![]() Townshend is, and always was, a formidable intellectual who speaks in long, fast, nuanced sentences and has a clear-eyed view of his own complex creative past, necessarily lived in the for-profit music business with all the implicit compromises, promises, triumphs and irritations of being, well, one of a group of young, suddenly rich musicians with many different ideas for any path forward. On the previous night, the latest incarnation of The Who (with Townshend and Daltrey) had sold out the United Center, where mostly mature (if that’s the word) fans had roared with pleasure as the familiar first chords of “Tommy” had cascaded from the stage. “We had had this period of trying to write songs about who we were and what we were, and when I looked at them, I thought, ‘this is all waffle.’” Townshend said last October in a Chicago hotel. For all their hard-edged bona fides, The Who weren’t kids anymore and like any artists worth their salt, they’d begun to think less about trashing their instruments for anarchic effect and more about their lasting artistic impact. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” an album with a kinda story and psychedelic sensibility that had come out in 1967. To Townshend’s band mates, like lead singer Roger Daltrey, “Tommy” was one weird idea. The band’s manager, Kit Lambert, was not much interested in talking about grander narratives of album length. Drummer Keith Moon was known for kicking over his drum kit Townshend himself was known for smashing his electric guitar, as well as for playing it better than almost anyone ever had. The Who, specifically, were tough rockers. Pop music was still in the thrall of the three-minute single when Townshend began to bandy about the oxymoronic term “rock opera” and talk about a seemingly ephemeral, multi-song story of a “deaf, dumb and blind kid” who is let down by authority figures, including a sexually abusive uncle, but strikes out on his own path and not only survives but eventually attracts worshipers and becomes a kind of god. In the late 1960s, Townshend was enthralled with the notions of Meher Baba, the Indian spiritual leader who taught that the ordinary world is mostly illusory and that true meaning flows only from the inner transformation of consciousness. With Townshend credited with music, lyrics and book and Des McAnuff as director, “Tommy” the musical opens soon at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. Now, as the album-turned-Broadway musical plots a Chicago comeback, he’s 78. ![]() Pete Townshend was in his early 20s when he wrote most of “Tommy,” which was released in 1969. It was originally to be a mystical, psychological study of a traumatized post-war boy. “Tommy” was the fourth studio album released by the British band known as The Who and a colossal step forward when it came to rock music and narrative complexity. CHICAGO - In the beginning, there was no pinball wizard. ![]()
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