On this date 55 years ago — May 17, 1969 — the British rock band The Who released what it called a “rock opera”: “Tommy,” the story of a boy traumatized as a youth and suffering with a psychosomatic inability to see, hear or speak. The boy grows up, learns how to play pinball through his sense of touch and becomes a spiritual leader for other young people.
The quirky album received rave reviews, catapulted The Who into major rock stardom and would eventually be adapted into a major motion picture.
A New Direction For The Who
Pete Townshend was bored. The Who’s guitarist had written hit songs. He had toured the world, made lots of money and wrecked numerous hotel rooms.
But there had to be more to life as a rock star, he felt. Townshend nursed the ambition to do more than write three-minute rock singles. He wanted to string together a number of songs into a longer presentation. One that would move and inspire fans.
After toying with longer compositions — “A Quick One, While He’s Away,” from the 1966 album “A Quick One” and “Rael” from 1967’s “The Who Sell Out” — Townsend, in late 1968, decided to take the plunge into a single unified album.
“You’ve got to be pretentious,” Who producer Kit Lambert urged Townshend. “You’ve got to go for the gold. You have to be over the top.”
The Who, from left: Guitarist Pete Townshend, vocalist Roger Daltry, drummer Keith Moon and bass player John Entwistle.
'See Me, Feel Me'
What became “Tommy” took six months and cost $36,000 to write and record. The Who continued to play regular gigs on the weekends — in part, to pay for the bills Townshend was running up.
By March 7, 1969, Townshend released the one track he figured could possibly be a successful single from the project: “Pinball Wizard.” He later called it “the most clumsy piece of writing I’ve ever done.” And he wrote it specifically to appeal to New York Times music critic Nik Cohn, who he knew to be a huge pinball fan.
The single peaked at No. 4 on the U.K. music charts and at No. 19 in the U.S. Cohn loved it, but some critics wrote that a song about “a deaf, dumb and blind kid” was distasteful.
Music critics were wowed starting on May 1, however, when the Who played “Tommy” in its entirety to the music press at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London.
Two days later, BBC disc jockey Pete Drummond attempted to play the entire album from start to finish but became confused by the way it was configured as a double album to accommodate record changers: sides 1 and 4 on one disc and sides 2 and 3 on the other. Drummond wrongfully complained to his listeners that the copy he received had been mislabeled
“Tommy” hit stores in the U.S. on May 17. It was released in the U.K. on May 23. Within two weeks, it had sold 200,000 copies and had earned The Who a gold record.
The band then went on tour to play “Tommy” live to enthusiastic crowds around the world. Townshend would later say he first became aware of the effect the album had on audiences at a show in Chicago in late May.
The Who played “Tommy” in venues that normally didn’t host rock shows. On Aug. 12, they became the first rock band to play at Tanglewood in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. They would later go on to perform the album at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and in New York’s Metropolitan Opera House.
On Aug. 17, 1969, The Who played the Woodstock Music Festival, which was running way behind schedule. Scheduled to go on at 10 p.m. on the 16th, they didn’t take the stage until 4 a.m. At one point, famed yippie Abbie Hoffman wandered onstage. Townshend chased him off.
The Who had reached the climax of “Tommy” — “See Me, Feel Me” — when dawn suddenly broke over the stage and the massive audience.
“God was our lighting man,” bass player John Entwistle would say later.
The Who's Album Chart History
Sources:
“Anyway Anyhow Anywhere: The Complete Chronicle of The Who 1958-1978” by Andy Neill and Matt Kent, “The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul” by Irwin Stambler, the Berkshire Eagle, TheWho.com, PeteTownshend.net, Genius.com, Songfacts, Discogs.com - All images from The Who's Label at The Time, Track Records
This edition of Further Review was adapted for the web by Zak Curley.
