Tommy - The Who (1969)

[DudeAsInCool]

Tommy - The Who (1969)

"Rock opera" is one way to describe the pioneering ambition in Pete Townshend's musical exploration of childhood trauma, sexual abuse, repression and spiritual release. Here's another way: the slash and thunder of "My Generation" blown wide open. Driven by the hellbent drumming of Keith Moon, the Who surge and shine, igniting the drama in Townshend's melodies ("Pinball Wizard," "We're Not Gonna Take It"). "We worked out the sociological implications, the religious implications, the rock implications," he said. "When we'd done that, we went into the studio, got smashed out of our brains and made it."

Total album sales: 2 million

Peak chart position: 2 http://www.rollingstone.com/features/featuregen.asp?pid=2242

[rickio]

Did you ever hear there follow up album "Quadrophenia" It is also a 2 album set and has lots of great music in it.

Check it out if you can.

[grab_grab_the_haddock]

I never liked the who much, and especially not their "rock opera" phase which seems pretty overblown, pompous and pretentious.

[Umma]

Same here grab grab..... I could never see why people think the Who are so great, other than follow the flock mentality. I suppose it's all a matter of taste.

[DudeAsInCool]

Tommy had one nice cut with Pinball Wizard, and I agree that Quadrophenia was a better album, but the nay-sayers are missing some of the best music by ignoring Who's Next and Live at Leeds, one of the greatest live rock albums ever recorded.

[Redneck4sure]

The Who had huge success with their albums so somebody liked it.... a lot! I like their stuff although it is not on my short list of super favorites. I had several friends way back in the day that thought they were the best. However, I will say that they were always stoned. Maybe that helped....

[Kooperman]

I'll also line up with the folks who think Quadrophenia was vastly superior, lyrically and musically, to Tommy.

[Redneck4sure]

It will be hard for me to line up cause I can barely stand up. However, I will play both albums start to finish in the next couple of days and give you my jurassic opinion even if you don't want it. I am good at that.

[Kooperman]

I sure hope his grammophone rats don't keel over before they finish dragging the needle across those long vinyls....

[Redneck4sure]

Ha ha ha!!!

I meant that I would listen to the albums. Somehow they seem to be on a hard drive around here. I dunno how that happened.

But I do have some very musically enriched grammaphone rats.

[rickio]

Actually the whole concept of Rock Opera is a bit of a misnomer. I don't know who made that term up but The Who do not really qualify as pretentious and all that other stuff the grabber wants to put on them.

They are blue coller guys who rock like hell and thematic rock would be closer to the what they were doing with tommy etc.

I always had a hard time following the story they were trying to tell and had to be blazed and stoned to even catch a glimmer of the ideas.

It's the music! That's what I would listen to. lol

and they played great rock. I also liked Led Zepplin but would admit now they could be pretentious at times with Kashmir and some of their other loftier jams but hell, it's all for fun now. Isn't it?

We all like to have fun right?

peace

[liesabath]

I bought the The Tommy in different version: Tommy As Perfomed By The London Symfony Orchestra, The Who with various artists:

Sandy Denny

Steve Winwood

Maggie Bell

Ritchie Havens

Ringo Starr

Rod Stewart

Richard Harris

Awesome version! :good job: :rotfl:

[nate]

is that a record or cd?

i have been searching for that particular version a long time

[DudeAsInCool]

I bought the The Tommy in different version: Tommy As Perfomed By The London Symfony Orchestra, The Who with various artists:

Sandy Denny

Steve Winwood

Maggie Bell

Sandy Denny, the actress? Curious as to what Stevie Winwood did...and Maggie Bell usually had great bands and could almost sing as well as Janis Joplin--too bad her career never really took off

[liesabath]

Sandy Denny, the actress? Curious as to what Stevie Winwood did...and Maggie Bell usually had great bands and could almost sing as well as Janis Joplin--too bad her career never really took off

Sandy Denny was a singer:

by Richie Unterberger

Maddy Prior, Jacqui McShee, and June Tabor all give her a run for her money, but the late Sandy Denny remains the pre-eminent British folk-rock singer. In addition to recording several albums of her own, Denny was an integral force behind the best work of the most respected British folk-rock band of all, Fairport Convention, and also contributed mightily to recordings by the Strawbs and Fotheringay. It's impossible for words to fully evoke the haunting, spectral presence of her powerful and penetrating alto voice, which seemed to bring the mythology of English moors and folktales to life in contemporary, 20th century settings.

Denny was studying to be a nurse when she began to pursue music seriously in the mid-'60s, partially at the encouragement of the then-struggling Simon & Garfunkel, whom she met when they were still unknown. She was also friendly with the American folk singer Jackson Frank, and recorded a couple of his songs on her first album (now available as The Original Sandy Denny). While this solo acoustic recording was her most traditional folk effort, it showed considerable potential, which she came closer to realizing on the 1967 album she recorded as a member of the Strawbs. This found her singing with fuller folk-rock arrangements, and also included her first recorded composition, "Who Knows Where the Time Goes." The song gave Denny her first international recognition when Judy Collins recorded it in 1968.

Denny was tapped to replace Judy Dyble in Fairport Convention in 1968, and is prominently featured on their late-'60s albums What We Did on Our Holidays, Unhalfbricking, and Liege and Lief. These are not only recognized as Fairport's best work, but as some of the finest British folk-rock records of all time. Although Denny shared the lead vocal chores with other members of the group, it was her singing that highlighted the best tracks, such as "Tam Lin," "Fotheringay," and "Autopsy" (the last two of which she wrote).

Denny left Fairport Convention in 1970, and while both she and Fairport would produce some worthwhile work in the future, it's fair to say that neither band nor singer would reach the same peaks again. She formed the short-lived Fotheringay, which also included her future husband Trevor Lucas on guitar, but which disbanded after one decent album (a planned second LP was never completed). She recorded a few solo albums for Island in the 1970s that sometimes suffered from unsympathetic over-production and weak material, though the highlights are worth hearing. There was also an unremarkable album of oldies covers that she helped out with as a member of the Bunch, a British folk supersession of sorts that also included Richard Thompson. When mainstream rock listeners heard her voice in the 1970s, however, it was usually not on her own records, but as a guest vocalist on Led Zeppelin's "The Battle of Evermore."

Much of the best of Denny's later solo work, oddly, is found on live and BBC recordings, some of which surfaced on the box set Who Knows Where the Time Goes? (others appear on the bootleg Dark the Night). While Denny was a first-rate folk-rock singer, she usually didn't mesh well with mainstream rock or hard rock arrangements, and the live work usually framed her vocals in more appropriately sparse settings. She joined Fairport again for a while in the mid-'70s, appearing on the 1975 album Rising for the Moon, but the reunion didn't really excite either the participants or the audiences, and she left for good in 1976. Her final LP, Rendezvous, came out in 1977; the following year, she died from injuries sustained in a fall down a flight of stairs. In 1998, Island released Gold Dust, a recording of her final live performance taped at London's Royalty Theatre on

November 27, 1977.

Steve Winwood sang the part of: The Father on this album and Maggie Bell the Mother.

Maggie Bell was in a few Andrew Lloyd Webber productions, I believe

[liesabath]

is that a record or cd?

i have been searching for that particular version a long time

It's on cd. Can make it available for you in slsk