The Who: 'Tommy' Re-imagined as a Single Album
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- Опубліковано 24 кві 2024
- Would The Who's 'Tommy' make a better single album? In this video I make a case for what tracks could be cut to trim it down to two sides of vinyl
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Tommy never would be better as a single album;its good as it is.A masterpiece
I would remove underture but that's about it
A single album? Let's not fiddllllle about, fiddle about!
Ha. That's comedy gold right there.
Idk we’re not gonna take it
Even a deaf dumb and blind boy would know a single album would be much less that the classic original
this song is stupid
This was the first Who tape I got as a kid, and they became one of my favorite bands. Recently, I found the lp complete with the booklet in the bargain bin. Listening to it again after many years while finally reading the lyrics, made it lose a little bit of its magic because of songs like Fiddle About and Tommy's Holiday Camp.
I’ve got to add that The entire Tommy album fits perfectly well on ONE cd…
does it!?
That’s a good point. And in the cd era, I think there have usually been both single and double cd versions of it in print.
I have to say, of all the double albums I've heard, Tommy is definitely one that I'd never considered cutting down. I love the whole thing. It's always worked for me. I just wish Glyn Johns had produced it!
I think Glyn Johns is a very good engineer, but maybe not quite as good as he seems to think he is.
Who did produce it? The production is pretty bad for a band of that magnitude IMHO.
Kit Lambert. He was the band's co-manager. I've always been so disappointed with the production. It would be forgivable if it had been made three years earlier, maybe, but this was the same year as Abbey Road was produced... and a couple of years later they sounded like a distilled thunderstorm on Who's Next .
If ever there was an album that could do with a remix a la Revolver, this is it.... Giles?@@wilhelmhagberg4897
Without the "messianic" section, where does "We're Not Going to Take It" fit into the narrative? Without "Holiday Camp" etc., who isn't going to take what?
I guess it could be a little shorter, but still a great album nonetheless. I've always considered Quadrophenia as the superior concept album. 🎸
I disagree. Tommy is someone that a lot of people can relate to. Especially people with mental disabilities and domestic problems.
Quadrophenia is different. Unless you happened to grow up in 1960s Britain and you were a Mod, you won't have the same nostalgic
attachment to that movement as Townshend does. You might like the Mods as a fashion statement or whatever, but you won't have
the same memories of riding a scooter with your gang of snotty, but well-dressed teenage friends.
Like Tommy, Jimmy Cooper has mental problems, but unlike Tommy, he goes nucking futs and kills himself.
That's quite dramatic, I suppose, but it's not as interesting to me as whatever happens to Tommy. More realistic, perhaps, but that's not
what I listen to concept albums for. For me, they represent an escape from the mundane reality I live in; a place where the extraordinary
can happen to an ordinary person who sadly drew the short end of the stick.
@@SpaceCattttt I cant personally identify with the lyrics of either album. I just like Quadrophenia more from a musical standpoint. Both are great albums though.
Better in every way I think.
Yup!!
I do that this all the time with a lot of classic "Double Albums". Break them down to see what i would keep as a single album. For Tommy I would have:
Side 1: 1.Overture 2. It's a Boy 3.1921 4. Christmas 5. Cousin Kevin 6. The Hawker 7. Acid Queen
Side 2: 1. Pinball Wizard 2. Go to the Mirror 3. Smash the Mirror 4. Sensation 5. I'm Free. 6. We're Not gonna take it !
You could definitely do this with Floyd's 'The Wall' IMHO!!!
Yup!!!
Could be wrong but I think Barry already has?
I'm happy with the album as it is.
Moon's drumming on this is incredible.
Moon's drumming was always incredible. Him and the Ox, best rhythm section there ever was!
@@MalachiWhite-tw7hl The Ox is John Entwistle. It's what everyone called him.
@@HonoraryGreek Oh, thank you.
This was the first Who tape I got as a kid, and they became one of my favorite bands. Recently, I found the lp complete with the booklet in the bargain bin. Listening to it again after many years while finally reading the lyrics, it lost a little bit of its magic because of songs like Fiddle About and Tommy's Holiday Camp. Made me wish I had just left it alone as this wonderful thing I had in my memory.
