Tommy

What constitutes ‘progressive’ rock has always been a mystery to me. But one album to me has always stood out as being among the forerunners in progressive music: Tommy.
Released in 1969, Tommy represented one of, if not, the first albums to be called a ‘rock opera’.
The album tells the story of Tommy Walker, a deaf, dumb, and blind boy. Tommy’s father is a pilot in WWI who is reported dead while Mrs. Walker delivers her boy. Shortly after the war’s end, Mr. Walker returns home to find his wife with another lover. When Mr. Walker confronts the two, he kills the lover, a crime which Tommy witnesses. His parents tell him to forget what he saw and heard, and tell him never to speak of it to anyone. It is this that results in his becoming blind, deaf, and dumb.
Although I’m usually primarily concerned with musicianship, I found that I enjoyed the lyrics a great deal. For this particular album, the lyrics really play a huge part in the creation of the songs themselves (besides, Daltrey can belt it).
While I like many of the songs, I felt the album got a bit bogged down with so many songs. I appreciate that they were telling a story and wanted to make it interesting, but songs like ‘Cousin Kevin’ and ‘Fiddle About’ seemed like they were unnecessary to me.
Likely, the best known song on the album is Pinball Wizard. But, me being me, I find one of the coolest yet simplest songs on the album to be my favorite. ‘Sparks’, which sits at number five on the album, and yes, it is an instrumental. (I’ve included a video of them playing the song live at Leeds.
If you are a fan of the album then I also recommend you check out the movie. It’s like Flash Gordon in that it doesn’t matter how low budget a film is as long as it has a good sound track. Also similar to Flash Gordon, Tommy: The Movie is ridiculously trippy.