The Who: Tommy

Tommy

Best song: The Acid Queen

Worst song: Sally Simpson

Overall grade: 4

Well, this is different. I always forget that this one comes right after Sell Out, because it doesn’t seem like a natural progression – or it does, but not an instant one. Catchy pop songs, and then BAM, rock opera! Some would say the first ever rock opera. That’s not true from the point of view of ‘a group of songs that work together to tell a story’ but it is the first to have that bombastic operatic feel we think of upon hearing the phrase.

But my biggest problem with the Who is that often they were really original, and often they wrote great songs, but it wasn’t very often that they did these two things at the same time. In other words, around the halfway mark Pete Townshend started getting really into the story he had mapped out in his head and sort of forgot that he needed tunes to go with it. That’s why all the best songs can be found on Disc One, except for ‘Pinball Wizard’ and ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’.

So, what is this incredibly important story that so preoccupied Mr. Townshend? It’s about a boy called Tommy who becomes deaf, dumb and blind after watching his father murder his mum’s other woman, gets taken to a prostitute who tries and fails to “heal” him, becomes really awesome at pinball. Eventually he becomes obsessed with mirrors, which annoys his mum for some reason so she smashes one, which somehow makes him able to speak again. Now in possession of the ‘miracle cure’ for things, Tommy is suddenly in demand, and gets loads of followers. His uncle makes him start up a holiday camp where Tommy basically tries to show everyone the joys of pinball, only the campers revolt against him.

Or, to put it more succinctly: it’s ridiculous and doesn’t make any sense.

Maybe if Pete Townshend had become a novelist, he could have explained why a mirror is such a good cure for deafness, dumbness and blindness, or why pinball became such a huge fascination for Tommy. But he had to focus on music as well as story, and it turns out they both suffered.

If no-one’s made a ‘Best of Tommy’ compilation yet, there’s a gap in the market for one. Here’s what I’d put on it.

1.       Overture – A truly outstanding beginning whichever way you look at it; it’s a proggy, mostly instrumental track that includes a lot of themes that are later repeated on the album, as well as some parts that differentiate it, so its inclusion would keep this shorter version cohesive.

2.       1921 – Not as immediately rewarding as some of the other stuff I’ve chosen, but the  interplay between the vocals and guitars are cool, and I always have a soft spot for those songs that have two different singers singing different sections.

3.       Amazing Journey – in the story, this is the bit where Tommy starts to hear music in his mind, so as you can expect, there’s a lot of really interesting stuff going on here; a touch of psychedelia, a bit of some other things, it’s the exact opposite of dull.

4.       Cousin Kevin – Entwhistle wrote it, and his songs are generally awesome. The other one of his on the full version actually isn’t, but this one suits his dark style of writing and its lyrics (about bullying) are just as relevant to the real world as they are to the world of ‘Tommy’.

5.       The Acid Queen – how could I not keep this one? I can never get over how good this song is. It’s one of the points when I find the story least believable (who takes their son to a prostitute? Right, NOBODY.) but here, I could just focus on things like the epic hooks and Townshend’s stellar performance on guitar and ignore the ridiculousness of the narrative.

6.       Sparks – Look, I put the album out of order! Mostly to split up the instrumentals and not have the pop songs beside each other. But this is one of my favourites, and no, I’m not getting it confused with the band Sparks, who are also one of my favourites.

7.       Pinball Wizard – a song Townshend hates but most people like; it’s closer to the old style of the Who, more riff-based, and it’s a song about pinball – what more could you want?

8.       I’m Free – Another rare good moment from the second LP, this Entwhistle-driven track could definitely stand up as a song by itself.

9.       Underture – whoa, this one is way later than it should be! I just like the whole idea of contrast between ‘overture’ and ‘underture’ and I’d put this one last if I wasn’t including the actual closer. Keith Moon is brilliant on this one; he could have been a prog drummer if he wasn’t so much more concerned with playing at maximum volume and causing mass destruction.

10.   We’re Not Gonna Take It (including the whole See Me/Feel me part and everything) – The best possible finish to any version of this album.

Total length: somewhere in the region of 46 minutes; could conceivably be a single album and would be a far more satisfying listen without all the other fairly pointless tracks.