The Who Tommy Original U.S Decca Pressing Vinyl Rip Flac With Bonus B-Side
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Tommy
Studio album by The Who
Released 23 May 1969
Recorded 19 September 1968 7 March 1969, IBC Studios, London, England, United Kingdom
Genre Rock, Rock opera
Length 74:00
Language English
Label Decca
Producer Kit Lambert
Professional reviews
* Allmusic 4.5/5 stars link
* PopMatters 5/5 stars 2004
* Rolling Stone 4/5 stars 2004
Singles from Tommy
1. "Pinball Wizard"/"Dogs, Pt. 2"
Released: 7 March 1969
2. "Go to the Mirror!"/"Sally Simpson"
Released: 23 May 1969
3. "I'm Free""
Released: 1969
4. "Listening to You / See Me, Feel Me"/"Overture from Tommy""
Released: September 1970
Q
Tommy is the fourth album by the English rock band The Who, released by Track and Polydor in the United Kingdom and Decca and MCA in the United States. A double album telling a loose story about a "deaf, dumb, and blind boy" who becomes the leader of a messianic movement, Tommy was the first musical work to be billed overtly as a rock opera. Released in 1969, the album was mostly composed by guitarist Pete Townshend. In 1998 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for "historical, artistic and significant" value.
Contents
Characters
* Tommy: The main character of the story, from whom the album gets its name.
* Father: Sometimes referred to as "Captain Walker", whose son is the album's protagonist.
* Mother: Mrs Walker, Tommy's mother.
* The Lover: A romantic partner of Tommy's mother.
* Uncle Ernie: Tommy's 'wicked uncle', a paedophile. Becomes an aide to Tommy at the end of the story.
* Cousin Kevin: Tommy's cousin, the sadistic school bully who brutalises Tommy when left at home with him.
* The Hawker: A pimp for prostitute the Acid Queen, who peddles her services.
* The Gypsy: A prostitute who deals in acid and exposes Tommy to the drug in an attempt to heal him.
* The Local Lad: The reigning champion of the game of pinball, until Tommy beats him.
* The Doctor: A doctor who attempts to heal Tommy and finds out that his disabilities are psychological rather than physical.
Synopsis
British Army Captain Walker is reported missing, and is believed dead. His widow, Mrs. Walker, gives birth to their son, Tommy. Years later, Captain Walker returns home and discovers that his wife has found a new lover. Captain Walker confronts the two, and the lover is subsequently killed in the struggle. To cover up the incident, Tommy's parents tell him that he didn't see or hear it, and that he will never tell anyone about the incident. Traumatised, Tommy subsequently becomes blind, deaf and mute. Now in a semi-catatonic state, Tommy's subconscious manifests as a figure dressed in silvery robes who guides him on a journey of enlightenment. Years pass, and Tommy becomes a young man, now interpreting physical sensations as music.
During Christmas, Tommy's parents worry that his soul is at risk of damnation, since he is unaware of Jesus or prayer. One day, Tommy is left alone with his cousin Kevin, who bullies and tortures him for his own amusement. A pimp referred to as "the Hawker" is introduced and peddles his prostitute's sexual prowess, reputed to heal the blind, the deaf and the mute. Tommy is ultimately taken to this woman, who calls herself the Acid Queen, and she tries to coax Tommy into full consciousness with hallucinogenic drugs and sex. When this does not work, Tommy's parents reluctantly leave him temporarily in the care of his Uncle Ernie, who is an alcoholic child molester. He takes this opportunity to abuse Tommy without fear of being caught. Eventually, Tommy is discovered to have a talent for pinball, and quickly defeats the local champion of the game.
