Scenes from The Who's Epic "Rock Opera" Tour
"...Tommy, can you hear me?"
If The Who didn’t invent the “rock opera,” the legendary band definitely brought the concept to the masses with 1969’s Tommy. It’s what I’ve mostly been listening to today.
From the musically brilliant and enigmatic mind of guitarist Pete Townshend, The Who’s fourth studio album dropped 56 years ago in the middle of May. It came with the billing of a rock opera and launched an epic tour that carried the London-born lads out of the 1960s into a new decade that saw them produce four more platinum records.
The tour to promote Tommy, the story of that “deaf, dumb, and blind kid” who could sure play a “mean pinball,” led The Who to an unforgettable appearance at Woodstock during the summer of ‘69. Other memorable stops along the way included the University of Leeds, the Metropolitan Opera House, and two Isle of Wight festivals (1969, 1970).
We’re a triple story family. My husband Brad was at the Sunday show at BCT. It was an ear-shattering, life-changing event for him. He and friend had to hitchhike home to SF as the AC Transit buses were on strike. The next day he had to start a new accounting job but soon realized he had to work in music business. So he walked into Bill Graham’s office and immediately got a job. Only he found out later he was working for legendary producer David Rubinson ( they shared offices with BGP). He was with him for decades.
I did not know him then. I was a junior at the experimental school Community High School at Berkeley that year, and our classes were held in the lobbies surrounding the BCT. So it was quite the buzz to come back to drama class on the same BCT stage. But the next year I was at SF State, and the biggest phenomena was Lone Mountain College and John Pasqualetti’s dance concert performances of Tommy, then moved to a venue out on the beach for the entire summer. The Examiner even did a huge article on its cult. Great band and breathtaking dancing. But The Who themselves shut it down by September. A great pity, since the movie done of it is a pathetic indulgence.
Bless The Who for making spiritual enlightenment look like an acid trip at an arcade.
Did pinball become cooler because of Tommy, or was it already sexy and we just didn’t know?
https://open.spotify.com/track/6LbbHFEajG9e4m0G3L47c4?si=14afeb09f3484660