Walker). Cousin Kevin and his friends take Tommy to a youth club where, to everyone's astonishment, Tommy plays pinball brilliantly ("Sensation"). Captain Walker age: 25–35, Tommy's guilty father. Say something interesting about your business here. Tommy, a rock opera~Tommy Can You Hear Me? [71] He wanted to try and convey the world of a deaf, dumb and blind boy, and decided to "depict a kind of breaking out of a certain restricted plane into freedom. A cover of Mercy Dee Walton's "One Room Country Shack" was also recorded but was scrapped from the final track listing as Townshend could not figure out a way to incorporate it in the plot. [6] During 1967, Townshend learned how to play the piano and began writing songs on it, taking his work more seriously. The inside cover depicts a wall with wall lights as a symbol of domestic space. Once there, the population of fans keeps growing, though Tommy generously, but naïvely, wishes to welcome everyone equally. In October 1969, the Who played six shows at the Fillmore East, where Leonard Bernstein praised them for their new music. [15] He decided that the Who should record a series of songs that stood well in isolation, but formed a cohesive whole on the album. Tommy is told by the Doctor to "Go to the Mirror! Fiddling about [34], By March 1969, some songs had been recorded several times, yet Townshend still thought there were missing pieces. [2], Townshend had been looking at ways of progressing beyond the standard three-minute pop single format since 1966. It is based on the 1969 rock opera Tommy by The Who. ")[47] Key problems included an unclear explanation of what Tommy didn't hear or see in "1921", how or why he plays pinball, why "Smash the Mirror" leads into "I overwhelm as I approach you" (the opening line in "Sensation"), why Tommy tells his followers in "We're Not Gonna Take It" they cannot drink or smoke but can play pinball, and what the "you" is in "Listening to you, I get the music". Unfortunately, because it fundamentally dealt with the abstract concept of Maher Baba's spiritual precepts, the interviews often gave confusing and contradictory details. "[24] Townshend asked Entwistle to write two songs ("Cousin Kevin" and "Fiddle About") that covered the darker themes of bullying and abuse. Cannot annotate a non-flat selection. Fiddle, fiddle, fiddle. A lecherous bachelor. Townshend came up with the concept of Tommy after being introduced to the work of Meher Baba, and attempted to translate Baba's teachings into music. Older Tommy, only visible to young Tommy, who persistently stares at the mirror, sings to him ("See Me, Feel Me"). [66], According to music critic Martha Bayles, Tommy did not mix rock with classical music, as its "rock opera" title may have suggested, but instead was "dominated by the Who's mature style: ponderous, rhythmically monotonous hard rock". We never played like that. "[67] High Fidelity magazine also characterized the Who's album as a "reasonably hard-rock version" of the opera. However, Tommy fails to celebrate his father's release, and his family quickly realizes that he has apparently gone deaf, mute, and blind. [41] Townshend promoted the album's release with interviews in which he attempted to explain the plotline. "[87] Roger Daltrey's voice had improved substantially since the group's early tours, and they realised their new live act could completely change their career. [28] "The Hawker" was a cover of Sonny Boy Williamson's "Eyesight to the Blind". (Alternate version) – 1:59, "Tommy's Holiday Camp" (Band's version) – 1:07, "We're Not Gonna Take It" (Alternate version) – 6:08, "Overture" (including introduction) – 7:00, "The Hawker (Eyesight to the Blind)" – 1:54. They begin to neglect him, leaving him to be tortured by his sadistic "Cousin Kevin" and molested by his uncle Ernie ("Fiddle About"). Amidst World War II, the husband, Captain Walker, parachutes into Germany, where he is captured as a prisoner of war by the Nazis ("Overture"). Melody Maker's Chris Welch visited IBC studios in November and while he was impressed with the working environment and the material,[30] the project still did not have a title and there was no coherent plotline. Produced by The Path Fund/Rockers on Broadway, the concert was a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the Broadway Dreams Foundation and the Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia and Parkinson Foundation. Looking for alternative work while recuperating, he responded to a request from the PACE Theatrical Group for the rights to a Broadway musical adaptation of Tommy. [80] All tracks are written by Pete Townshend, except where noted. The group were no longer teenagers, but he wanted their music to remain relevant. Astley was able to access the original 8 track tapes and bring out instruments that had been buried, such as the guitar in "Christmas", the French horn in "Sparks", the cymbals in "The Acid Queen" and the organ in "We're Not Gonna Take it".