0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:05 > 0:00:07Who are The Who? The Who are The Who, that's who they are.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09A rock group, veterans of Woodstock,
0:00:09 > 0:00:11and now they're authors and performers in a rock opera
0:00:11 > 0:00:14Pete knew that he'd got to write something more substantial
0:00:14 > 0:00:17and he'd always had this thing about writing a rock opera.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21# Ever since I was a young boy I played the silver ball... #
0:00:21 > 0:00:25I felt... the band, and myself as a composer,
0:00:25 > 0:00:28deserved one big last splurge.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31If that album hadn't made it, the band would have disbanded.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35# Sure plays a mean pinball... #
0:00:35 > 0:00:40Tommy is one of the most important albums ever made, and was
0:00:40 > 0:00:44Pete sitting with his guitar, trying to make sense of the universe.
0:00:44 > 0:00:46# Tommy, can you hear me?
0:00:48 > 0:00:51# Can you feel me near you? #
0:00:51 > 0:00:53When we played it live it changed me completely.
0:00:53 > 0:00:55I just grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and said,
0:00:55 > 0:00:57"Right, let's make this person live."
0:00:57 > 0:01:00# I'm free
0:01:00 > 0:01:04I'm free... #
0:01:04 > 0:01:07I'm fed up with talking about it I'm certainly not fed up with playing it.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10We always had an idea that Tommy was going to mean something.
0:01:10 > 0:01:15It was a series of great hit singles, it's a great concept album,
0:01:15 > 0:01:18it's a rock opera, it's a great concert vehicle for The Who.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22# Listening to you... #
0:01:22 > 0:01:23I just knew we were good.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26I didn't quite know how or why or what, but I knew we were good.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30The reviews they got were overwhelming,
0:01:30 > 0:01:34and so they'd suddenly arrived and Tommy changed everything.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43Tommy was the first time that we really tackled
0:01:43 > 0:01:46the idea of doing an album as a piece of art.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49It was meant, in a sense, to hold a mirror, you know,
0:01:49 > 0:01:52to what we were doing at the time and what was happening to us.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55And when you look at sort of what was happening,
0:01:55 > 0:01:58it then starts to really take on extra resonance.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06By '68, they seemed to be running out of steam.
0:02:06 > 0:02:07They were in trouble, really.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10We were afraid that we were losing our touch.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14We'd had a series of successful hit singles, you know,
0:02:14 > 0:02:17from I Can't Explain, Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere,
0:02:17 > 0:02:20My Generation, Pictures of Lily, I'm a Boy.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25We were a singles band going nowhere,
0:02:25 > 0:02:28and occasionally we might come up with a hit single now and again
0:02:28 > 0:02:30but on stage we had grown immensely.
0:02:30 > 0:02:41# I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles... #
0:02:41 > 0:02:44They were the group that took the power of rock'n'roll
0:02:44 > 0:02:47most seriously. I love the early Who singles.
0:02:47 > 0:02:48I think, you know, to me
0:02:48 > 0:02:52maybe the greatest rock'n'roll record of all time is I Can See For Miles.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56I Can See For Miles, which should have been number one,
0:02:56 > 0:02:57there's no question about it -
0:02:57 > 0:03:02it's a masterpiece as a pop song of our genre - and it didn't do that.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05I think Pete thought we were running out of steam,
0:03:05 > 0:03:09but then I always believed in the chemistry of the band.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12There's something about the mathematics of Who music, within it,
0:03:12 > 0:03:15that knitted it together, and it had an incredible strength.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18# Talking about my generation
0:03:19 > 0:03:22# Talking about my generation
0:03:25 > 0:03:27# Talking about my generation
0:03:27 > 0:03:29# Talking about my ge-ge-ge...
0:03:29 > 0:03:32# Talking about my generation
0:03:32 > 0:03:36# My generation This is my generation, baby... #
0:03:36 > 0:03:44They were just a great live band and that sense of, you know, you just
0:03:44 > 0:03:48had this feeling like, you know at any moment they could just levitate.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52GUITARS SCREECH
0:03:52 > 0:03:56It's an image that remains in my mind about the energy
0:03:56 > 0:03:59and danger that he had in his performance.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02Pete was playing and was bleeding from his hand
0:04:02 > 0:04:06DISTORTED GUITARS
0:04:06 > 0:04:09# My generation... #
0:04:11 > 0:04:14The Who had this enormous image set for them in stone, really,
0:04:14 > 0:04:16by My Generation
0:04:16 > 0:04:19and the Mod connection and smashing up equipment,
0:04:19 > 0:04:21and so they wanted to destroy that image
0:04:21 > 0:04:25and prove that they could do something of real importance and value.
