![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
filkertomKen Russell's film version of The Who's Tommy is a weird beastie. No way it couldn't be -- Russell himself is known for such wholesome, straightforward family fare as Lair of the White Worm and Gothic.
As a longtime fan of both the original album and the movie, I've been wanting to get it for awhile, but it was always $30 or so. Well, Kmart had it for $9.99 yesterday, and it's mine. And so far I have three overarching thoughts:
What's your favorite number in either the movie or the original album of Tommy? I actually have amazing love for "Christmas" from the album -- the way that Tommy's internal dialogue, "Listening to you...", breaks into the song is astonishing in its power, some of Daltrey's best singing. His version at the end of the movie is also great. And how can you not love Keith Moon's hideous Uncle Ernie?
As a longtime fan of both the original album and the movie, I've been wanting to get it for awhile, but it was always $30 or so. Well, Kmart had it for $9.99 yesterday, and it's mine. And so far I have three overarching thoughts:
- Ann-Margaret is a better singer than she was directed to be. She hangs onto notes longer and longer until the tremolo shakes the drapes, and I think it could've been much more effective if she was told to hold back a bit.
- Oliver Reed played sleazy like nobody else.
- Lady Gaga who?
What's your favorite number in either the movie or the original album of Tommy? I actually have amazing love for "Christmas" from the album -- the way that Tommy's internal dialogue, "Listening to you...", breaks into the song is astonishing in its power, some of Daltrey's best singing. His version at the end of the movie is also great. And how can you not love Keith Moon's hideous Uncle Ernie?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 03:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 01:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 01:12 pm (UTC)From the album, I really, really love "Amazing Journey" it's tops.
I also really like "Pinball Wizard" (no suprise)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 01:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 01:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 01:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 01:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 03:57 pm (UTC)Elton John as the Pinball Wizard. That's the way that song was meant to be performed.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 05:48 pm (UTC)And, is your icon Glitterock from Electro Woman and Dyna Girl? That episode (and those two ladies) lean on a few of my kink buttons.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 07:17 pm (UTC)Taking over the world through music! What could be cooler?
Had to root for the bad guy on that episode.
As far as I'm concerned, the keyboard on Sir Elton's Pinball Wizard is what makes the song.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 04:00 pm (UTC)Pinball Wizard
Date: 2010-09-15 04:23 pm (UTC)it's always a +4 to my silverball skills whenever it's playing
Tommy is also my favorite pinball machine. When you trigger a certain multiball it starts playing Pinball Wizard and slides a cover between the glass and playfield over the bottom third so you cannot see ANYTHING - flippers, outlanes, slingshots, drop targets, etc. It's so evil :)
Re: Pinball Wizard
Date: 2010-09-15 08:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 04:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 04:39 pm (UTC)But Sally Simpson always grabs me. And I have long wondered how you can filk that as "Lisa Simpson."
Haven't listened to the album in far too long.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 05:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 07:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-17 03:24 am (UTC)"Quadrophenia" is SO underrated. "Tommy" may have been the first "rock opera", but "Quad" perfected it.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-19 05:59 am (UTC)(Talk about underrated.)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 06:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 07:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-16 02:51 am (UTC)Why do I have to be different to them?
Just to earn the respect of a dance hall friend,
We have the same old row, again and again.
Why do I have to move with a crowd
Of kids that hardly notice I'm around,
I work myself to death just to fit in.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 06:16 pm (UTC)From the movie, Tina Turner and Keith Moon kick coccyx and take numbers, but there's something about the overall finale (Holiday Camp/We're Not Gonna Take It) with the big T that brings home exactly what Pete seems to want to say.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 06:25 pm (UTC)And thanks to this post, I just requested the movie Tommy from the Ann Arbor District Library. ($9.99 may be cheap, but I prefer free socialist movie viewing!)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 07:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 08:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 08:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-15 09:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-16 02:44 am (UTC)That being said, I never really liked the film. And, in the whole, I prefer Quadrophenia. Drowned is going to be played at my memorial service.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-17 03:32 am (UTC)I remember when I saw the Who on the 89 reunion tour...the concert was kinda low key until "Amazing Journey" kicked in after the first verse...Pete's arm went up, Roger starts spinning the microphone, Simon Phillips (that tour's drummer, and a brilliant one at that) started pounding away....and BOOM! Pete does his first windmill of the night and Daltrey launches his at the roof of the Silverdome...at that moment, it became a Who concert.
The movie? I can't stand it. Never made it thru in one sitting, although I have forced myself to see all of it. Gotta go with Elton as the Pinball Wizard as the best moment.
But what about the Broadway version...? Any opinions?