Tommy

Though I had heard various songs from the Who's Tommy album, I never listened to the entire album. So I recently listened to it. As I listened, I got curious, and asked the question that doubtlessly many have asked. Who is Tommy?

Apparently, we are Tommy. Pete Townshend, after being burned out on drugs and celebrity attention, underwent a spiritual awakening. He came under the influence of the teachings of Meher Baba. He soon gave up psychedlic drugs and sought to bring others under the same teachings. He dedicated the Tommy album to Meher Baba.

Meher Baba was a spiritual master from India, deeply into mysticism. For him, reality is mostly illusion, and the goal of life is to realize the Oneness of God in a mostly pantheistic manner. The ultimate realization of this level of concsiousness is Avantarhood, which Meher Baba declared he reached on February 10, 1954. Meher Baba took a strong public stand against using drugs to achieve new levels of consciousness.

Pete Townshend therefore believed that we, like Tommy, are blind, deaf, and dumb, and need to take the "Amazing Journey" (the central track on the Album), and achieve a new level of spiritual consciousness, as Tommy did. In the Album, Tommy strongly advises his followers not to take drugs or alcohol. Like Tommy, we need to break through the mirror to truly see, hear, and speak.

However, Pete Townshend added many extraneous elements to the story, such as the Pinball Wizard (though it may be the best song on the Album). Ironically, probably most of the Who fans listened to Tommy while doing drugs, and did not give up drugs as a result. Later on, Pete admitted he was not direct enough in getting across the message he wanted to give.

I personally do not think the underlying message was strong enough. Mysticism, Eastern or otherwise, can be directed toward spiritual consciousness, but there is no logical reason that it cannot be directed to drugs or that it can speak against drugs.

However, though not all the songs are equally strong, there are some great rock songs on this album with rich chords. Many songs employ an acoustic guitar in contrast to the usual electric guitar, though that is there as well. The concept of the album was ambitious in attempting to convey a unified message, as well as the overture and underture. Overall, I enjoyed listening to this album.

Though Pete Townshend initially denied the album was autobiographical, he later came to the realization that it was. It has many parrallels to his personal life. The Tommy tour also witnessed a transformation of Roger Daltry as he increasingly took on the character of Tommy as he sang the role part.