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50th Anniversary Album Spotlight
Tommy
The Who
Released May 23, 1969 (UK); May 31, 1969 (US)
Chart debut: June 7, 1969
Chart peak: #4, September 19, 1970
#96 on
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Wiki said:
Tommy is the fourth studio album by the English rock band the Who. It was first released as a double album on 17 May 1969 by Decca Records. The album was mostly composed by guitarist Pete Townshend, and is a rock opera that tells the story of Tommy Walker, a "deaf, dumb and blind" boy, including his experiences with life and his relationship with his family.
Now
this is the real deal...exactly the sort of album that belongs on the
Rolling Stone list and that I wanted to take the opportunity to finally fully acquaint myself with as part of the immersive retro experience. Before getting the album, I was familiar with a few tracks that I'd gotten mainly because of prior radio exposure. I approached the work as a whole with a little trepidation, as I was afraid that the plot might be a bit thick and hard to follow. When I actually listened to it, though, I was suitably impressed. This is what I'd consider to be the next level beyond
Sgt. Pepper in the development of the album as an art form. Yeah, it's got its pretentious bits that make me giggle, but that's more than made up for by the sheer artistry of it all. And to my ear, this is The Who coming into their fully formed sound as I know it from their stone-cold '70s classics.
(Note: I don't why I was having trouble finding official YouTube audio for songs from the album before...they're available now, and say they have been for a year.)
One of the things that made the album surprisingly palatable for me is that it's punctuated with multiple instrumentals (Sorry, Squig!)--starting with (most of) the opening track, "Overture," which is indeed a true overture, introducing musical motifs from various tracks on the album:
"It's a Boy"...yeah, here's one of those giggly parts:
"A son! A son!!! A sonnn!!!"
And okay, I totally wouldn't have gotten what was going on in
"1921" plot-wise if I hadn't read the Wiki synopsis. But I have to question if there was supposed to be a murder involved...there's nothing in the song to indicate it...a simpler variant would be that Dad came home and Mom was just trying to keep Tommy quiet about her affair.
"Amazing Journey" is a good little rocker that explores the isolated Tommy's inner world. It's followed by the even more rockin'
"Sparks," the album's first full instrumental.
The first side closes with
"Eyesight to the Blind (The Hawker)". Oddly enough for an album like this, it's a cover. A reworking of a 1951 blues song by Sonny Boy Williamson II, here it serves as an offer to cure Tommy that ties in with a song on the next side.
Side two opens strongly with
"Christmas," which has Tommy's parents worrying for his eternal salvation while introducing the refrains "Tommy can you hear me?" and "See me, feel me, touch me, heal me".
The album takes a disturbing turn with
"Cousin Kevin," which finds Tommy at the mercy of the sadistic titular character. This is one of those tracks that seems like it could have easily been excised on a tighter, leaner version of the album, as it covers similar ground to "Fiddle Around," but unlike the later track, isn't referenced elsewhere.
Fade to
"The Acid Queen," which follows up on the closing track of the previous side, as Tommy is subjected to a cure attempt involving drugs and possibly sex. Tommy's experience is related in the side-closing
"Underture," a meaty instrumental that's the longest single track on the album.
"Do You Think It's Alright?," which opens the second disc, is a brief prelude to
"Fiddle About," which relates another disturbing episode with a relative, this time Tommy being molested by his Uncle Ernie.
There's no obvious connection between that incident and the following song, the stone-cold classic "Pinball Wizard," which describes how Tommy has become a master of the game via heightened sense of touch and possibly smell. I read that this was shoehorned in as an afterthought to lighten things up a bit, but it is at least called back to in a few later tracks.
(Charted Apr. 5, 1969; #19 US, #4 UK)
"There's a Doctor" is another brief prelude, this time to one of the album's best rockers, "Go to the Mirror!," which reveals that Tommy's condition is psychosomatic:
This number includes the return of the "see me, feel me" refrain and introduces the "listening to you" bridge that will also close the album. I didn't find an explanation for it, but I think that the latter represents Tommy's thoughts on looking at his reflection, which seems to be the only thing that he can see while afflicted with his condition. "Go to the Mirror!" also has a spot on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
"Tommy Can You Hear Me?" is a brief connecting piece about Tommy's mother attempting to reach out at him following the doctor's prognosis. Finally she decides to
"Smash the Mirror" that Tommy has been staring at, and this action breaks his mental block. Side three concludes with Tommy not just recovering, but becoming a
"Sensation," which leads us into the album's final act...
Side four opens with
"Miracle Cure," a brief snippet that helps to tie "Pinball Wizard" into the larger story, as that title seems to be Tommy's claim to fame.
"Sally Simpson" is the first indication of how Tommy has become a spiritual leader, related through the viewpoint of a fan/disciple. It also seems to break with the time frame established by "1921," as it has Sally later marrying a rock musician.
