Tommy, The Who’s defining, breakthrough concept album – a full-blown rock opera about a deaf, dumb and blind boy that launched the band to international superstardom reissued in multi format editions.
Originally released in May 1969, The Who were at a career crossroads, they were known mainly as a singles band but this project launched them as a serious ‘albums band’ and has now sold over 20 million copies as well as regularly turning up in lists of the most influential albums of all time.
It’s all too easy to go, “Yeah, The Who’s Tommy is great, love it.” But just put it into perspective for a moment. This was one man’s imagination, one man’s vision and it was groundbreaking. Add into the mix, Roger, Keith and John, who along with Pete, created what is one of the most amazing records of the rock era. It was released on 23rd May 1969 and every home should have one…
From the opening chords of ‘Overture’ you know you are in for something different. But try imagining what it was like to hear this for the very first time in the last week of May 1969 when The Who released their magnum opus, the much vaunted, Tommy. To add to the sense of wonderment ‘Overture’ features a French Horn, previously the sole preserve of the Beatles in popular music, but here played by The Who’s bass player, John Entwistle.
This was rock music, but not as we knew it. It wasn’t the first extended musical piece in rock, but it was the first to have the audacity to bill itself as an opera. Being a double album it certainly demanded to be taken seriously; to this point there had been few such lengthy albums, even ones that were not a cohesive piece of work. With its triptych of a fold out sleeve that was a lavish presentation of Mike McInnerney’s fabulous painting it all helped to make this an even more auspicious musical work.
A quick check of the album credits showed that all but four of the 24 tracks were written by Pete Townshend. It’s another reason why this monster of a work should command such respect. Few individuals had the ability, or the vision, to create such a complex and such a long piece of work; Pete’s inspiration came from the teachings of the Meher Baba.
Tommy took six months to record, and another two months to mix, while not unheard of even as long ago as 1969, but it was even then very unusual. With layers of Townshend’s acoustic guitar and the numerous overdubs Tommy was for the time a sonically very different album from most everything else. It’s another example of the passage of time fooling us into believing that this was not as significant an album as it was. So much has happened since the release of Tommy that it dulls the collective retrospective – what is now commonplace was then a step outside the accepted, a step into uncharted territory.
‘Pinball Wizard’, ‘Go to the Mirror!’, ‘I’m Free’, ‘Christmas’, and ‘See Me, Feel Me’ all came out as singles, with the first and last becoming hits in both America and the UK. ‘See Me, Feel Me’ was one of the highpoints of The Who’s appearance at Woodstock – has there ever been a better rock vocalist than Roger Daltrey. If The Who doing Tommy at Woodstock doesn’t send shivers down the spine try checking that you are still alive.
Coming after The Who Sell Out in 1967 it marked a complete change in style with Pete Townshend’s lengthy conceptual narrative brought exciting new opportunities to rock music. Tommy was and remains to be an ambitious, complex and controversial work, which was initially banned by the BBC. This new Deluxe and Super Deluxe version of the album comes with a wealth of previously unheard material in the form of 20 demos from Pete Townshend’s archive and also a live performance of Tommy from 1969 taken from tapes that infamously Townshend asked the band’s sound engineer to burn!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyR8vcyi14M
18 of the previously unheard and thought to be long lost live tracks are taken from a live show at the Capital Theatre, Ottowa, Canada on October the 15th 1969. Three others, I’m Free, Tommy’s Holiday Camp and We’re Not Gonna Take It were lost due to tape reels being changed during the show so are taken from later shows of the same era.
As discussed at length in Pete Townshend’s autobiography the tapes were all supposed to be destroyed but were kept by long time Who sound man Bob Pridden despite Pete’s instructions.
Super-Deluxe box set:
Disc 1 – The original album (2013 re-master) Digitally remastered in HD
Disc 2 – The demos and out-takes. Features 20 previously unreleased tracks from Pete Townshend’s archive.
Disc 3 – The 5.1 album mix – Hi Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-ray The complete album remixed in surround sound on new Hi Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-ray format
Disc 4 – The live ‘bootleg’ album. Features 21 previouslyunreleased tracks from 1969
- Hardback 80-page full-colour book featuring rare & unseen period photos, Pete’s hand-written lyrics & notes and fascinating memorabilia.
- 22,000-word essay by legendary Who aficionado Richard Barnes
- Facsimile 20” x 30” Tommy concert poster
- Limited edition, housed in a hard-back deluxe slip-case
The Fat Angel Sings 