"See me, feel me, touch me, heal me..."

Original Releases:

US - 2 LP Decca DXSW 7205 (1969, May 17)

UK - 2 LP Track 613 013/4 (1969, May 23)

From the blows of the album’s opening number “Overture”, TOMMY makes its mark as a unique concept record. For one thing, at the time it was written, concept albums were scarce and wild, its predecessor only being Sgt. Pepper’s, from the Beatles. What’s so unique about TOMMY is that sounds different from the other Who records because of being volatile and electric, like the other Who records, TOMMY happens to be somewhat laid back in comparison. Townshend trades his electric guitar which he smashed on stage, for a humble acoustic guitar on a good percentage of the tracks on TOMMY. And when he does play his electric guitar, rather than making it raw, punky, and obnoxious by using massive amounts of feedback, his electric playing is made to seem grandiose and dramatic, with a thespian presentation by limiting the playing to explosive chords and by dividing them into quick picks of four.

John Entwistle has dropped his wowing bass playing for a more grounded role, more often than not standing silent in the background. But he adds his ox flair with his ostentatious trumpeting. He makes the militant theme with his flair on trumpet, and slowly emerges as quite the brass player. Keith Moon is what he’s always been - a coked up crazy man who drives his Rolls Royce into swimming pools, but justifies his actions with some absolutely insane drumming. Sure, it might be a little unruly and random, but his talent on drums is very well received and quite frankly, awesome. And another thing very different about TOMMY as well is that Townshend also takes up the role of lead vocals much more often than on other Who albums.

Pete Townshend's own candid telling of the story of TOMMY's conception. was the zenith (and, ultimately, the end) of his creative partnership with the band's producer / manager Kit Lambert. Lambert's utter belief in Pete's ability to take a bunch of West London mods into a studio to forge a coherent statement that came to be known as 'rock opera' was the fire that lit the fuse. Townshend had already attempted the concept format with his semi-successful A Quick One. In reality this and TOMMY had much in common. Both showed the composer to be fast outgrowing his r 'n' b roots to become an accomplished explorer of themes and moods. (TOMMY's true glory lies in its extended instrumental passages that, while being a little repetitive, blend themes gloriously). And both had librettos which were, somewhat shakey. Yet, while A Quick One concerned a woman's extra marital affair with a train driver, TOMMY took itself slightly more seriously. In fact, the quality so roundly hits you between the eyes that you wonder how on earth anyone put up with anything less over these three decades. Every slip, every bum note and every wobbly vocal merely makes it more precious. Tommy we can hear you…

Pete Townshend possibly feels a lot like David O. Selznick, the producer of the movie `Gone With The Wind' in fearing that he will only be remembered in his obituary by his creating that one work, as Townshend, like Selznick, seems to have been spending his time after completing their most important work in trying to top it. To my mind, Townshend should have no regrets about not topping TOMMY, as it is easily one of the two or three most important albums and works in the entire Rock canon, similar in importance and possibly superior in quality to Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Blonde on Blonde, to name just two others high in the ranks of great Rock albums. Some writers have said that TOMMY is more like an Oratorio or a Song Cycle than it is an Opera, but I disagree. Neither of these other two genres requires a plot, and an Opera does, and TOMMY has a plot. I prefer to think of it as a selection of arias and instrumental passages from which some bridging dialogue has been left out. My biggest problem with this plot is that the actual event that triggers TOMMY's autism is only hinted at in the most vague of terms.

It is easy to believe that it was a murder, but the lyrics of "You Didn't Hear It" never come even close to saying exactly what the event was. On the other side of the coin, the great majority of the songs on the album TOMMY directly support carrying the story forward. Practically the only exception is the Sonny Boy Williamson classic "Eyesight to the Blind". It is probably symptomatic that only "Pinball Wizard", "I'm Free", and "Sensation" out of the 24 cuts in TOMMY really work for the Who outside the context of the whole work. It is also interesting to see that the two cuts describing episodes of sadism were written by Entwistle and not Townshend. Listening to this album reminds one just how much their performances were a collaborative effort between the original four, and how much we miss Keith Moon and John Entwistle today. We can only say that with TOMMY and numerous other works and recorded performances, the memory of The Who will live forever.