All this time, Tommy <\/i>was a way for Pete Townshend to exorcise his personal demons. The line \u201cSee me feel me touch me heal me\u201d is a cry out to Pete’s own mother, and \u201cCousin Kevin\u201d is a combination of everybody who ever bullied the Who’s main songwriter. And the sexual abuse at the hands of Uncle Ernie? Don’t ask, but if you get this DVD, Pete will tell anyway.<\/p>\n
There is also a concert here too, but it adds very little to the deep canon of Tommy <\/i>performances, especially if you’ve seen the movie and heard the Isle of Wight show. So after watching it once, you’ll turn on the DVD commentary, featuring Townshend and Roger Daltrey commenting on the reasons the songs were written and how they form the story of a deaf, dumb and blind boy who becomes a pinball genius and a Messiah-like figure to a mob of half-wits.<\/p>\n
Yes, it still makes no sense 35 years later, but by this point, nobody cares anymore. The market for this is baby boomers who grew up with the original 1969 album and fans of 80s nostalgia who want to buy this for the special guest stars who randomly pop up.<\/p>\n
This DVD, separated from a dual package of Quadrophenia<\/i>, is the 1989 performance in Los Angeles of the entire Tommy <\/i>album, and only that album. However, the songs are thrown somewhat out of order and a few are missing, but nothing too important. The problem is, Daltrey ends the concert by saying \u201cWe’re just getting started,\u201d implying there are more songs to come \u2013 but none do! The show is barely over an hour, hardly worth whatever you pay for this DVD.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Ben,\u201d I hear you ask, \u201csurely the hour’s worth of performances of classic Tommy <\/i>songs and a commentary by rock legends Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey is worth the price of admission?\u201d<\/p>\n
That all depends, kind reader. I can live without Keith Moon \u2013 Simon Phillips is an adequate enough drummer, and the addition of Steve Bolton on lead guitar and John Bundrick on keyboards augments the songs a bit. But Pete Townshend \u2013 who wears a black suit and a ponytail here \u2013 sticks to a six-string acoustic the entire time and only gets theatrical at the end, where he does four quick scissor-kicks to end the show. No instrument smashing or windmills here \u2013 this is mannered and precise, at least for Pete and bassist John Entwistle.<\/p>\n
You may be wondering who the \u201cspecial guests\u201d are, and it reads like a who’s who of late 80s pop stars. Elton John has a boring turn as the Pinball Wizard, while Steve Winwood does an Eric Claptonized version of \u201cEyesight to the Blind.\u201d Patti LaBelle does a solid Acid Queen, while Billy Idol ruins \u201cCousin Kevin\u201d and Phil Collins turns in a funny but creepy performance as Uncle Ernie. A passel (which is like a gaggle, but fewer) of backup singers and horn players recreate the necessary parts from the rock opera. <\/p>\n
Now, there are some songs it is impossible to screw up, such as the \u201cOverture,\u201d \u201cAmazing Journey,\u201d \u201cSensation\u201d and \u201cChristmas.\u201d Everybody ends the show with an inspired rendition of \u201cWe’re Not Gonna Take It,\u201d while \u201cI’m Free\u201d is as solid as ever. The highlight of the show comes early with an expanded \u201cSparks,\u201d featuring some amazing bass work from the Ox, a short guitar solo from Bolton, some added keyboards and a hell of a lot more energy than anything else here.<\/p>\n
Sadly, Tommy<\/i>‘s own worst enemy has always been itself, and to further the complicated story a number of short, weak tracks must be included…so, to get to the meat of the show, you need to skip through fluff like \u201cThere’s A Doctor,\u201d \u201cTommy Can You Hear Me,\u201d \u201cDo You Think It’s Alright\u201d and \u201cMiracle Cure.\u201d And the mundane songs like \u201cSally Simpson\u201d and \u201cGo To The Mirror\u201d aren’t improved on here at all, though it looks as if the band is bored with playing them \u2013 Townshend looks merely complacent, Entwistle looks bored and Daltrey does his usual macho bluster\/beating tambourines act, complete with open denim jacket and curly blond locks, Robert Plant without the mystique. He still has a great voice, though.<\/p>\n
If you love the band or any of the aforementioned artists, you might get a kick out of this. Everyone else should start with the Isle of Wight show or the original album, unless you really want to know the history behind the songs here. Granted, Tommy <\/i>is a classic, but it deserves a better concert DVD than this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":28406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5649],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-39851","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-who","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39851"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39851"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}