Next up is "I'm Free," one of the album's better rockers, which includes a musical callback to "Pinball Wizard":
(Charted July 19, 1969; #37 US)
Wiki said:
"I'm Free" tells of Tommy's vision to spiritually enlighten others due to his sudden and immense popularity.
It is often switched with "Sensation" on setlists, including in the movie and in the Broadway musical as Tommy rejoices at regaining his sight, voice and hearing after the shock provided by his mother.
That's what I was thinking...that this song feels like it wants to be a bit earlier in the story, before we get into the details of his time as a spiritual leader.
Likewise, the situation described in
"Welcome" seems chronologically disjointed from the songs that have come before it. It too seems like it should be falling earlier than at least "Sally Simpson"...or, in a tighter version of the story, removed entirely for being redundant with other tracks. It also has a couple of the more pretentious-sounding bits, "Come to this house! Into this house," and "There's more at the door!"
The brief
"Tommy's Holiday Camp" gives us indication that all is not well in Tommy's movement...particularly the disturbing image of Uncle Ernie working at the titular venue.
The album's finale, "We're Not Gonna Take It," is one of the album's strongest tracks, but seems like it wants to be two tracks. The best-known bits were later released in an edited single titled "See Me, Feel Me" (charts Sept. 26, 1970; #12 US).
While the album ends powerfully, the larger track seems to rush the climax, depicting both Tommy's fall from grace and his resultant retreat back into his inner world on a single track, on an album side full of other tracks that covered the same ground as one another from different angles.
Overall, I'd say that this album works best when approached on a forest level...its weaknesses become more apparent when one examines the individual trees...chief among those flaws being the sloppy structuring of side four.
If you get only one 50th anniversary album this year, it should be...
Abbey Road, of course! If you can manage to squeeze in another one, you could do a lot worse than
Tommy.
Next up:
From Elvis in Memphis, Elvis Presley
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Almost a perfect group of songs, but for The Beatles, the rooftop version and Past Masters versions of "Get Back" are preferable to the studio cut.
Both versions were from the same rooftop performance...it's just that Phil Spector doctored up the album version more.
Ironic that what could be considered almost a solo recording came to become a subtitle of sorts for the band on several album sets, articles, etc., over the decades to follow.
Didn't know that the other Monkees weren't even on it. And indeed, the only reason I have it is because it's one of two post-TV show songs included on the compilation album that I bought.
By this time, Donovan was in a relationship with Enid Karl (a model), but he was also "courting" Linda Lawrence, the ex-fiancée of Brian Jones (Donovan & Jones had been fairly close friends). Late in 1970, he married Lawrence and adopted Brian's son Julian, despite his relationship to Enid Karl producing future actress Ione Skye earlier that year.
Didn't know any of that. And looking it up, I also read that Lawrence had been the inspiration for "Sunshine Superman". Geez, between this and the George/Pattie/Eric thing....
Did you grow up to be a vegetarian?
Nope.
TREK_GOD_1 said:
Odd mix; its still the Donovan sound, but he was trying to stretch his musical potential at the time, with well, questionable results in working with Beck.
RJDiogenes said:
Interesting team up, but fails to capture that Donovan magic. But none of Donovan's later work really sounded like Donovan. What we (or at least I) think of as Donovan was really a small moment in time.
I generally like this one, and that Donovan was continuing to expand his musical horizons at this point, but it's definitely not playing on the same field as his bigger classics.
TREK_GOD_1 said:
That's just awful. It sounds like a generic library track set to Hollywood's oft-used "Indian" music.
Yeah, I only have this because I bought that collection that it's on, and I was planning to say that Squiggy wasn't missing anything here, but...
RJDiogenes said:
Wait, does that mean that he actually likes it...?
RJDiogenes said:
TREK_GOD_1 said:
Listenable, but not that listenable.
Yeah, that pretty much sums it up for me.
RJDiogenes said:
TREK_GOD_1 said:
CCR was on roll. What a powerful sound of their own.
"Green River" is my favorite CCR song...so evocative of balmy summer nights. By the way, has it been mentioned in this thread that the band was not in fact "born on the bayou," but actually from California?
"Commotion" is alright, but not one of their more indelible numbers.
RJDiogenes said:
Total Creedence songs on the chart: 2!
3, actually--"Bad Moon Rising" is still in the process of dropping off this week! Multiple simultaneous chartings by CCR and some other artists are going to become more common for a spell as we get into the brief era when double A-sides charted under the name of both songs on the disc, while for some reason the B-sides charted separately alone. Not sure what was going on there, but
Billboard seems to have corrected the situation after a bit.
I did check out my public library option. I didn't find any of the shows that would be of more immediate interest, but they do have the early seasons of All in the Family for when that comes up....