Tommy's father finds a medical specialist in another attempt at 'curing' him. After numerous tests, the doctor informs Tommy's parents that his disabilities are psychosomatic, rather than physical. Meanwhile, Tommy is internally trying to reach out to them. His mother continues to try to reach him, and becomes frustrated that he ignores her while staring directly at a mirror, despite his apparent inability to see. Out of this frustration she smashes the mirror and brings Tommy back into reality. This "miracle cure" becomes a public sensation and Tommy attains a guru-like status. Thereafter he assumes a quasi-messianic mantle and attempts to enlighten those willing to follow him. During one of Tommy's sermons, a reverend's daughter, Sally Simpson, sneaks out of her home to meet with Tommy. As the police try to control the crowd, Sally is thrown from the stage and suffers a gash on her face. Tommy opens his own home to anyone willing to join him, and urges them to bring as many people with them as they can. When his house becomes too small to accommodate them, a camp is built with the intended purpose of spreading Tommy's teachings. Tommy's Uncle Ernie assists him at this camp, but uses it as an opportunity for profit and exploiting Tommy's disciples. Now with all necessary resources at his disposal, Tommy instructs his followers to blind, deafen and mute themselves in order to truly reach enlightenment. They eventually reject his methods and ideology after finding that his enlightenment is not reached by being cured, but by discovering a state of awareness while blind, deaf, and mute.
Analysis and history
Townshend's inspiration for the album came from the teachings of the Meher Baba and other writings and expressing the enlightenment he believed that he had received.[1] A year prior to the album's release, Pete Townshend had explained many of his ideas during a famous Rolling Stone interview.[citation needed] John Entwistle would later claim that he had never actually listened to the album, having become sick of it after numerous takes and re-takes.
When it was released, critics were split between those who thought the album was a masterpiece, the beginnings of a new genre, and those that felt it was exploitative. The album was banned by the BBC and certain US radio stations. Ultimately, the album became a commercial success, as did The Who's frequent live performances of the rock opera in the following years, elevating them to a new level of prestige and international stardom.[2] However, unlike later rock operas, the album was not accompanied by a live theatrical show, but simply a concert in which The Who performed all of the album's songs.
Although Tommy is usually described as a rock opera, author and Who historian Richard Barnes states that this definition is not strictly correct, since Tommy does not utilise the classic operatic formulae of staging, scenery, acting and recitative. According to Barnes, Tommy could be more accurately described as a "rock cantata" or a "rock song cycle". It most closely resembles an oratorio (e.g. Handel's "Messiah") in form, as it includes instrumental, choral and solo sections, with no dialogue between characters, and no sets, costumes or choreography. A counter-argument to Barnes would be that new operas are frequently performed without the first three features before a full mounting, similarly to Tommy, and some of its songs, such as "1921", "Christmas", "Do You Think It's All Right?" and "Go to the Mirror" have the qualities of recitative and dialogue, while it has subsequently been performed with choreography and costuming, including by the Seattle Opera in 1971 and by a Canadian ballet company (dancing to the album recording) shortly thereafter.
Musically, Tommy is a complex set of pop-rock arrangements, generally based upon Townshend's acoustic guitar and built up with many overdubs by the four members of the band using many instruments, including bass, electric and acoustic guitars, piano, organ, drum kit, gong, timpani, trumpet, French horn, three-part vocal harmonies and occasional doubling on vocal solos. Many of the instruments only appear intermittentlythe 10-minute "Underture" features a single toot on the hornand when overdubbed many of the instruments are mixed at low levels. Townshend mixes fingerpicking in with his trademark power chords and fat riffs. His later interest in synthesisers is foreshadowed by the use of taped sounds played in reverse to give a whistling, chirping sound on "Amazing Journey".
