A while ago I started posting some of the albums from the 70′s that I’d particularly enjoyed back then but hadn’t played in years, terminal apathy set in and I let the idea fizzle. I recall creating a mental list that was too long to include here but it included Traffic, Van Morrison, Floyd, CSN plus many more, that was a wonderful period for new releases by major groups. There was one very memorable album that I liked a lot but it doesn’t get any airplay or mention anymore, that was Tommy by The Who, I first heard it in Suffolk when it was released and I played it obsessively everyday that summer; I was teaching at a California university then and had delusions of including it into the curriculum on my return and teaching the course on Tommy, that’s how much impact it had. Does anyone else out there share my enthusiasm or had it faded into obscurity by the time most Spillers were up and about? Rather than go into detail about the album I’ll refer you to Wiki, they have a decent page on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_(album)
Plus there’s a piece here [Tommy text] from a 1968 Rolling Stone interview with Pete Townshend, [he basically wrote the whole thing] where he talks about how Tommy came into being and how it evolved. In 1975 it was produced as a film which was directed by Ken Russell, I can’t stomach anything made by him, I walked out after about 15 minutes. I did likewise for his film ‘Mahler’. I’m posting Tommy in 4 parts, one for each side of a double vinyl album, in total it runs 72 mins, if you’re a believer in earworms it’s worth it.
side 1.
side 2.
side 3.
side 4.