You include amazing journey and sparks but drop out acid queen.
I love the album, the first album i ever bought as a kid... didn't understand what the hell it was all about.
I saw the Who live for the first time last year, in Hull on their tour - absolutely amazing. For me with Tommy they can do no wrong.. I would cut nothing.. its perfect.
I thought about this and looked at the track listing and....No, it needs to remain untouched.
Funny how every double album gets this treatment , but i like long epics and cant think of one that should be halved !
It’s good as is.
For once, your wrong. Its perfect as it is.
A double album masterpiece! Songwriting, acoustic guitars, vocals, melodies. To get it better, add a bonus track with acoustic-guitar only in Pinball Wizard.
Tommy is perfect! Leave alone!
It's definitely one of my all-time favorites. 3 or 4 more songs would have worked for me even though it's perfect as is.
Got Tommy on CD 💿👍
I can see your point , but as I've been listening to Tommy for most of my life ( i possess the box set , the orchestral box set and a live recording ) i cannot see me envisioning this as a single album .
A timeless classic that still sounds magnificent today. In my top 10 albums of all time.
I think I'm too accustomed to Tommy as it is to say which cuts should stay or go. I'm not fond of them all, some like Fiddle About and Cousin Kevin are a too dark for my tastes but the album is really a cathartic time-on-the-couch trip for Pete and that makes the darkness inevitable. Personally I put Quadrophenia and Who's Next ahead of Tommy but that's me. I'd just leave Tommy as it is. It was groundbreaking for its time and that alone is reason not to mess with it. The live performance at Woodstock featuring this album is one of the classic moments in contemporary music, even if the band hated the experience.
The first Rock opera/concept album is in fact ”Miss Butters” by the Canadian band ”The Family tree”! They beat Pretty Things with 6 months! It’s a really good album too, melodic pop with great arrangements. I love ”Tommy” dearly, it’s such great storytelling. I especially like how the story is told from different perspectives, eg ”Sally Simpson”. Some of the songs are a bit lazy but not much I would like to cut out. Just wish it was better produced, the sound is pretty bad although the performances are great.
Never really realized that Roger isn't singing the main part in the movie soundtrack, until now.
I always found the live performances of Tommy much better than the studio recording.Much more powerful. The Who live were a force to be reckoned with. The Live At Leeds full concert Including Tommy they could deliver it.
Plus,if you cut Acid Queen completely, that’ll mean no Tina Turner in the film..Sacrilege sir!
Yes, the version of 'Tommy' on the deluxe CD of 'Live at Leeds' is all killer/no filler, they trimmed some of the fat off and It's hard to go back to the original album after listening to it.
Tommy fits on one CD, nuff said...
Oddly enough my copy is 2 CDs!
My very, very old cd.
Still not as old as my LP tho..!😎
Townshend made a ‘Rock Opera’ because he wanted to tell a story he couldn’t in under 3 minutes. It’s Audible Cinema that demands you listen to it all. The filler tracks are filling in the story. You do’t watch the Godfather and skip to the violent bits.
Big Who fan here. Interesting challenge. The only thing I would trim on Tommy is a bit of the length on Underture.
Everything else contributes to the story. Even Tommy's Holiday Camp, as goofy as it is, is mercifully quite short (shorter than Wild Honey Pie on the White Album). It serves as a segue between the end of Welcome ("we need more room, build an extension. A colourful palace. Spare no expense now") and We're Not Gonna Take It.
As for Acid Queen, that's critical. Tommy is on a journey (as in a lot of great literature like Homer). Along the way he experiences many things that contribute to his spiritual awakening. The acid trip is just one of those experiences along with being bullied, sexually abused etc.
1921 is absolutely necessary because that is where the trauma occurs that causes Tommy's condition. My complaint about it is that it's a bit short and the trauma happens really suddenly early in the song and that's initially a little confusing.
I never, ever get tired of hearing the live version of Amazing Journey followed immediately by Sparks.
