Tommy songbook

[Ken Traub <kt@einstein.exa.com>]

  On a different note, I have a Tommy songbook (it looks like an original) 
  which doesn't include the sheet music for "Eyesight To The Blind," and has an 
  interesting variation. Between "Overture" and "It's A Boy" there is a song 
  entitled "Tommy" with the following lyrics:  "Tommy can you hear me (sung 
  five times), Can you hear me, how can he be saved?" followed by "See me, feel 
  me, touch me, heal me," and then it repeats the whole "Tommy can you..." 
  sequence.  These lyrics are the ones in the middle of "Christmas" as we all 
  know it, except that in this book they're missing from that song.  Could it 
  be that Pete (or someone) made a last-minute decision to take the song called 
  "Tommy" and stick it in the middle of "Christmas"?

The song entitled "Tommy" in the songbook is indeed, music and lyrics, the
middle of what we now know as "Christmas".  The demo for Christmas (see
Another Scoop or the Tommy Demos boot) doesn't have this section, it ends
right after the second chorus.  That would corroborate your theory.

  Also, if anyone else has this songbook, it looks as if there were some kind 
  of inserts just inside the front and back covers.  If so, what were these?

There was a tear-out booklet which included a teeny-bopper style hyped up
biography of The Who, and a synopsis of the Tommy plot.  It's actually
interesting for the latter, since of course the album has no such synopsis.

Ken Traub