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Tommy (1975 Film)

The Who - Tommy (1975 Film) Audio CD

A fair review of the The Who "Tommy (1975 Film)" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Who reviews here, or go back to the The Who tabs.

Band: The Who
Title: Tommy (1975 Film)
Rating:

Release Date: 2001-04-17
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Overture - The Who 2: Prologue - 1945 3: Captain Walker/It's a Boy 4: Bernie's Holiday Camp 5: 1921/What About the Boy? 6: Amazing Journey 7: Christmas 8: Eyesight to the Blind 9: Acid Queen 10: Do You Think It's Alright? (I) 11: Cousin Kevin - The Who 12: Do You Think It's Alright? (II) 13: Fiddle About - The Who 14: Do You Think It's Alright? (III) 15: Sparks - The Who 16: Extra, Extra, Extra 17: Pinball Wizard - Pete Townshend 18: Champagne 19: There's a Doctor - Pete Townshend 20: Go to the Mirror - Pete Townshend 21: Tommy, Can You Hear Me? - Pete Townshend 22: Smash the Mirror - Pete Townshend 23: I'm Free 24: Mother and Son - The Who 25: Sensation - The Who 26: Miracle Cure 27: Sally Simpson 28: Welcome 29: T.V. Studio 30: Tommy's Holiday Camp 31: We're Not Gonna Take It 32: See Me, Feel Me/Listening to You

Whoever remastered this should be enslaved
So, one would think that with a remastered soundtrack the engineer(s) would make those, and the other tracks, shine. Okay, we know that the original movie soundtrack wasn't the greatest to begin with (Jack Nicholson singing leaves a very bad taste in your brain) but it had a few memorable tracks: Prologue 1945, Christmas, See Me-Feel Me/Listening to You, and the Acid Queen.

Wrong.

The remastered album is dreadful, _especially_ Prologue 1945: it's brash, noisy musical mayhem--it sounds like The Three Stooges tripping and falling their way through an orchestra pit/recording studio. . . and that's just the beginning. I'm so disappointed with the disc I just may stick in the microwave just to feel good about its self-destruction as it generates a miniature lightning storm and melts into a puddle of muddled musical goo.

Save yourself some money and disappointment: buy the DVD and rip it to . mp3 files, instead.

Tommy-phenia
While I did enjoy the original 1969 Tommy album once I finally discovered it, only the '75 version has really endured for me. For many years, this was the only version of Tommy I knew.

The Tommy CD, recorded in 1974 on the heels of Quadrophenia, really takes on the feel of that masterpiece with its layers of guitars and other stringed insrtuments, piano, synthesizer, voices and what-not that the wizard Pete Townshend was delving into at the time. The music itself is much like Quadrophenia with the many variations on repeating musical themes. In both cases, I think Pete composed this kind of music wonderfully. So, essentially, The Who and other artists got together immediately after the Quadrophenia tour and re-recorded Tommy. And all indications to me are that everyone worked well and enthusiastically on the project, to an inspired, magnificent end.

The CD does not sound exactly like the movie. In some ways, it's improved, in other ways, it's lacking. The improvements include the addition of the "Overture" and some improvements in mixing. For example, in "Cousin Kevin", the drums are turned way up in the CD mix as compared to the movie, and this gives even more energy to an already great song. It seems to me that the drummer (credited as Tony Newman) was using Nigel Olsson's drum kit, which sounds rather unique to my ears; anyone else hear this?

The lacking qualities of the CD have mainly to do with edited cuts in certain tracks. For example, the intro to "Fiddle About" is missing that foreboding synthesizer line that happens in the movie when Uncle Ernie cracks the egg into his stout. Another example; much of the 'Acid Queen' jam session is cut out, and it really hits home to me when I recall that little guitar and piano riff that plays in the movie when Frank enters the room and Tina's shaking over the sprawled Tommy. Even the drunken synth interlude at the end of "Champagne". . . missing! There's a good bit more that's cut out, and these keep me from giving the otherwise deserved 5-star rating.

For my parting comments, I have to stand up for the voice of Oliver Reed. It sounds bad in a "good" way; it totally works for every line he delivers as the character "Uncle Frank". And that reminds me that his coughing "I wish I knew" line is cut out of "Go to the Mirror". Argh!!.

Welcome to The 70's. Please Leave All Taste Behind.
Great band. Love the Who. Rarely did a truly bad album (only It's Hard counts) and they really innovated a lot of things. Punk, hard rock, synthesizers, feedback, smashing guitars, concept albums, and most infamously, the rock opera. This last one was an unfortunate development in almost all cases: Dream Theater wouldn't exist without the Who's rock operas. Fortunately, their rock opera's hold up exceptionally well, even today. Tommy is still touching and Quadrophenia is beautiful, with some of the best use of synthesizers I've ever heard. The big thing the band has in their favorite is a bona-fide songwriting genius in Townshend and one of the best backing bands in existence. Pete was also smart: neither Tommy or Quadrophenia are particularly overblown or pompous. Tommy is mostly played on acoustic guitar with very few extra instruments. Quadrophenia is nothing more than a prayer for love and acceptance and lives up to the potential pomp. Great albums that still sound great today.