0:04:25 > 0:04:26And we were writing more
0:04:26 > 0:04:29and more stuff that didn't fit in with the singles market.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33The shortcoming was mine. I wasn't coming up with the singles.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37And I knew that I couldn't do better than I Can See For Miles,
0:04:37 > 0:04:39and I was kind of groping, in a sense, to find
0:04:39 > 0:04:42something that would work for the band at this time.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45He knew that he'd got to write something more substantial
0:04:45 > 0:04:48and he'd always had this thing about writing a rock opera.
0:04:48 > 0:04:50Pete obviously wrote the songs
0:04:50 > 0:04:53but it was huge, huge input from Kit Lambert.
0:04:54 > 0:05:01And, you know, Kit was always pushing Pete to write deeper,
0:05:01 > 0:05:03write for a bigger stage.
0:05:03 > 0:05:08There is more valid, new creative music being made at the pop end
0:05:08 > 0:05:12I don't see any good classical composers emerging at the moment.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15I certainly haven't heard a decent new symphony
0:05:15 > 0:05:18or a decent new opera in the last 18 months.
0:05:18 > 0:05:20And I think opera, as we know now, is absolutely defunct.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22One needs a completely fresh approach,
0:05:22 > 0:05:24and I think pop's going to provide it.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28There were other attempts to do similar kind of things,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31although nobody took much notice of them at the time,
0:05:31 > 0:05:35it has to be said. There was Mark Wirtz's Teenage Opera, which was
0:05:35 > 0:05:40a single, but was actually intended to become a full-blown opera.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43And then The Pretty Things had been working on something
0:05:43 > 0:05:45called SF Sorrow, which was a concept album,
0:05:45 > 0:05:49and they later claimed that this was the first rock opera.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52I felt we were first anyway because we'd done, you know,
0:05:52 > 0:05:56two operas, we'd done... It's just that they didn't look like that
0:05:56 > 0:06:00It's a group of numbers off our LP written by Pete -
0:06:00 > 0:06:02it was part of an opera he wrote.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06It's a bit shorter than it was supposed to be.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08It's one called A Quick One.
0:06:08 > 0:06:14It was a piece that ran about 11 minutes long that really
0:06:14 > 0:06:16showed the potential of the band.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18The Who told stories.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21You know, there was a narrative arc in all of those songs,
0:06:21 > 0:06:22however short.
0:06:22 > 0:06:27Cos what A Quick One While He's Away was, I think,
0:06:27 > 0:06:33five or six songs which I was working on, this story about child abuse.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35Mainly it was a story about evacuees,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39because when these kids came home and they told their parents
0:06:39 > 0:06:41about the fact that they'd had a terrible time,
0:06:41 > 0:06:43their parents said, "Listen, shut up.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45"You're alive, you're lucky, you know,
0:06:45 > 0:06:49"you weren't blown to bits in the Blitz. Just keep your mouth shut."
0:06:49 > 0:06:52So everybody went into, you know, huge denial.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00I'm on the stage and we get to the end - "you are forgiven".
0:07:00 > 0:07:03This is at the end of A Quick One, I went, "You are forgiven.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05"You are forgiven. You are forgiven.
0:07:05 > 0:07:11"Forgiven, forgiven, forgiven, forgiven, forgiven, FORGIVEN!"
0:07:11 > 0:07:13You know. This incredible...
0:07:13 > 0:07:16When, of course, no forgiveness there at all.
0:07:16 > 0:07:17And then finally...
0:07:19 > 0:07:22# We're all forgiven... #
0:07:22 > 0:07:26But we'd also done another one called Rael, which was...
0:07:26 > 0:07:30you know, a full-length, two-hour epic opera
0:07:30 > 0:07:32squeezed down to seven minutes
0:07:38 > 0:07:43# He's crazy if he thinks we're coming back again
0:07:45 > 0:07:50# He's crazy if he thinks we're coming back again... #
0:07:52 > 0:07:55I felt I was in a climate where everybody was going to be
0:07:55 > 0:07:56doing this kind of thing.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59Cos it was on an extraordinary period, that psychedelic period
0:07:59 > 0:08:01of...
0:08:01 > 0:08:04Because people were opening up their minds with psychedelic drugs.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06New attitudes and the whole love movement,
0:08:06 > 0:08:10and a sort of philosophical kind of revolution took place very quickly.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14And people were searching for their own kind of answers.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17The Who weren't, you know, immune to all of that.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19I mean, in their own way,
0:08:19 > 0:08:22like Townshend himself was very interested in philosophy
0:08:22 > 0:08:24and all kinds of mysticism, in a sense,
0:08:24 > 0:08:27and experimentation with drugs wasn't unknown to The Who.
0:08:27 > 0:08:33Pete had had that LSD bad trip he took
0:08:33 > 0:08:35when coming back from the States.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38It was the most extraordinary drug experience
0:08:38 > 0:08:39that I've ever been through.