I think I agree with your suggested trimming. I can't say I agree that "Acid Queen" is the best song on the album (so okay with cutting that one too). I like the album, but a full listen is tedious, so I think that's why I'm inclined to agree with your suggested edits...also the logic behind those edits aligning with a more focused story line. As a side note, I think "Sparks" may be my favorite from the album.
The track is called "Underture". "Undertow" is by Genesis.
And Tool 😂
It's the strange thing! Trying to make a single vinyl album! Or do a changed track order for the single cd that holds the entire double album! My head hurts! 😆
Perhaps 'Underture' could be edited a bit, but I can't think of any tracks that should be removed. The album stands on it's own merits.
There are a couple of filler songs/instrumentals, but hard to tell the story with less songs.
I kind of agree, because I feel that the album peters out a bit after Pinball Wizard, even though up until then it's astounding. May I suggest you revisit Arthur, released at around the same time by the Kinks, and sadly lost to obscurity partly because of Tommy's huge success. Arthus is IMHO a much better album, and it's a single album too. Deserves a much larger audience. Incidentally, I love all the instrumentals on Tommy!
As an avid Wholigan I found your concept intriguing. I know when they originally released Tommy it was available in EP format to make it more affordable and perhaps more digestible, so maybe this was already discussed. I enjoy it as it is, I wouldn’t change it, I think your choice of deletions is probably spot on, but not Acid Queen. Often perfection is achieved with the inclusion of the lesser tunes as they hold up the epic ones even more.
Nah perfect as it is
It’s Perfect!!!🖤💛😋
Fine as it is!
Quadrophenia, Tommy, Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Tales From Topographic Oceans, white album, Incantations, and All Things Must Pass. Why would anyone want to edit down these great albums? How about splitting some double albums into two single albums? Exile On Main Street, Layla And Other Stories, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Tusk, Physical Graffiti, and Something Anything. No need to put out a double for those albums. But I wouldn't chop out half of any of them either, even though I would skip over half the songs on them.
Not really a Who fan, but will create a Playlist of your selection to see if I can change my views on them
I am of the opinion that most double albums would have been better as single albums (including this one), but if the artist’s vision is a double album, then so be it, I won't complain.
In the CD era, when the temptation is to fill the disk, every album tends towards being a double album. I would strongly advise any artist nowadays to keep the length to that of a single old LP - about 40 minutes - in order not to outstay your welcome.
You did it!
The only double album that could easily be trimmed to single is Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music! 😂
Make it an ep !
So true 😂😂😂
Probably a 'single' as in single song rather than single album. No B side required!
@@asw7696 Perfect !
Its actually already been done by the American band The Smithereens. The surprise to me was it works incredibly well that way. Losing tracks like Cousin Kevin and Uncle Ernie didn’t hurt it a bit. Thats not to say i prefer it but its a fun alternative way to hear the lp. I think they did a great job and people should have a listen.
OMG! Love the Smithereens and just checked our the album (here on YT); plan to look for it on vinyl or CD. Thanks!!
@@Railway_Railfan cool. Glad you liked it me too!
now you're TOTALLY making me want to dig up my 'single white album' list . . . if i can find it. :(
Now you have to do this for Quadrophenia. I would also add the White Album, but Parlogram's already done a video about that.
Not a bad track listing you’ve given here.
I think it's a good double album but I always skip the two Entwistle songs as well as "Do You Think It's Alright" and "Eyesight to the Blind". I love the long instrumental passages.
Cut “Acid Queen,” “Underture,” both Entwistle songs, “Holiday Camp.”
I absolutely love “Sally Simpson” btw! Most fans don’t seem to.
acid queen is cool!
It’s one of my favourites! Wonderful how the song all of a sudden takes the perspective from a random bystander!
Almost every double album would be better as a single album. The only exception that I can think of is Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Even The White Album and The Wall could be cut.
