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The Who - Tommy CD (album) cover

TOMMY

The Who

 

Proto-Prog

4.00 | 653 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Slartibartfast
3 stars While I have been familiar with the music on this album for many years, I never got a copy of it, or any other The Who album for that matter. It's not that I dislike The Who, it's just that I never felt the need to have any of their albums in my collection. My brother in law was giving away some CDs recently before putting them up for sale and this was one of them. So now I have a The Who album in my collection, and if it were to be just one, this would be it.

Originally released in 1969, it can lay claim to being one of the first concept albums,. It has also been hailed as a rock opera. Musically, it is fairly proggy most of the time and for that it is a welcomed addition to my collection.

On to the problems I have with this album...

The incoherent storyline. Tommy is apparently born in 1921 but somehow winds up the 1960's and is still a kid when he would be in his '40's. Either The Who can't do math or they were on some really good drugs. The child molester. Really? Does this actually add anything to the story? The gratuitous acid queen. Really? LSD is a visual experience. Tommy is supposedly blind, or maybe he's just faking it. Like being a kid when he is still in his '40's. The operatic bits. Really? Probably the worst parts of the album musically.

I could have given this album four stars, but have to shave off a point for the stuff mentioned above.

Slartibartfast | 3/5 |

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