Few albums caused as much of a sensation – as well as consternation – as The Who’s “Tommy”.

The idea of creating a ‘rock opera’ was a new concept, and critics tripped over themselves in their attempts to take this as seriously as the word  ‘opera’ implied. What was overlooked, though, was that the story itself made very little sense, and the album’s pacing was almost ludicrously lopsided, with half of the storyline taking place in the first five or six minutes.

Pete Townshend already displayed his penchant for conceptualism, having already written a mini-storyboard song with “A Quick One While He’s Away” and the commercially themed album ”The Who Sell Out.” “Tommy” was simply an enlargement of his proclivity to work within a theme, and it became a method that applied to almost all of Townshend’s future projects, including “Quadrophenia”, “Lifehouse”, “Iron Man” and many, many others.

This show covers Part One of “Tommy”. Next week we will cover Part Two.

Songs featured inthis show:

Overature

It's a Boy

1921

Amazing Journey

Sparks

The Hawker

Christmas

Cousin Kevin

The Acid Queen

Underture

May 1969  - Billboard Charted #4