album "tommy" was epoch-making at the time. It allowed everyone to see a new field of rock development: grandeur, narrative, epic, etc., which seemed to belong to novels and movies before. and patents on art forms such as theatre. From this point of view, the meaning of "tommy" is revolutionary. At the same time, unfortunately, this revolutionary significance is far greater than the significance of "tommy" music itself. That is to say, when words such as grand, narrative, epic, etc. have been flooded in the rock music world, listening to "tommy" now will not be as exciting as it was back then. Although, in all fairness, the music of "tommy" is still very good; however, when we think of "tommy", we think of its revolutionary composition, full storyline, cryptic political innuendo, and then its The music itself is wonderful, isn't it?
At the same time, the level of its eponymous film is truly regrettable compared to the album. The plot of "tommy" is relatively simple, and the story color is relatively monotonous. It is more suitable to be adapted into an opera, rather than a film with higher requirements for the story. The movie seems to be content only to tell the story, which is really perfunctory. The few new plots that were forced into it, such as tommy's mother's deep affection for her son, and tommy's imagination in front of the mirror, all seemed very paediatric. If there is no pearl in front of the album, the watchability of the movie is almost nothing.
The film also has a flaw, that is, it invites too many stars to help out. It's okay to invite celebrities. The problem is that these celebrities are too fond of robbing dramas, which makes the originally smooth storyline full of twists and turns. For example, jack nicholson who plays the doctor, this guy is the number one playboy in Hollywood is right, but there is no need to continue to play his "specialty" in the film. In the movie, he is depicted by the beauty of Tommy's mother, who healed Tommy. There's really no need for such an edit. Another example is roger daltrey, he's a great stage artist with a skinny and sexy body, but he's topless for so many of the films, which shows that he's just showing himself and forgetting that he's playing someone else.
Years later, when people listen to "tommy" and miss the who, only a few will miss the movie at the same time.
Extra part 2: Comparison between "tommy" and "the wall"
From personal experience, pete townshend and the main creator of "the wall" roger waters are both very rough, "tommy" and "the wall" can be regarded as their A great vent to childhood misadventures. It's just that townshend is the main songwriter in the band, but not the only leader. The four members of The Who have extraordinary personalities. In order not to let their personalities affect the common cooperation, townshend must properly suppress themselves and at the same time accommodate the other three members. The instrumental style of "tommy" is quite a change from the who's previous works, but lyrically, the style is still the same as before, still straight and sharp. So it can be said that townshend suppressed the expression of his own pain in his creation, so that it looked like he was telling someone else's story.
In the pink floyd band, roger waters is the leader and the spokesperson of the band. This allows him to create as he wants, so we can feel that "the wall" sounds so personal, and all plots and feelings have only one perspective, instead of multiple perspectives like "tommy". At the same time, due to this extreme personalization, the story of "the wall" appears to be much more obscure than that of "tommy", and many plots are not told directly, but are seen through contextual comparison.
"tommy" tells a decent story, while "the wall" is stream-of-consciousness for the reasons mentioned above. It digs deeper into human nature than "tommy", so it is more beautiful and shocking. After all, it's been ten years since "the wall" was released from "tommy", and it's impossible to say that there hasn't been a big improvement.
The lucky part of "the wall" is that its film of the same name is very good, and its visual techniques bring shock to people, far breaking through the shackles of music, making people feel new ideas and new fears. For example, in "goodbye blue sky", the white dove flying into the blue sky turns into a black eagle, and then sits on the ground and turns into a building, and in "don't leave me", two flowers are used to simulate sexual intercourse between men and women... These scenes are all conceived. Can be called outstanding, far from the movie "tommy" comparable. Watching the movie of the same name after listening to the album "the wall" will still be strongly attracted. And the "tommy" movies bring little new value to the album than the album.
Finally something else. Narcissistic entertainers have always been my favorites, including the extremist roger waters of course, but this guy's complaints are too much, too monotonous. He was anti-war from the single "us and them" on the album "dark side of the moon" and reached its peak on the album "the wall". However, on the subsequent album "the final cut", this demo is still holding his arms pale and calling for peace, which makes people sick. Among the great artists in the history of rock, I found that the talent of roger waters is actually quite mediocre.
And pete townshend looks much stronger than waters. After so many hardships, townshend's vent is not as endless as waters, never ending. In fact, as one of the best songwriters of his era, townshend's work is varied and far more prolific than the waters' grudge.
Excerpt from my article: amazing journey--the who's fantastical journey in "tommy"
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