The tracks "Overture", "Pinball Wizard", "I'm Free", and the "See Me, Feel Me / Listening to You" reprise were released as singles and received airplay on the radio. "Pinball Wizard" reached the top 20 in the US and the top five in the UK, and was a hit for Elton John in 1975/76 (who played the part of the pinball champion in the film). "See Me, Feel Me / Listening To You" landed high in the top 20 in the US and "I'm Free" reached the top 40. The tracks "Overture", "Christmas", "Im Free", and "See Me Feel Me" were released on an EP in late 1970. The "Overture" was also covered by a band called The Assembled Multitude and received a lot of airplay. Tommy was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
Recognition
In 2003, the album was ranked number 96 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album was ranked number 90 on VH1's 100 Greatest Albums of Rock & Roll and appears in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[3] NME named it the 16th on "NME Writers All Time Top 100" in 1974.[4] Q ranked it 9th on their list of "The Music That Changed The World: Part One 1954-1969" in 2004.[5]
Editions and cover art
Tommy was originally released as a two-LP set with a booklet including lyrics and images to illustrate parts of the story. The cover is presented as part of a triptych-style fold-out cover. All three of the outer panels of the triptych are spanned by a single pop art painting by Mike McInnerney. The drawing is a sphere with diamond-shaped cutouts and an overlay of clouds and seagulls rendered with a figure-ground ambiguity similar to that in the work of M. C. Escher. To one side a star-spangled hand bursts from the dark background, index finger pointing forward. (The image above only shows the central panel of the triptych.) The label's executives insisted on having a picture of the band on the cover, so, small, barely recognisable images of the band members' faces were inserted into the gaps in the sphere, each with an outstretched hand like a groping Tommy Walker. (The most recent remastered CD release reverts to McInnerney's original artwork without the faces). The internal artwork consists of a photo of some jugglers/magicians and some very simple paintings that only hint at illustrating the story.
MCA re-released the album as a two-CD set in 1984. The CDs were in separate jewel cases and each had a miniaturised copy of the original artwork and lyrics in the insert, though it only included two panels of the triptych. Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab later published it on a single gold-plated Ultradisc in their Original Master Recording series, with a much improved reproduction of the artwork (including a fold-out of the full original cover), and with the substitution of an alternate take on "Eyesight to the Blind". MCA released a newly remixed version on a single disc in 1996, complete with good artwork and a written introduction by Richard Barnes. This version included instrumental parts that were not present on any earlier version, particularly noticeable in the cymbals of "The Acid Queen".
Tommy is available as a deluxe two-disc hybrid SACD with a 5.1 multi-channel mix. This was done utilising master tapes that were thought long lost. When Tommy was first released, a "sweetened" master tape was used incorporating echo effects and doubling the vocal harmonies. This bare-bones master is said to have a more warm and natural sound to give a more "live" feel. Many critics have hailed this release to be the more definitive edition. The remastering was done under the supervision of Townshend and also includes some outtakes and other cuts during the same sessions. One cut called "Dogs-Part 2" that was only previously available as the B-side of the "Pinball Wizard" single and on the 1987 collection Two's Missing is included.
Track listing
All songs were written by Pete Townshend except where noted.
Side one
1. "Overture" 3:50
2. "It's a Boy" 2:07
3. "1921" 3:14
4. "Amazing Journey" 3:25
5. "Sparks" 3:45
6. "The Hawker" (Williamson) 2:15
Side two
7. "Christmas" 5:30
8. "Cousin Kevin" (Entwistle) 4:03
9. "The Acid Queen" 3:31
10. "Underture" 9:55
Side three
11. "Do You Think It's Alright?" 0:24
12. "Fiddle About" (Entwistle) 1:26
13. "Pinball Wizard" 3:50
14. "There's a Doctor" 0:25
15. "Go to the Mirror!" 3:50
16. "Tommy Can You Hear Me?" 1:35
17. "Smash the Mirror" 1:20
18. "Sensation" 2:32
Side four
19. "Miracle Cure" 0:10
20. "Sally Simpson" 4:10
21. "I'm Free" 2:40
22. "Welcome" 4:30
23. "Tommy's Holiday Camp" (Moon) 0:57
24. "We're Not Gonna Take It!" 6:45
Also Included
"Dogs Part 2" B-side To "Pinball Wizard"
Songs written for Tommy that didn't end up on the record include "Cousin Kevin Model Child," "Trying To Get Through," "I Was" and the unreleased tracks "Beat Up," "Dream (School Song)," "Dream (Erotic)," "Success," and "Girl From Lincoln County." "Water," a track best known as a minor part of the later unfinished Lifehouse album, has often been linked with Tommy as well. Another Townshend original, "Now I'm A Farmer," was considered for "Tommy" (an unreleased backing track had been recorded by The Who in early 1968, it would be re-recorded in 1970 and eventually released on Odds and Sods). Covers "Young Man Blues" and "One Room Country Shack" were also recorded and considered for inclusion but were scrapped from the final track listing as Townshend could not figured out a way to incorporate them in the plot of "Tommy."[6]
Live recordings
While The Who regularly played Tommy live at the time of its release, they rarely, if ever, played it in the form in which it was released. They instead decided to change the running order and omit some tracks entirely. Four tracks that were never performed during The Who's initial tour were "Cousin Kevin", "Underture", "Sensation" and "Welcome".