0:08:39 > 0:08:44It was just absolutely bizarre like Alice In Wonderland,
0:08:44 > 0:08:47like extreme mental illness.
0:08:47 > 0:08:52Nothing good about it at all, but so disturbing that I left my body
0:08:52 > 0:08:56and I floated up on the ceiling of the aircraft
0:08:56 > 0:08:59looking down at myself, and I'm sitting there and I'm unconscious.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01It's extremely disturbing
0:09:01 > 0:09:03and I'm very, very frightened I'm going to die.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07And when I get home, I kind of think about this and I think,
0:09:07 > 0:09:08"I left my body.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14"I just left my body, so I know that I am not my fucking body.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17And it shook him up, and from then on
0:09:17 > 0:09:21he gave up psychedelic drugs and got very anti-psychedelic drugs.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25There was that sense that we needed an alternative to this
0:09:25 > 0:09:29extraordinary colourful world that we discovered in hallucinogenics.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32At that point everybody, it seemed like, you know,
0:09:32 > 0:09:36was exploring some or one or another aspect of, you know,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39kind of a spiritual development
0:09:39 > 0:09:41You're looking for some answers
0:09:41 > 0:09:42You're looking for some ways of living.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46You're looking for something that's going to bring you
0:09:46 > 0:09:51some peace of some kind, and I think Meher Baba offered that.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55When Mike McInnerney introduced Meher Baba to Pete,
0:09:55 > 0:09:57I think he gave him a book.
0:09:57 > 0:10:02It was called The God-Man by an eminent British journalist
0:10:02 > 0:10:06called CB Purdom, and I kind of immediately warmed
0:10:06 > 0:10:08to the way he looked in the photo,
0:10:08 > 0:10:12but what really struck me is as soon as I started
0:10:12 > 0:10:18to open the book up, I started to read things, I felt that I'd found
0:10:18 > 0:10:21answers to so many of the questions that were rolling round in my head.
0:10:21 > 0:10:23And the really, really simple thing is -
0:10:23 > 0:10:26and it's really not complicated - was that he asked you to love him.
0:10:26 > 0:10:28It was the simple stuff
0:10:28 > 0:10:30that I liked. It was "don't worry, be happy.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33"Do your best, leave the results to God."
0:10:33 > 0:10:34You know what you should do, basically,
0:10:34 > 0:10:36that's why I think he didn't speak.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38He took a vow of silence in 192 or something,
0:10:38 > 0:10:42and I think he didn't speak because he said it had all been said,
0:10:42 > 0:10:43do you know what I mean?
0:10:43 > 0:10:46There's no point giving more messages, it's all there.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49You can't describe the kind of the discovery,
0:10:49 > 0:10:54the feeling you get when you feel the presence of someone like
0:10:54 > 0:10:58Meher Baba on Earth, on this planet, at this time, in this universe
0:10:58 > 0:11:02It changed him completely. He was absolutely fired up by it.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04He was absolutely...
0:11:04 > 0:11:08I mean, it was the most profound change he'd ever had in his life.
0:11:08 > 0:11:13You impede your own spiritual progress by doing things
0:11:13 > 0:11:19which are against the grain physically,
0:11:19 > 0:11:24by self-indulgence, by indulging in lust, by indulging in greed
0:11:24 > 0:11:27And we just had to stop fucking around, you know.
0:11:27 > 0:11:28We had to stop taking acid,
0:11:28 > 0:11:30stop pretending that we could have sex
0:11:30 > 0:11:32with whoever we wanted to have sex with
0:11:32 > 0:11:34and just get serious about life
0:11:34 > 0:11:38Let your own intuition guide you.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40Like, when you're writing a song or something,
0:11:40 > 0:11:45just write it with the best intentions - probably to entertain
0:11:45 > 0:11:46and to please people -
0:11:46 > 0:11:49and via doing that, you might create a spark in them.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52When I did discover Meher Baba I think all the pieces of the jigsaw
0:11:52 > 0:11:57fit into place and then I was able to start on Tommy in earnest,
0:11:57 > 0:12:01and I think I was inspired to write Tommy as a spiritual story.
0:12:01 > 0:12:06The idea was that Tommy would be a young boy who would grow up
0:12:06 > 0:12:09in adverse circumstances, but those adverse circumstances
0:12:09 > 0:12:12would lead him to a spiritual pathway.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14He would then be elected,
0:12:14 > 0:12:17if you like, by the masses as a spiritual teacher
0:12:17 > 0:12:23and then he would, in a sense, misuse his powers and pay the price.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26And that was the original story
0:12:32 > 0:12:33This is 1918.
0:12:33 > 0:12:38Captain Walker is missing, believed to be missing with a number of men.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41Then Mrs Walker has a child, a son.
