Pinball Wizard An Embarrassment?

["Kevin O'Neal" <kevinandt@xxxxxxxxx>]

>From: Alan McKendree
>Subject: Re: Pinball Wizard An Embarrassment?
>
>"Pinball Wizard", and the concept of having Tommy become a pinball master,
is an essential part of both the album and its success.

Well, yes, obviously.  That's why I wrote that "it paid off".

>Without pinball, Tommy's a much less interesting one-note linear story of a
wounded child who is eventually healed.

Well, yes again.  But, you're presuming that pinball couldn't be exchanged
with some other thing that we experience and appreciate in our lives.

>And, if it needs to be restated, pinball skill is a direct analogue to
Pete's guitar-playing skill. Exactly like pinball, it's derided by those who
don't "get it" as a >meaningless pastime, and revered by the fans who are
entertained and inspired by it. Pinball is essential to understanding Tommy
as autobiography.

Chicken or egg.  Chicken or the egg.

>Finally, I love the track on the album, for its production as much as the
music and lyrics. The echoes on the vocals and the enormous power of the
guitar chords, >although muted by the mix, do it for me every time.

Well, like I wrote just a week ago or so, Pinball Wizard was one of my
favorite first songs.
While it's now in that 'over played' category, I still like the song.
Classic guitar riffs.

>He was doing it to masturbate Nik Cohn, if anyone. The masses came (heh)
later.

Good one! But, that's not so.  How can you gear something toward one person
without weighing the reception by the masses?
I seriously doubt Pete would have proceeded if Nik Cohn were a fan of
pedophilia, for example (ok, bad timed example...but you get my point).

>And if he HADN'T added in pinball (or something equivalent), there's a
serious question whether the masses would have given a monkey's about Tommy.
And if >the masses hadn't bought Tommy in truckloads, The Who would have
ceased to exist in the late '60s and we'd have nothing but The Stones to
talk about.

But, but....*that's* my whole point!
But, again, same presumption as above (something equivalent).
And, now that truckloads of people have been diddled by pinball, they are
wet for the wonders of the world's first rock opera.
That's what struck me first.  That's what blew me away.
I rarely if ever played pinball, didn't give a fuck about pinball, yet Tommy
immediately struck me as a worldly important piece of music that blew
*everything* before it away.  Pinball was and is totally irrelevant to the
quality of the album.
Now, looking back from a historical perspective, it detracts.

>>There's more to that than just Nick Cohn.  Pete wrote it to grease the
skids
>>of Jane and John Doe public.
>
>You keep saying that. What evidence do you have?

What evidence do I have?  We're not talking about Weapons of Mass
Destruction here.  'Cause if we were............
Alan, these are obviously my opinions.

>Everything I've read states clearly that he wrote it at Nik's suggestion.

Yes.

>It's no stretch to imagine that Pete even thought it was a GOOD IDEA,

Ah ha!  Exactly my point again, Alan.  A good idea, why?  Because pinball
was unpopular?  Doubt that.

>At worst, he could be accused of doing it to get a good review from Nik
Cohn,

If he's doing it to get a good review from Nik Cohn, a rock critic whose
review of the album will be read by 1000's of people, why is it such a
stretch to think that Pete felt it would help ease the public into something
as completely out there as a rock opera?  A rock Opera????  What the hell is
that???
Would pinball have been used if it weren't so popular at the time?  I don't
think so.  What would be the point?
What if everyone hated pinball?  Would Pete have used it?
Sounds like self defeatism, if he did.

>to mock (even subconsciously) The Who's audience for following something as
supremely silly as loud anarchic rock music -- to lead us the audience to
realize >we're being mocked -- and then let those of us who will, realize
that if we can get so much out of rock music, perhaps masses cheering a
pinball champion isn't so >stupid or silly after all.

Again, rationalization after the fact.
The above could have been accomplished via a dozen different subject
matters.

What's interesting, is that once "famous" from Thomas, I can't think of
another album or song that uses this sort of public diddling.
Funny how fame releases the artist from the shackles of blatant cow-towing
(mooo?) to the public.

Kevin, hunkered down in the April snows of VT