A deaf, dumb and blind kid becomes rock's first opera—and the band almost didn't survive it.
The Who's seminal double album 'Tommy', released in 1969, is a milestone in rock history. It revitalized the band's career and established Pete Townshend as a composer and Roger Daltrey as one of rock's foremost frontmen. The first album to be overtly billed as a 'rock opera', 'Tommy' has gone on to sell over 20 million copies around the world and has been reimagined as both a film by Ken Russell in the mid-seventies and a touring stage production in the early nineties. This new film explores the background, creation and impact of 'Tommy' through new interviews with Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, archive interviews with the late John Entwistle, and contributions from engineer Bob Pridden, artwork creator Mike McInnerney plus others involved in the creation of the album and journalists who assess the album s historic and cultural impact.
Direction
Martin R. Smith lets Townshend and Daltrey finish each other's resentments.
Editing
Archive Keith Moon footage that explains why the album took two years.
Director
Martin R. Smith
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The famous 'Pinball Wizard' guitar part was recorded in one take because Townshend was late to a meeting.
Tommy's commercial success directly funded the creation of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame—Townshend's later tax write-off obsession.
No ratings yet
Sign in to join the discussion — comments are spoiler-gated to your watch progress.
Discussion starters
US
