He builds a holiday camp and people gather in droves. He takes himself ever more seriously and starts preaching in order to bring enlightenment to those in need. Due to the miracle Tommy is worshipped like a guru. The smashing of the mirror awakens Tommy’s consciousness. Eventually, his mother’s patience runs out and she smashes the mirror Tommy gazes in all day long. After some tests, it is established that there’s nothing physically wrong with Tommy, it is a psychological condition. Along the way Tommy seems to be a natural at pinball he even beats the champion. The church, family, drugs, etc., nothing seems to work. Tommy takes the assignment deadly serious and becomes deaf, dumb and blind. He has to promise to act like nothing has happened: “You didn’t hear it / You didn’t see it / You never heard it, not a word of it / You won’t say nothing to no-one / Never tell a soul”. An argument ensues and the lover (or the husband) gets killed, right in front of little Tommy’s eyes. In 1921 her husband shows up at her doorstep. The widow who’s left behind is pregnant and delivers a baby boy. There is a story, but coherent? It is rather farfetched to be honest.Ĭaptain Walker is an aviator in the First World War who goes missing. The storyĪs previously stated, Tommy is a rock opera, so there is a coherent story which serves as the album’s foundation, right? Yes and no. It’s funny to realize that Pinball Wizard, one of the pinnacle songs in The Who’s career and the history of rock music nearly wasn’t composed and thanks its existence to a pinball loving music critic. It worked: upon relistening to the complete sequence Cohn called Tommy a masterpiece. Townshend quickly wrote Pinball Wizard, which the band immediately recorded and incorporated into the album. It needed something lighter, less heavy, something catchy? Cohn was a huge pinball lover, so Townshend suggested that Tommy could maybe be a mythical pinball wizard. Cohn wasn’t too impressed and after a lengthy discussion they both concluded it was all maybe a bit too heavy. TommyĪround the time the album was nearly finished Pete Townshend played the album to friend and music critic Nik Cohn. That’s really what we want to do: create this feeling that when you listen to the music you can actually become aware of the boy, and aware of what he is all about, because we are creating him as we play.Īt the end of 1968 the band started recordings for the new project. But what it’s really all about is the fact that because the boy is deaf, dumb and blind, he’s seeing things basically as vibrations which we translate as music. The deaf, dumb and blind boy is played by the Who, the musical entity. It’s a story about a kid that’s born deaf, dumb and blind and what happens to him throughout his life. In 1968 Townshend talked to Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner about The Who’s next project: Obtaining a more serious image would probably break that The band wanted to stop it, but audiences expected (or rather demanded?) it.
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