55 Years Later: The Who Bring Rock Opera Concept To Forefront With ‘Tommy’

It didn’t take hindsight of over half a century to realize The Who’s Tommy (released 5/17/69), delivered all the breakthroughs the band was seeking at the time of its release. But it’s still a marvel to comprehend how the tempestuous British quartet’s live renditions of the so-called ‘rock opera’ invariably superseded the studio recordings on the double LP as originally issued.

Eager to consolidate the quartet’s commercial prospects after the fleeting success of some singles like “I Can See For Miles,” chief songwriter/guitarist Pete Townshend also wanted to extend his ambitions as a composer far beyond the comparably abbreviated likes of “A Quick One, While He’s Away,” released on their second long-player in 1966 (to both of which ends he was urged on by manager/mentor Kit Lambert).

As documented on Live at Fillmore East 1968, the foursome’s reputation as an incendiary live act helped in no small way to put the Tommy over with audiences to which the band sought to appeal. To be sure, it was a risk almost proportional to their far-reaching aims, but the success of “Pinball Wizard” as a single also helped render accessible a somewhat muddled narrative involving the exploration of spiritual themes, the dualities of celebrity, and the contradictions of commercialism. 

The white-hot intensity with which The Who played their rock opera on the expanded 2002 version of the mythic Live At Leeds reaffirmed the impression left by including a segment of their performance in the Woodstock film. Touring behind this fourth studio album not only honed the group’s performance skills but also leavened their musicianship with an uncommon confidence in what they were doing.

Far from merely coasting in the afterglow of the legendary upstate New York appearance, the placement of the rock opera at the heart of their stage shows during months of rigorous touring not only galvanized the band but also ensured a bond with attendees: the motifs of ‘See me…feel me..’ and ‘Listening to you… I get the music…’ ultimately rang true enough to both widen and deepen the popularity of the Who far beyond cult status.

During Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970, released in 1996, the quartet sounds flush with as much authority as abandon. That progression of power would continue in the Who’s presentation of the magnum opus until the next year, when it was effectively retired from the repertoire of the original four-man lineup. 

It’s unfortunate that successive archiving of Tommy has not followed a similarly logical path of improvement (to be fair, it only follows accepted industry marketing). The double-disc SACD of 2003 contains some ‘Outtakes and demos’ for the album, more of which would arrive in the Super Deluxe box of 2013. Yet the inclusion of such additional content comes at the expense of the concert recording present in the larger package and the corresponding two-cd distillation released simultaneously with it. 

The patchwork audio quality of The Live Bootleg Album, rough as it is, nevertheless substantiates a variety of theories about its source (which may explain the lack of detail in the credits). Yet the twenty-one tracks ultimately highlight the uniformity of the sound on the reissue of a decade prior: audio restoration and remastering allows drummer Keith Moon’s kick drum to resonate as deeply in its own way on “Amazing Journey” as bassist John Entwistle’s instrument. 

Meanwhile, as evident in the instrumental “Underture,”  the span of the stereo spectrum becomes magnified. The resulting depth thus accommodates the layered textures of acoustic guitars and keyboards in a mix that mirrors the dense conceptual themes interwoven in the story. The superior sonics thus mirror the clarity the Who afforded Tommy in the concert setting. 

By excising four of the titles in the studio tracklist, the band heightened the dramatic power of the work without overextending the undercurrent of intellect with which Townshend imbued the piece. The composer then expanded the scope of his concept (s) for Who’s greatest work, the Lifehouse project that begat Who’s Next in 1971, and even more so, Quadrophenia, the emblematic tale of the Mod world, issued just two years later. 

Reading the extensive 1968 Rolling Stone Magazine interview containing Pete’s delineation of his storyline–conducted before the actual recording began–only makes hearing the various versions of Tommy so stimulating an experience five decades-plus after its release. 

Even if the mix of themes metaphysical and mundane sound more than a little forced and the final studio takes to come off a little flat (from a self-professed surfeit of-recordings), the heights to which the Who could take the piece in concert were nothing short of transcendental and so validate their preservation for posterity.

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