the who’s tommy
“listening to you, i get the music. gazing at you, i get the heat”
today i offer a revisit of The Who’s classic album and rock opera Tommy. the album debuted May 23, 1969 and the subsequent film — starring the band’s lead singer Roger Daltrey in the titular role — was released in 1975.
to be frank, there’s a lot about the conceptualization and portrayal of this character that simply wouldn’t fly by today’s standards. it’s not surprising that the same themes that were controversial about the film/album upon release would be subject to more (necessary) scrutiny now. recommended trigger warnings for the film and album: CSA, ableism, cults.
i’ll avoid giving up too much of the plot just in case you haven’t seen the film or listened to the album, but Tommy is essentially the tale of a kid who experiences selective blindness, deafness, and mutism after witnessing a traumatic event. he eventually grows up to become both an intuitive “Pinball Wizard” and a cult leader, but also deals with some questionable characters in the process.
i can’t recall where or how i first discovered Tommy, but it was sometime back in high school. i used to have the album on my MP3 player and it was always an adventure when i heard some of these theatrical songs on shuffle. years later, i found the CD at Fantasyland Records for $3, as well as a live performance of The Who at the Isle of Wight Festival (1969) in which they perform many of these songs. the cd version is a re-release from 1996 and it provides important historical context in the liner notes.
for instance, the cover art is meant to resemble the inside of a cloud and was designed as a fold-out triptych by Michael “Mike” McInnerney. however, the studio version of the cover was made to include the band members’ faces — against McInnerney’s initial wishes.
the liner also explains how Daltrey came to embody this character (originally conceptualized by bandmate Pete Townshend) in live performances.
i think this album resonated with me when i first found it as it contained many compositional elements that i loved from musical theatre. the multiple reprises of the following stanza are always evoked with such passion.
Listening to you, I get the music
Gazing at you, I get the heat
Following you, I climb the mountain
I get excitement at your feet
and if you know anything about me at this point, you know Tina Turner is my Queen forever so i was really captivated by her portraying “The Acid Queen” in the film adaptation. she also released an album of the same name inspired by this character.
the movie was pretty star-studded (Elton John, Eric Clapton, and Jack Nicholson also make appearances) and it’s just as trippy and zany as you would expect a 1970s musical film of this ilk to be.
i’ll leave you with the trailer should you want to check out or revisit this rock opera sometime soon. but this could very well be one of those situations where i watched it, so you don’t have to.