Pink Floyd’s 1979 The Wall describes a musician’s self-imposed isolation and retreat into mental illness. David Bowie’s 1972 The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars follows an androgynous extraterrestrial superstar in his quest to save the hearts and minds of humans. In the years to come, rock operas and narrative albums of every genre would stretch the limits of popular music. As proof of their trailblazing style, critics created a new term to describe this kind of album: “rock opera.”
Sorrow released the previous year) but a world-famous band creating such a complex narrative work was revolutionary. There had been loosely conceptual albums before, and even another narrative album (Pretty Things’ S.F. No one had heard anything like this before. The album was meant not simply to be heard, but to be experienced by listeners, emphasized by The Who’s visceral live performances, orchestral adaptations, and even a film version of the work. But the Who had even grander ideas for their ambitious experiment. “Sensation”), each event in the opera had a dedicated song with its own distinct sound, style, and even voice. From the creation of Tommy’s psychological blocks (“1921,” “Amazing Journey”) to the failed attempts to find a cure (“The Acid Queen”) to his final breakthrough into reality (“Smash the Mirror,” “I’m Free”) and messianic status ( Each song built the tale of a deaf, mute, and blind boy who overcomes his inner turmoil to become a messianic figure. Most importantly, the album told a story. Some songs were as short as ten seconds, some as long as ten minutes. The double album opened with an overture featuring organ, timpani, and french horn that introduced musical themes reiterated throughout the work. Upon initially listening to the album, it was obvious the band had evolved. In May of that year, they released Tommy.
#Tommy the who mod#
Their mod audience thought they knew what to expect from the band: Keith Moon’s ferocious drumming, John “Thunderfingers” Entwistle’s melodic bass, Roger Daltrey’s piercing howl, and Pete Townshend’s windmill strumming and onstage guitar smashing. Their live shows were dramatic and uncontrollable. (The Who's Tommy tied for the 1993 Tony Award for Best Score.In March 1969, The Who were known as the world’s most powerful rock ‘n’ roll group. It's too bad that Townshend didn't have the wisdom to bring Tommy to the stage intact. The Broadway Tommy has been secularized and domesticated no longer a messiah, he now longs for normality. Artists rarely improve their work by changing it years later, although they frequently succumb to the temptation, and anyone familiar with the original who tries to sing along to this album is in for a rude surprise. The bad news is that Townshend has radically rethought his ideas in 24 years, and rewritten nine songs to reflect his many changes of heart. The Broadway cast album of Tommy (called The Who's Tommy presumably to alert Who fans that this really is the stage version of the group's 1969 "rock opera" and not some unrelated Tommy) is the best recording of Peter Townshend's song cycle since the Who did the original Beatles producer George Martin was in the recording booth, and a stellar cast led by Michael Cerveris sings fervently.
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