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Author Topic: "Tommy" The Who  (Read 8549 times)

Lee Tyler

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"Tommy" The Who
« on: April 19, 2006, 08:38:33 PM »

  I just had a good listen of this album actually for the first time since 1969 FINALLY through some decent monitors and was wondering if any of you guys in the business could point me toward any production notes, trivia sites, etc. WOW! This album just "affects" me like no other. Nothing comes close... with the exception of "John Barleycorn Must Die" by Traffic.
 I have noted a few threads where backround information on other recordings/songs were rich in detail and fascinating. Can any of you guys point me in some sort of direction on the net that relates to either of these works? Thanks in advance!


LT
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archtop

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Re: "Tommy" The Who
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2006, 09:01:27 PM »

JJ is usually good for some "WHO" trivia.
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Lee Tyler

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Re: "Tommy" The Who
« Reply #2 on: April 20, 2006, 06:14:33 PM »

archtop wrote on Wed, 19 April 2006 21:01

JJ is usually good for some "WHO" trivia.


Bump for JJ!   Surprised
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Ronny

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Re: "Tommy" The Who
« Reply #3 on: April 20, 2006, 06:38:19 PM »

Lee Tyler wrote on Thu, 20 April 2006 18:14

archtop wrote on Wed, 19 April 2006 21:01

JJ is usually good for some "WHO" trivia.


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There were Broadway versions and of course the Tommy movie. You might find additional information by searching google with something like this

Tommy+movie+The Who+soundtrack+information

Tommy+broadway play+The Who+information.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if you found stuff from these hits that you won't find relating to the audio only album.

BTW, if you haven't seen the movie, it's a must see and will give perspective to the audio only album. The opera made more sense to me after relating the songs to actors playing the roles. The story came into better view.
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Jerry Tubb

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Re: "Tommy" The Who
« Reply #4 on: April 21, 2006, 03:32:19 AM »

Ronny wrote on Thu, 20 April 2006 17:38

BTW, if you haven't seen the movie, it's a must see and will give perspective to the audio only album.


That was one really weird abstract flick !

And I like the weird ones... saw it at the theater when it came out in '75?

Tina Turner was great as the Acid Queen!

"Who's Next" still one of my fave LPs.

JT
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Ronny

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Re: "Tommy" The Who
« Reply #5 on: April 21, 2006, 12:12:01 PM »

Jerry Tubb wrote on Fri, 21 April 2006 03:32

Ronny wrote on Thu, 20 April 2006 17:38

BTW, if you haven't seen the movie, it's a must see and will give perspective to the audio only album.


That was one really weird abstract flick !

And I like the weird ones... saw it at the theater when it came out in '75?

Tina Turner was great as the Acid Queen!

"Who's Next" still one of my fave LPs.

JT


Tina was perfect as the Acid Queen, the casting was exceptional I think. Clapton as the preacher was pretty cool too.

You probably remember Zachariah too, Jay Tee. It played the midnight movie circuit back around 1971. Billed as the first electric western, had John Rubenstein (Zachariah) and Don Johnson (Matthew), two young outlaws searching for their own identities. Country Joe and the Fish played an outlaw band. They'd set up at one end of a western town and play, the townsfolk would all go down to watch the band and Zachariah and Matthew would rob the bank. The James Gang with Joe Walsh were the Saloon's house band and Elvin Jones, a bad ass gunslinger,  played a killer drum solo in it. All elements of the film were from 1880's old west, but the guitars and basses were modern day electric. Pretty wild movie, I think I'll look for the DVD.
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Lee Tyler

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Re: "Tommy" The Who
« Reply #6 on: April 21, 2006, 06:55:05 PM »

Thanks for all of the replies. My 14 year old is getting into this album and has a great appreciation for the musical value/continuity/relationship of the songs...and how they all fit into the whole scheme of "Tommy". Yes, the film does put things in some sort of perspective. And Tina?? The few times they zoomed in to her crazed, quivering lipped, slightly sped up cinematography, my son and I just cracked up.

I was....being a real "Tommy" purist, dissapointed with the music. The overuse of cheezy synths, lack of "balls" in most of the tunes, the great Oliver Reed's ..uh..."voice"....just some nitpicks. I had the pleasure of seeing "Tommy" on Broadway with Michael Cervaris. Yeah, baby. Talk about things done right. Brilliant staging and equally brilliant musical interpretation. Kicked ass. Brilliant imagery on of course one stage with props often doubled for different tasks....but done more cleverly than I have ever seen on the Broadway stage. Can't wait to see it again. Hah! No specific mastering credit on ArtistDirect. Guess the engineer, Damon Lyon-Shaw done it?

