TOMMY

One of the most important works of the twentieth century. Period. Like The Beatle´s Sargeant Pepper, Tommy opened up a whole new door for rock musicians to express their music beyond all frontiers that existed thus far. Liking Who´s music or not, Tommy success was very important to all matters progressive. And its presence alone justifies their inclusion in theis site. It´s unbelieveable how far this R&B has gone since their start just a few years before. Literally they went form a singles band to one of the most groundbreaking bands in a timespan that only the Beatles seemed to be on par with. Thanks largely to the genius of guitarrist and songwriter Pete Townshend. Still, Tommy is clearly a band efford and it surpassed all that seemed to be the group´s former limitations. They were one of the great bands of the 60´s and flollowing works like Who´s Next and Quadrophenia would only confirm all this.

Not that Tommy was the first rock opera; Townshend acknowleges the Pretty Things S.F,. Sorrow not only as the first but also as a source of inspiration. However, it was Tommy´s worldwide success that made it all possible for other bands to try out and do something more than just put a bunch of songs in an album. Its importance for rock music in general, and prog ins particular, cannot be underestimated.

But What the music itself? I remember I was always a fan of Tommy. Even if the plot was quite confusing. Besides, at 15 and not being the greatest language student, my english was not good enough to understand the lyrics anyway. But the music stood the test of time. I used to hear the album over and over again. I almost wore it out. Not that the production was great. In fact, it took me more than 20 years to finally grab a CD )MCA´s 1996 release) that had a remastering good enough to justify all the band´s wonderful perfomances. Before that much of the group´s musical perfoamnce were buried under the rather ameuterish work of former manager Kit Lambert. The album has of course its ups and downs, but as a whole it worked quite well, and I still listen to it without skiping a single track. More acoustic then most of Who´s works, it is still full of their special energy and power. They were one of kind.

Conclusion: Tommy was bigger than the sum of its parts and started, for good or worst, a whole new era in the rock history. So it is a classic and I cannot rate it any less. Five stars for this essentialmasterpiece of progresive rock. Hail, the Who!