The fact that in the film his mother is hot-ass Ann-Margaret and the way she affectionately dotes on golden rock god Roger Daltrey in the role of Tommy may have heightened my sexualized view of the story.īut it seems that in Pete Townsend’s original conception and in the Broadway version, it is Tommy’s mom’s new lover that is killed when Captain Walker returns, which does not appeal to me as much. The metaphorical killing (or even a literal one) interrupted and replaced his own Freudian desire to kill his absent father and possess his mother. I guess I saw it as kind of Oedipal in a Hamlet kind of way. I always imagined that what Tommy walked in on, what he was told that that he didn’t see or hear, and was made to promise to not “say nothing to no one ever in life” was his mom and step-dad’s sexual exploits. I always figured that to Tommy, his mother’s remarriage was finally “killing” his missing father. I never really took this part of the rock opera literally. I never considered it would be or could be any different. I guess since the film was the only version of the narrative I ever saw, it made sense to me that Tommy’s mother and her new husband kill Captain Walker (Tommy’s father), when he surprisingly returns from war after having been presumed dead. The clip below is an awesome mash-up of scenes from the 1975 film with the music from the original album version: I have never seen nor heard the Broadway musical version, so I was curious if there were new songs or different orders or characters (apparently there are), but the thing that stuck out to me was the change in the story. The different productions of it, how The Who performed it in concert, etc. Maybe I need to re-watch the whole thing all the way through again, since I haven’t since probably the late 80s.Īfter my driving I did a little research about Tommy. The singing mostly seems kind of desperate and hurried, out of breath, the arrangements alternately limp and plodding. Watching bits and pieces of it now, it seems pretty terrible. Somewhere in the change over into the CD era, I lost my tape of the film version, got a CD of the album version and my memory of the former faded. For a few years I’d listen to the soundtrack of the film version which I taped from a friend, and when I finally heard the original album version I thought it was really weird. I was not into any rock music at the time, but the musical theatricality and operatic sound drew me in. I was entranced by its weirdness (like Ann-Margaret covered in baked beans, soap suds and chocolate writhing on a giant penis-like pillow) and its mix of what seemed to be Freudian and spiritual themes. My first exposure to Tommy was at age 14 when I saw the 1975 film version. It has a good range of dramatic vocals and even some longish instrumental parts to give my vocal chords a rest while I drum along with Keith Moon on the steering wheel. It is one of my favorite records to sing along to, especially while driving. I listened to The Who’s Tommy (1969) on the drive back home from NYC the other day.
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