LT

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lord fear

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Re: "Tommy" The Who
« Reply #7 on: April 21, 2006, 07:06:04 PM »

i work for the man, so i'll go fetch him...oh jj....
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J.J. Blair

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Re: "Tommy" The Who
« Reply #8 on: April 21, 2006, 08:00:34 PM »

All I can tell you is that Kit Lambert, who was their manager, produced the record.  I know very little about the making of this record.  However, there is a great site that will tell you what instrument was played on what.

http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/equipment/index.htm

The person best qualified to ask is probably Brian Kehew.
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masterhse

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Re: "Tommy" The Who
« Reply #9 on: April 22, 2006, 04:49:18 PM »

One piece of trivia that I heard was that either Lambert or Stamp had the original master tapes burned proclaiming that the first version of the album was a "masterpiece" and should remain unaltered. It made the second remaster of the album a bit more difficult.

Someone gave me a CD that they picked up with some of the orignal rough versions of the songs. Absolutely priceless. Really rather funny how the final album came out. Especially after hearing Pete play drums on some of the tracks.
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wwittman

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Re: "Tommy" The Who
« Reply #10 on: April 22, 2006, 11:09:33 PM »

The engineer, Damon Lyon-Shaw at IBC did an outstanding job...although one gets the idea here and there that some songs got a lot more ATTENTION than others.

The Overture is SO brilliantly recorded anmd mixed that it sets up the whole rest of the record incredibly.
The end of the Overture, that is  STILL my favourite acoustic guitar recording EVER.

It's an unusual record for The Who, in that it's quite restrained and with more "normal" drums than usual (lots of actual straight beats with backbeats! not very Moonie, and he was vocal about not likeing it for that reason!)

In fact it's a strong record for Townshend and for the writing... but it's not at all like what they sounded like live, not at all a great record for Entwistle or Moon, or even for Roger (who's singing rather lightly and in falsetto a good deal)... yet all taken together it's a classic.

I love how so  much of the record has an electric guitar on one side doubled (loosely) by the acoustic on the other.
THAT's a technique I've "borrowed' many times.

if you never saw them play it live, on that original Tommy tour, you missed the best live rock band EVER.




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Lee Tyler

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Re: "Tommy" The Who
« Reply #11 on: April 23, 2006, 12:02:59 PM »

Thanks Tom, Will and JJ for your posts. I actually have some live "Tommy" concerts on VHS that I snagged off "Pay Per View" through the years. I believe Phil Collins plays Uncle Ernie and Patti Labelle does the Acid Queen bit. I will have to view these in the coming weeks. Been quite a while. Entwistle's bass playing live is truly a sight to behold. Never quite heard weaving bass lines "sing" like his. Too bad he has left us. That goes for Moon as well. Just the dynamics alone of his playing and cymbal swells in that album are so perfect for the material. Can't help but be moved my the raw capture of Moon in the studio album.

LT

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wwittman

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Re: "Tommy" The Who
« Reply #12 on: April 23, 2006, 02:33:00 PM »

When I say The Who live, I mean Townshend, Daltrey, Entwistle and Moon.
No more, no fewer.

The "deluxe" longer Live At Leeds record has the entire Tommy performance, and you can hear how incredible they could be... although without SEEING them you're missing 70% of the experience.

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William Wittman
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Lee Tyler

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Re: "Tommy" The Who
« Reply #13 on: April 23, 2006, 05:14:46 PM »

wwittman wrote on Sun, 23 April 2006 14:33

When I say The Who live, I mean Townshend, Daltrey, Entwistle and Moon.
No more, no fewer.

The "deluxe" longer Live At Leeds record has the entire Tommy performance, and you can hear how incredible they could be... although without SEEING them you're missing 70% of the experience.




Well, that particular album seems to have eluded me all these years, although I have heard about it through the years. I understand it was remastered. Hope they didn't kill it.  Rolling Eyes  Thanks!

LT
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masterhse

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Re: "Tommy" The Who
« Reply #14 on: April 23, 2006, 05:23:40 PM »

wwittman wrote on Sun, 23 April 2006 14:33

When I say The Who live, I mean Townshend, Daltrey, Entwistle and Moon.
No more, no fewer.

The "deluxe" longer Live At Leeds record has the entire Tommy performance, and you can hear how incredible they could be... although without SEEING them you're missing 70% of the experience.




Closest thing to getting this today is watching their Isle of Wight DVD.

My first concert ever was the Who during their Who's Next tour. Not too shabby either. Watching The Who live in the early years was a "rock event". Quad was another great concert (the first one). In later years I mixed the Philly Quad concert for King Biscuit. Was kinda a religious experience for me.
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