I sometimes think the crudeness of the production might be part of the point. At least as far as Kit Lambert was concerned. He was taken by the idea of a rock opera and he was enamoured by the crudeness of (mid 60s) rock music so to him bad production reinforces the Rock-ness of the album. There was talk of adding strings etc and it might have been Lambert who talked Townshend out of that (although it was probably a money decision). But as you say these were all probably just poor decisions one (might) make when you're on 'something'. Plus Townshend and Lambert talked about it being an opera all the time back then. Is it wooly because that's what Townshend thought operas were like? Keith Moon certainly thought that: "It's a bloody opera innit!. It's not suppose to make sense!"
NO!
The end.
I love the fact that the sides are numbered to go on a stacker system (side 4 is the other side of side 1, and 2 and 3 are on the same disk) I think if they went on a single album you'd lose that tip of the hat to days gone by. I'd still buy a single disk version though as it would be way more convenient 😂
Interesting idea about which in this case I cannot comment as I'm not a fan, or rather what it really needs for me is a remix. There is a fleet of "made for CD" albums that could do with a remix and a trim by three or four songs.
“Next week, we decide that there are far too many stations of the cross in the Christian canon. Of the 12 stations, we’ll keep Jesus being condemned to death and a couple of the crucifixion itself (helps with the narrative), but we can live without all that falling over, Jesus meeting Mary and Simon of Cyrene carrying his cross guff. Six stations - maximum! :-)
Not sure about Tommy, but there's a truck load of Netflix series that would benefit hugely from this exercise. 😉
Pretty Things S F Sorrow didn't do much in the U.S. when it was released. It may have been a big deal in the U.K., but it wasn't in the U.S.
I do not recall it in anyway competing w/Tommy. As far as American youth were concerned, Tommy was the 1st and only Rock Opera @ the time. The only thing i remember @ the time about the Pretty Things was the Singapore Silk Torpedo album. That placed a little bit, but never went anywhere. After that, the Pretty Things were forgotten. just sayin' ... ✌️😸
While it's fun to imagine Tommy is fine the way it is and you need to take the amazing journey all the way through
Yes ...Fiddle About...are you kidding me??
I for one agree that Tommy should have been a single album. The fact that Pete had to include the Underture at 10 minutes shows he didn't have sufficient story or music for a full double album.
I of course have a slightly different track list. For me, as a single album (with the constraints of vinyl) it would look like this:
Side 1:
Overture
It's a Boy
1921
Christmas
Amazing Journey (with Sparks Outro only)
Do You Think It's Alright?
Fiddle About
Pinball Wizard
Side 2:
There's a Doctor
Go to the Mirror!
Tommy Can You Hear Me?
Smash the Mirror
I'm Free
Welcome
We're Not Gonna Take It
That’s precisely how I’d do it too - need the early songs to establish the trauma and want to keep some of the later, more spiritual stuff cos it’s great. 👍
Underture seemed blantantly unnecessary
I can think of several others where this is the case; the Clash :Sandinista comes to mind. On the other hand "Whos Next,: could have been high quality double album. Imagine studio versions Heaven and Hell Summertime blue s Long live rock and even Post card
And presumably rename it Tom?
This is a question you could ask about a lot of double albums. I think the answer is normally 'no' though.
Interestingly it has already been released as a single album ! I bought part one in the 70s when it had been split into two albums presumably for cost reasons. Never did get round to buying part two but still have the single album part one now .
I remember importing the album from U.K. to Australia back in the day at huge cost. By side 3, I was wondering , I still have another side to go! Like so many double albums of the era, 1 killer album instead of 2 with filler albums would have been great!
I like Tommy the way it is.But, I'll make a CD with the single album concept to see how it flows.The leftover songs would be bonus tracks because I still like them. Rhetorical question? Should Sgt. Pepper be an E.P ? (I know ,Strawberry F"s F, and Penny Lane should of been on it.)
).
Yes Tommy would be better as a single album as would be the White Album.....however, Exile on main street should be expanded to like 3 or 4 albums.....
To me, Tommy is one of those double albums that's a tad bloated, but also contains too much good material to be cut down to only one disc. I feel the same way about The Beatles' White Album and Pink Floyd's The Wall.
Where does the date 1921 fit in with anything on the album - what is it referencing? Or who? Interested to know.. am I missing something obvious?
