and movements of the idea, and is all the stronger for it.

The story itself in fact acts as a prototype for pretty much every rock opera and concept album to come, which generally always concern themselves with some sort of messianic cult-leader figure coming to hold sway over a huge body of people. It's a story retold in David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and Pink Floyd's The Wall, and even in less well-known fare like Spock's Beard's Snow. Tommy is a young man who, after seeing his father kill another man, develops a psychosomatic blindness, deafness and dumbness and is only able to find any means of expression in his life through playing pinball. Ultimately, after being cured of his symptoms, he becomes hailed as a miracle all over the world, but ultimately retreats back into himself when his followers reject him. Ultimately, as narratives go, it doesn't quite justify the amount of time Townshend and co. invest in it - this is an album which could have a number of its lesser cuts trimmed off without really affecting the story negatively too significantly. The irrelevant subplot of "Sally Simpson" is certainly a supernumerary, failing to compel either musically or narratively. There are other songs, too, which have their place in the story but really haven't been given the musical development they perhaps warranted - the story of "Cousin Kevin" is a fairly tedious affair, while Tommy's ordeal at the hands of his neglectful uncle in "Fiddle About" is just inane.

But, ultimately, where this album fails is a direct result of its own vaulting ambition, which by itself is no good reason to dismiss it. It's true that it goes on too long and there's plenty of stuff thrown in for the sake of it, but it's such a vast and sprawling work that it also finds time to deliver the best music the Who had delivered so far. The first half's "Overture" and "Underture" are setpieces for Townshend's virtuoso guitar playing, as well as bassist John Entwistle's addition of diverse other instrumental parts, from trumpet to French horn, to lend a more orchestral and symphonic quality to the music, and also showcase that brilliantly woven control Townshend has over a wide range of different melodies and musical motifs. "1921" is a surprisingly touching ballad that turns into a menacing threat with Tommy's father's insistence that the boy saw and heard nothing. "Pinball Wizard" is the album's barnstorming standout, the best example of Townshend's crunching power chords yet in the band's discography, and later memorably covered by Elton John for the 1975 film of the album.

The individual band members also really begin to come into their own on this album - I came to the Who's early work after already being familiar with their later stuff such as the brilliant Quadrophenia and their career peak Who's Next. As such, I was surprised to find how weak and undistinguished Roger Daltrey's voice sounded on earlier albums such as My Generation and The Who Sell Out. On Tommy, Daltrey begins to really develop his own individual sound, with some of the gravel and sawdust barks and bellows that would lend his voice such incredible power in later years beginning to creep in. His recurring plaintive yelps of "See me, feel me" on songs like "Go To The Mirror!" and "We're Not Gonna Take It" begin to show the emotive strength of his voice when he really connects with something at the heart of the song. I've also always felt with the Who's early work that the incendiary power of their live performances rarely translates well to record - this was a band whose signature gimmick was the destruction of their own instruments and equipment onstage, but it's rare in those early years to find a song of theirs that really conveys that raw power. It's not until 1971's Who's Next that that sheer fire really blasts out from the music, but here there's a sense that the band were trying to channel more of their live essence onto the record. Something like "Sparks" or the band's cover of Sonny Boy Williamson's "Eyesight To The Blind" (retitled "The Hawker" to fit in with Townshend's story) feel like they have an animalistic strength to them that suit the band much better than the more tame R&B of their early work.

Overall, I've perhaps been more critical of this album than I should be, but for my money it never quite succeeds in being the out-and-out classic it could be. The performances are largely still a little on the safe side, and the album includes a whole host of filler material that doesn't manage to engage the listener. But it's also the most musically complex and ambitious thing that had entered the world of pop music at the time, and it deserves being included on the list merely for that ambition and that achievement. Not only that, it does succeed in some genuinely exciting musical moments, and gives the band enough sense of creative freedom that they would be ready to go on and really achieve their full potential on their next record.

Track Listing:

All songs written by Pete Townshend except where noted.

1. Overture

2. It's A Boy!

3. 1921

4. Amazing Journey

5. Sparks

6. The Hawker (Sonny Boy Williamson II)

7. Christmas

8. Cousin Kevin (John Entwistle)

9. The Acid Queen

10. Underture

11. Do You Think It's Alright?

12. Fiddle About (John Entwistle)

13. Pinball Wizard

14. There's A Doctor

15. Go To The Mirror!

16. Tommy Can You Hear Me?

17. Smash The Mirror

18. Sensation

19. Miracle Cure

20. Sally Simpson

21. I'm Free

22. Welcome

23. Tommy's Holiday Camp (Keith Moon)

24. We're Not Gonna Take It