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Re: 1921 and "Tommy"
- Subject: Re: 1921 and "Tommy"
- From: "Jon" <jwilliam@99main.com>
- Date: Mon, 10 Nov 1997 22:06:24 +0000
> To: "mailinglist the who" <TheWho@igtc.COM>
> Date: Thu, 06 Nov 1997 13:20:46 -0700
> From: "pink floyd loves the who" <pinkthefloydwho@mailcity.com>
> Subject: 1921 and "Tommy"
> Organization: MailCity (http://www.mailcity.com)
> Hi, I'm new here so if this got sent to the right place that's good. The Album "tommy"
> was written with the purpse of a rock opera. Townsend desperately needed Nic Cohn's
> review of the material to be good (him being a major rock journalist). Townsend knew
> Cohn was a pinball fan so he told him of the pinball angle and added it in. Pinball
> lines were stuck in in various places and pinball wizard was written (Which Townsend
> origionally thought was the worst thing he ever created. The album was created far
> before the movie ever had a script. Ken Russell (the writer) found it tremendously
> difficult to make out the plot for "1921" especially what tommy didn't see. In the
> Tommy lyrics captain walker and Father are used for dialogs. Frank was actually Tommy's
> Father if you think about the role he played in his life. Captain Walker fought in
> world war II (look at the flags in the begining of "It's a boy"). that way pinball
> was around in tommy's life time. Just a nice fact: in we're not gonna take it, the
> smoke and fire was put in to hide Dalton's smile. I learned 90% of this stuff from
> the digitally remastered tommy cd. I just started listening to the who but they're
> my favorite. for advice, what's their greatest album (I have tommy, my generation,
> and have ordered the who sell out (the old stuff's the best)).
>
> ---
I always heard that in the case of "Pinball Wizard", Pete was told by
someone that "Tommy" was too damn depressing, and that it needed some
uplifting element to it. I imagine that the pinball angle would
figure in nicely if he were trying to impress a rock critic. Plus,
it does seem to be an uplifting point after hearing Tommy be
molested and beaten for the first half hour of the opera.
Jon