I'd leave it 100% as is. the perhaps superfluous tracks lend something of a respite from the story as a whole. Nothing wrong with that. And Acid Queen would have to stay! A bold effore Barry nonetheless 🙂
I’ve never thought Tommy was as fully developed of a concept as Quadrophenia, which I view as Townshend at the peak of his powers, even though I still listen to Who’s Next more frequently.
But I don’t know how Tommy would work better as a single rather than a double.
Agree Quadrophenia is a much better album. The Who perfected their craft. One of my top 10 all-time albums.
Yeah I like your version. After hearing the album for the first time, Macca famously said it was "underproduced". So many wonderful melodies but as a whole, often a boring listen. I return quite often to Who's Next and Quadrophenia, Tommy not as much, even if I adored it when I was a kid.
For me, I wouldn't touch the album because its an opera first and foremost.....but if I had to cut anything and try and keep the story intact, it'd probably be Cousin Kevin ✌️
No. The answer is just no.
Full disclosure: this is probably th album I play most often by The Who.
Its so lyrical musically.🤘😎🤘
Not at all. It's fine that way. Would be a better much better double album, but not a single album.
By the way, much of double albums used to have some kind of problems, but it's Ok. White album's Revolution Nr 9, The Wall's final opereta, Physical Graphity's sence of vault recordings, chaos on Exile On Main Strret, ...etc etc, etc.
Maybe Underture should have been longer 😂😂😂.
Yes you are right about where it should end! after he is cured it becomes boring and disconnected for me. However 1921 is my favorite song so no way
Confession time....when i rip albums ,i leave out the odd filler,all albums (even abbey road) have them, except.........ziggy stardust...its perfect.
I would argue that you could also trim Led Zeppelin's 'Physical Graffiti' down in to a single album.
Tricky to get it down to 45 mins I think without losing good stuff. Down to an hour I think you could do.
Respectfully disagree.
Leaving off "1921" is cutting out one of the most important parts of the narrative. It's the song in which the middle part of the lyrics describe exactly how Tommy became deaf, bumb and blind.
What about the boy?
What about the boy?
What about the boy?
He saw it all!
You didn't hear it
You didn't see it
You won't say nothing to no-one
Never in your life
You never heard it
Oh, how absurd it all seems
Without any proof
You didn't hear it
You didn't see it
You never heard it, not a word of it
You won't say nothing to no-one
Never tell a soul
What you know is the Truth
Totally agree. 1921 is pivotal to the whole narrative.
I’m not certain what actually happened that they wanted to conceal from Tommy! 🤔🤔🤔
To cut it down would be to ruin it. Take a trip and listen to Tommy, you'll see what I mean. It's as long and short as it needs to be for what it is.
That's a pretty fair edit, To be honest the album is a bit too laid back from a rock standpoint, I saw The Who in 1970 at the Cincinnati Music Hall,an Opera theatre and they performed Tommy, that's my preference live and loud, by the way ; tickets were 4 dollars
Never was a big fan of Tommy as an album. Had it on vinyl in the 80's but never really bonded with it. I recently bought it again on CD (just because it was one of the few Who CD's that I didn't have) I agree that it could / should be boiled down to make more enjoyable for an audio experience - with the visuals its fine. All of the 20 - 60 seconds tracks could be lopped off. There is no need for Welcome, 1921, There's a Doctor, Tommy's Holiday Camp, all get skipped when I play it on CD now
I love Quadrophenia as a double album. Every song resonates with me. However I have always thought Tommy was bloated, with some filler. Some classic songs but should have been a single album.
If Tommy should be cut down to a single album, I would chose the greatest musical tracks and fxxk the story, like they did on Who's next.
As the first side is brilliant as it is, I would leave it untouched.