Unfortunately, this soundtrack is not so lucky. It had the bad luck of appearing right smack dab in the middle of the 70's, one of the biggest and most bloated musical decades. Everything bigger, louder, and longer than everything else. Pete, alone from many of his peers, avoided falling into this pompous trap. Again, except for this album. I'm not sure why or how it happened. Working with a pompous fool like Ken Russell probably didn't help. I won't go into a review of the movie, but I'll just say it's a complete mockery and bastardization of everything great about the album. It's only good to laugh at these days, and I'm sure it was the same in the 70's as well. It's a big loud stupid movie, and the soundtrack follows suit. It drops the subtle feel of the original (which some people are complaining about as being a "laid back" feel) and throws in everything but the kitchen sink. Pete re-arranged this himself, and I have to say he must have been rushed or drunk because it is, hands down, the man's worst use of synthesizers ever. Overblown and obvious, it's uncanny to think that this is the same man who made his synthesizers bleed emotion and depth so well on Quadrophenia. These synthesizers mostly sound like farts and burps. Shameful. The music goes from subtle and effective to over the top and unbearable. I guess that's an "improvement" of sorts, if you don't care so much about the quality of the music as you do it's volume.

As for the performances by the others, I basically agree with everything that's been sad. Oliver Reed is a great actor but he seems capable of mostly bleeting like a sheep in a (probably, knowing him) drunken manner. Ann Margaret seems to think that using vibrato like an opera singer will make her sound great. It doesn't. Jack Nicklson is awful but his role is so small it's ignorable. Claptop was obviously in a "vague haze of delirium" caused by heroin while he was singing, though his guitar playing is still fine. Tina Turner blusters her way through the Acid Queen role well and her performance is a highlight. Of course, lil Elton John, at the height of his powers and talent (and he was quite talented and great at this point in his career) simply steals the show as the Pinball Wizard. It's the only completely succesful moment in the entire show.

Well, except for Roger. Everytime Roger sings, it's magic. The guy was at the height of HIS singing, and since I consider him the finest hard rock singer of all time, it's quite a performance. He even does okay as Tommy. Though early on he mostly has to stand and stare, he does a decent job later on too. Anytime Roger is doing something it's the highlight, and he really does embody Tommy quite well.

So basically what you have is a bunch of pompous noise, most of which is sang horribly and performed lifelessly. Again, this doesn't count Clapton's guitar playing (he never plays badly, even on bad material. Look at Roger Water's garbage heap "The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking" for proof), Tina Turner's excellent screeching, and Elton John's captivating performance as the Pinball Wizard. The rest is condemend to the scrap heap of history.

Oh Keith Moon is funny as Uncle Ernie. That's about it. The movie is a relic of the 70's and is really only worth watching to laugh at the stupid campy excesses. The soundtrack is the same. Anybody who thinks it holds up to the original probably loved the Broadway musical too. Now that's something I can't even stomach THINKING about owning.

Fans of The Who
This is a great movie for fans of The Who and brings in an interest to young viewers.

TOMMY SOUNDTRACK a MASTERPIECE!!!
I completely disagree - not only is this not anywhere CLOSE to the monstrosity that was SGT. I was very surprised by the main review in here. PEPPER by the Bee Gees (though it's been forever since I've heard it - I can only imagin) - the TOMMY FILM is really just so/so. It's overblown, overheated, overacted and overproduced. HOWEVER - the MUSIC is the real thing. The Who really stepped up their game and play every song in much more urgent manner. Daltry's vocals on this are nothing short of brilliantly majestic and literally - this surpasses every original TOMMY track - just about track by track. I would like to address just a few concerns - 1 - the actors sing some of the bits. Yes, and they do a fine job, Ann Margeret does a particularly great job of inhabiting the mom, Oliver Reed is find and Nicholson is surprisingly goosy. Does this make it a little ROCKY HORROR - I supppose - but this rock/opera was ALWAYS supposed to tell a story with different voices - look at all the work over the broadway play. CONCERN 2 - too much synth - I don't know what anybody's talking about - I'm not an audiophile but I can hear pretty good and these version simply rock harder and softer whereever needed. The point is - the WHO is playing everything - DALTRY sings MOST EVERYTHING and it's wonderful to have Elton make PINBALL WIZARD a classic - and the same for Tina Turner's ACID QUEEN which is also a near classic. I'M FREE, WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT, CHRISTMAS - these are all much better on the soundtrack CD than the original. I grew up with the soundtrack and when i finally heard the original - make no mistake - i loved it - but it sounded like the extremely laid back version of this hard rocking interpretation. By the way - the music track of THE WALL is also better than the original (though not as much as this soundtrack dwarfs the original) and I wish that would be released on CD - although there are pirate copies all over the web. Trust me - you will not go wrong with this CD - it's a true masterpiece - better than the original and yes, better than the film and even conveys more than Ken Russel's bloated opus provided. Lastly, the other great WHO performance of TOMMY is a live CD they put out about 12 years ago - 1 cd is TOMMY and the other is hits - also highly reccomended and also surpasses original recording. Sorry purists, this soundtrack ROCKS and I'm glad it's back in our lives. I can't live without it.

You can see a complete list of all The Who discography, or go back to the The Who tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.