A live recording of Tommy in this altered state is available on the 2001 Deluxe Edition of the 1970 live album Live at Leeds. It is also available on the official release Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 from the same period, which was released in 1996. Another live version is available on the 2007 video release At Kilburn 1977 + Live at the Coliseum.
The Who also performed Tommy for its 20th anniversary during their 1989 reunion tour, reinstating the previously overlooked "Cousin Kevin" and "Sensation" but still omitting "Underture" and "Welcome". Recordings from this tour can be found on the Join Together live album and the Tommy and Quadrophenia Live with Special Guests DVD. The Los Angeles version of this show featured special guests such as Phil Collins (Uncle Ernie), Patti LaBelle (Acid Queen), Steve Winwood (Hawker), Elton John (Pinball Wizard) and Billy Idol (Cousin Kevin).
* "Tommy's Holiday Camp" was credited to being written by Keith Moon on the album. Pete Townshend originally wrote it, but credited it to Moon because he had the idea that Tommy's spiritual center would be a holiday camp on the British Isles. In the film version, the gates of the camp were filmed at Fort Purbrook, one of "Palmerston's Follies" situated on top of Portsdown Hill, just to the North of Portsmouth. Today it is the Peter Ashley Activity Centre.
* The song "Sally Simpson", in which the song's title character is injured as a result of a fracas while trying to touch Tommy, was inspired by a real-life incident. The Who were performing a concert with The Doors at the Singer Bowl (now Louis Armstrong Stadium) in New York in August 1968, and the Doors' security violently threw a young girl who was trying to touch Jim Morrison off the stage. This action was witnessed by Pete Townshend from the backstage area, and he was so shocked by what he had seen, he incorporated the incident into the opera he was writing.
* The original album was dedicated to Meher Baba. (He is listed as "Avatar" in the album credits.)
* The climax of Tommy was said by many to be the highlight of the 1969 Woodstock Festival. As Roger Daltrey began to sing "See Me, Feel Me", the sun began to rise, as if on cue. John Entwistle, the bass player, later joked that "God was our lighting man." The moment is captured on film in The Kids Are Alright and Woodstock. It is said that this moment helped with Tommy's popularity in the United States.
* The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ran an exhibit on Tommy called "Tommy: The Amazing Journey" in 20052006.
Sales chart performance
Album
Year Chart Position
1969 Billboard Pop Albums 4[15]
1969 UK Chart Albums 2[16]
Singles
Year Single Chart Position
1969 "Pinball Wizard" Billboard Pop Singles 19[citation needed]
1969 "Pinball Wizard" UK Singles Charts 4[16]
1969 "I'm Free" Billboard Pop Singles 37[citation needed]
1970 "See Me, Feel Me" Billboard Pop Singles 12[citation needed]
Sales certifications
Organization Level Date
RIAA U.S. Gold 18 August 1969[17]
RIAA U.S. Platinum 8 February 1993[17]
RIAA U.S. 2x Platinum 8 February 1993[17]
According to an article published in 'The Daily Telegraph' in 2006, the album Tommy has sold 20 million copies world wide.[18]
Personnel
The Who
* Roger Daltrey lead vocals, harmonica, tambourine
* Pete Townshend guitars, banjo, keyboards, Lead Vocals on "Captain Walker/It's A Boy", "1921", "Acid Queen", "Cousin Kevin" (with Entwistle and Daltrey), "There's A Doctor", "Sensation", & "Tommy's Holiday Camp", Joint Lead Vocals on "Christmas", "Pinball Wizard","Go To The Mirror" & "Welcome", Backing Vocals on others
* John Entwistle bass guitar, horns, Lead Vocals on "Cousin Kevin" (with Townshend and Daltrey), and "Fiddle About"
* Keith Moon drums, percussion, vocals
Additional musicians
* Paul Townshend backing vocals
* Simon Townshend backing vocals
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