Side 2 would be : Pinball wizard
Underture
I'm free
Tommy's holiday camp
We're not gonna take it
Instead of Tommy I would seriously welcome single album versions of "Quadraphrenia" and Floyd's "The Wall". Both albums have way to many fillers and not e nough great Songs😮
This album is simular to the Kinks rock opera Preservation IMO
You forgot Underture. Definitely cut Underture…
There's certainly a couple songs that can go from Tommy without impacting the story. However, you've left the redemption while taking out the trauma, causing the former to feel empty of any emotional impact. It's just not a proper story anymore.
Physical Graffiti?
I’m not much for concept albums or rock operas, I just like good music and songs. I’d just trim off the mediocre songs and redundant tracks that just repeat motifs already found elsewhere.
“Underture” is my least favorite because of length and redundancy. You can hear sections of it on other tracks, even on “Rael” on the Who Sell Out.
“Eyesight to the Blind” is honestly boring with no riff or anything else to catch my attention. I’d much rather hear it in the movie as done by Clapton. I also have his Crossroads 2 live box set with a rendition of this song with Santana that’s much more enjoyable and compelling. I suggest streaming it, if it’s available.
There’s probably others I could cite, but those two are the least interesting, IMO.
Again, I’m just interested in good music and performances and not at all interested in the story part of this or any other “concept”album. Tommy is brilliant, but not flawless.
I could never get close to this album, I don't dislike it, but not going back it.
I think it needs more tracks: why are there no triple albums? I really couldn't care less about the narrative. Interesting idea though. Thanks.
Tommy was a great achievement of its time as is The Wall. Too much revisionism by listeners with short attention spans.
Here's a thing though? What do you get when you cross Tommy with Lou Reed's Berlin? The Wall. Thanks Bob Ezrin!
Fully agreed. We may as well "trim down" regular albums to EPs, then. We may as well cut War & Peace down to a "more accessible" 250 pages. I seriously hate the playlist-mentality that's infested the music world.
Of course, most albums in my collection have a few tracks that are not standouts but I find that skipping them always takes something away from the listening experience. I'm not saying all albums are perfect as they are but artists and album producers already trim a lot of fat and tracks are included for good reasons. The rest is down to a listener's personal taste. What is filler for someone may be a work of beauty for another.
@@JacoWiumFor some It's easy to think that they are being wise with the benefit of hindsight. When they're just making cultural high points apocryphal for the sake of clickbait. Man made consumerism. Serious vandalism. Don't like? Skip or fast forward.
Possibly, but I like it as it was issued. If anything, and for the sake of argument, I'd say the White Album would be a better candidate to consider paring back to a single album (and I'm a big Beatles fan). Again, happy to have that one as issued as well though
NO…all caps. Leave perfection be.
Interesting . If I had to I would say screw the story and just keep the songs I liked most.
A man wearing a GRATEFUL DEAD shirt is talking about shortening another band’s album for brevity!!??
The irony is absolutely astounding… 😅
Good spot!
Mainly because the original recording by The Who was the first piece of music I purchased on CD with my own money, I wouldn't touch *Tommy,* even if you paid me to. Sure, a lot of the Messianic aspects to the title character that Pete Townsend inserted into the second act, so to speak, could be done away with, I still consider them to be apropos. The idea is that a character like Tommy is supposed to represent any public figure who has public prominence and is deified inappropriately. It could be anyone, a musician, an actor, an athlete, a sculptor or a painter, hey, even lawmakers are being deified inappropriately these days. The notion of a deaf, dumb and blind pinball player suddenly regaining usage of his eyesight and hearing before being catapulted into public prominence is not completely unrealistic in a rendition of society where average people are becoming dependent on gimmicks to get by.
I think your reimagined Tommy is right on the money.
Sure, you could truncate the album - just like you could with the White Album - and essentially end up with a "greatest hits of the Greatest Hits",
but you'd also be massacring the concept of the album in the process. This might be fine to someone who only cares about the individual songs
and not about the central idea of who Tommy is and what his life is like, but as far as I'm concerned, although the narrative is occasionally somewhat
abstract and unclear, you need ALL of the songs to make sense of what this story is about.
In fact, I'd rather ADD more songs to the album in order to flesh out some of the more obscure details.
However, doing so would remove the mystique of the album and deny the listener the pleasure of deciding for themselves what it means.