Townshend came up with the concept of Tommy after being introduced to the work of Meher Baba, and attempted to translate Baba's teachings into music. The album was mostly composed by guitarist Pete Townshend as a rock opera that tells the story about a deaf, dumb and blind boy, including his experiences with life and the relationship with his family. Almost the entire set was also recorded on black and white film.Tommy - the fourth studio album by The Who - was released 53 years ago today. Like a few other artists performing at Woodstock, The Who had played two years earlier at the Monterey Pop Festival.Ī soundboard tape of The Who's complete performance is available. "The Hawker" (written by Sonny Boy Williamson II) is the original name of the song "Eyesight For The Blind" as it appears on later issues of the album Tommy. Close inspection of film from both the Woodstock movie and the bonus DVD from the 40th anniversary issue confirms that. A 16 second sound bite of the incident can be heard on The Who compilation set entitled Thirty Years of Maximum R&B (Disc 2, Track 20, "Abbie Hoffman Incident").Īt the end of their set, Pete Townshend tossed his banged-up Gibson SG guitar into the crowd, but according to The Kids Are Alright DVD liner notes the guitar was promptly retrieved by one of the band's roadies. Townshend then added: " I can dig it!" And after the song "Do You Think It's Alright?": " The next fuckin' person that walks across this stage is gonna get fuckin' killed! You can laugh, I mean it!". Townshend, angry that someone took the stage, yelled: " Fuck off! Fuck off my fucking stage!", hit him with his guitar and sent him off stage again. Hoffman was protesting against the imprisonment of John Sinclair (leader of the White Panther Party and manager of the left-wing hard-rock band MC5) who had been convicted and sentenced to nine years of prison because of marijuana possession. He said: " I think this is a pile of shit! While John Sinclair rots in prison.". Abbie Hoffman was able to get on stage and grab a microphone while Pete Townshend tuned his guitar. The Abbie Hoffman Incident was an incident that happened during The Who's set right after the song "Pinball Wizard". There were only a few sleepless people in the audience left who finally witnessed the ritual guitar smashing of Pete Townshend pointing out that the gig has really come to an end. ![]() The Who closed with "My Generation", an old hit dating back to the year 1965, and "Naked Eye". The dawn was coming up and the first daylight hit the stage. Nevertheless the presentation of the chosen songs was impressive and the magic and spirit of the music grew as Tommy reached its grande final with "See Me, Feel Me". For instance they didn't play "A Quick One While He's Away", "Magic Bus" or a longer medley around "My Generation" which sometimes reached a length of 15 minutes. ![]() The setlist is a pretty standard example of their 1969 tour program, just a little shortened at times. Songs not played from the album are: "Overture", "Cousin Kevin", "Underture", "Tommy, Can You Hear Me?", "Miracle Cure", "Sensation", "Sally Simpson", "Welcome". The Woodstock performance is not as long as others during this period but powerful and insane given the time The Who were performing. The Who were touring in support of their rock opera album Tommy which was released the same year.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |