The Vinyl of the Day is ‘Tommy’ by The Who, 1969. The album was mostly composed by guitarist Pete Townshend as a “rock opera” that tells the story about a deaf, dumb and blind boy, including his experiences with life and his relationship with his abusive family. Townshend came up with the concept of “Tommy” after being introduced to the work of Indian spiritualist Meher Baba, and attempted to translate Baba’s teachings into music. (Townshend promoted the album's release with interviews in which he attempted to explain the plotline. Unfortunately, because it fundamentally dealt with the abstract concept of Baba's spiritual precepts, the interviews often gave confusing and contradicting details which no-one could really make sense of) "Tommy” was acclaimed upon its release by critics, who hailed it as the Who’s breakthrough - it’s continued to be viewed as an important and influential album in the history of rock music.
Townshend had been looking at ways of progressing beyond the standard three minute pop single format since 1966, and by 1968 he was unsure about how the Who should progress musically. The group were no longer teenagers, but he wanted their music to remain relevant. The Who’s commercial success was on the wane after the single “Dogs” failed to make the top 20, and there was a genuine risk of the band breaking up — Townshend and producer Kit Lambert realised they needed a larger vehicle for their music than hit singles, and a new stage show, and Townshend hoped to incorporate his love of Baba into this concept. He decided that the Who should record a series of songs that stood well in isolation, but formed a cohesive whole on the album. He also wanted the material performed in concert, to counteract the trend of bands like the Beatles and the Beach Boys, whose studio output was not designed for live performance.
The work is on several levels, the first of which is the obvious tale of a young boy who becomes blind, deaf and dumb due to psychological trauma from an abusive (and murderous!) family life. On a second level, Tommy is representative of the entire post World War II generation, and how the younger generation felt it was being abused by the older generation. This was one of the great themes of the "younger generation" in the mid to late '60s, as they were being shipped off to the unpopular and nearly endless war in Vietnam. Those who served in the war came home home physically and psychologically maimed to a world where they were not given a hero's welcome, but, like Tommy, were rejected, mistreated and alone.
The Music: Tommy was the first "rock opera” (OK, Pete Townsend will tell you that "Tommy" is a song cycle, whatever that is!), complete with an overture and an underture. The Who wanted to be able to perform it live, so an orchestra was not brought into the studio. Townsend and Lambert added in all kinds of queues from classical music, such as the occasional use of a French Horn, trumpet and flugelhorn, and extended instrumental passages; Lambert worked hard to make a four piece rock band sound like an orchestra. But, this album is not one of the pop rock operas which were to follow such as Jesus Christ Superstar or Evita — this was the Who! At the time, they were the loudest rock band around with something like 125,000 watts of power. This is still the Who which performed Live at Leeds, The Who Sell Out, and Who's Next — so there is a lot of hard-core power rock designed specifically for the band to play in stadiums with a giant wall of speakers behind them.
The Who famously played much of “Tommy” during their Woodstock set to great response, re-igniting their popularity with a typically thunderous display on the biggest stage in the world at the time — and which bizarrely included the “Abbie Hoffman Incident" that happened right after the song "Pinball Wizard". Abbie Hoffman was able to get on stage and grab a microphone while Pete Townshend tuned his guitar. He said: "I think this is a pile of shit! While John Sinclair rots in prison...". Hoffman was protesting against the imprisonment of John Sinclair (leader of the White Panther Party and manager of the left-wing hard-rock band MC5) who had been convicted and sentenced to nine years of prison because of marijuana possession. Townshend, angry that someone took the stage, yelled: "Fuck off! Fuck off my fucking stage!", hit him with his guitar and sending him off stage again. Townshend then added: "I can dig it!"; And after the song "Do You Think It's Alright?": "The next fuckin' person that walks across this stage is gonna get fuckin' killed! [crowd cheers] You can laugh, I mean it!
Although concept albums had been done before this one, “Tommy” was the first one to really catch a wave of public support and basically define just what a concept album was. There was nothing like it when “Tommy” was released, and The Who raised the bar for rock n roll creating a work of art instead of just an album full of songs. Eventually “Tommy” went on to inspire a film, all-star stagings of the material, and a Broadway musical. While more linear than the later “Quadrophenia”, “Tommy” boasts several songs that stand up well on their own, including the classic “Pinball Wizard,” “The Acid Queen,” “I’m Free,” and “Sally Simpson.” Much of the rest doesn’t make much sense lyrically unless you listen to the entire album, but you’ll probably want to do that anyway, preferably with the lights low and the stereo cranked, and a full glass and bottle at hand.
AllMusic Review by Richie Unterberger
The full-blown rock opera about a deaf, dumb, and blind boy that launched the band to international superstardom, written almost entirely by Pete Townshend. Hailed as a breakthrough upon its release, its critical standing has diminished somewhat in the ensuing decades because of the occasional pretensions of the concept and because of the insubstantial nature of some of the songs that functioned as little more than devices to advance the rather sketchy plot. Nonetheless, the double album has many excellent songs, including “I’m Free,” “Pinball Wizard,” “Sensation,” “Christmas,” “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” and the dramatic ten-minute instrumental “Underture.” Though the album was slightly flawed, Townshend’s ability to construct a lengthy conceptual narrative brought new possibilities to rock music. Despite the complexity of the project, he and the Who never lost sight of solid pop melodies, harmonies, and forceful instrumentation, imbuing the material with a suitably powerful grace.