0:12:43 > 0:12:44ALL: Absent friends.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48# Captain Walker didn't come home
0:12:48 > 0:12:51# His unborn child will never know him... #
0:12:52 > 0:12:57The war is still on... you know, it's about to end.
0:12:57 > 0:12:59A mother has bore a child.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02# It's a boy, Mrs Walker
0:13:02 > 0:13:06# It's a boy
0:13:06 > 0:13:09# It's a boy, Mrs Walker... #
0:13:09 > 0:13:13She doesn't know, you know, if it will have a father.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15She's taken a lover.
0:13:15 > 0:13:21# A son, a son, a son... #
0:13:21 > 0:13:26I had to create this viable boy that my audience, Who fans,
0:13:26 > 0:13:30could occupy, get inside him, and then they become the hero.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35Then Captain Walker comes back
0:13:35 > 0:13:36Now, the first song is very vague,
0:13:36 > 0:13:38you don't really know what's happened.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45# I had a feeling '21 is gonna be a good year
0:13:47 > 0:13:51# Especially if you and me sit in together... #
0:13:51 > 0:13:53All around me, when I was a kid
0:13:53 > 0:13:57there were these intrigues going on, you know, marital intrigues.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59My mum, she fell in love with this guy
0:13:59 > 0:14:03and she wanted to run away with him, and what she wanted was romance
0:14:03 > 0:14:07and that was the thing that my dad couldn't give her.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10# I had no reason to be over-optimistic
0:14:12 > 0:14:17# But somehow when you smile I can brave bad weather... #
0:14:17 > 0:14:21A smile, a loving touch, this is what life was about.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25# About the boy, about the boy
0:14:27 > 0:14:31# About the boy, he saw it all
0:14:31 > 0:14:34# You didn't hear it You didn't see it
0:14:34 > 0:14:37# You won't say nothing to no-one Never in your life
0:14:37 > 0:14:39# You never heard it
0:14:39 > 0:14:42# Oh, how absurd it all seems Without any proof... #
0:14:42 > 0:14:46It turns out - although you wouldn't know it from the record -
0:14:46 > 0:14:49that the father came back and found the mother with her lover
0:14:49 > 0:14:52and he killed the lover, and the boy witnessed it.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54As a child he sees this murder
0:14:54 > 0:14:56as a child he sees a reflection of the murder.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59He doesn't actually see the murder, he doesn't see the blood,
0:14:59 > 0:15:04he doesn't hear the cries, he just sees this happening in this mirror.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07And as a result of them saying "You didn't see it.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10"You never saw it. You won't tell a word about it," he has a trauma
0:15:10 > 0:15:14and he withdraws himself and becomes deaf, dumb and blind.
0:15:14 > 0:15:19# That dumb and blind boy He's in a quiet vibration land
0:15:21 > 0:15:23# Strange as it seems
0:15:23 > 0:15:27# His music dreams ain't quite so bad... #
0:15:31 > 0:15:33The amazing journey was the nucleus of Tommy,
0:15:33 > 0:15:36as far as I was concerned, and it sticks in my brain
0:15:36 > 0:15:39and has been the song that kind of said it all.
0:15:39 > 0:15:45It's about going through life in this strange other world.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50With the deaf, dumb and blind boy, I was looking
0:15:50 > 0:15:54for an analogy to the fact that it seemed to me that we are deaf, dumb
0:15:54 > 0:15:58and blind, if you like, with respect to our spiritual genome.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01Whatever it is in us that drives us spiritually
0:16:01 > 0:16:03is effectively deaf, dumb and blind.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07I think Townshend totally got how, underneath
0:16:07 > 0:16:11all of your aggression and all of your violence
0:16:11 > 0:16:15and all of your anger is a real sensitivity,
0:16:15 > 0:16:18a desire to somehow be accepted
0:16:19 > 0:16:25# Sickness will surely take the mind where minds can't usually go
0:16:26 > 0:16:32# Come on the amazing journey and learn all you should know... #
0:16:36 > 0:16:39I'd written this epic poem,
0:16:39 > 0:16:46it was about somebody who gets very, very, very close to God-realisation
0:16:46 > 0:16:49and then makes a disastrous mistake.
0:16:49 > 0:16:54"As time passes boredom forces me to amuse myself.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57"I marry and justify a lifetime of obsessed
0:16:57 > 0:16:59"money-making in order to keep my family.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03"I justify an eternity of oblivious dreaming to counter
0:17:03 > 0:17:06"the strain of all my money-making."
0:17:06 > 0:17:11The music business itself would appear to be very shallow
0:17:11 > 0:17:15and very kind of one-dimensional in a way, you know,
0:17:15 > 0:17:18leading a lifestyle that is not always satisfactory
0:17:18 > 0:17:20I don't know how he coped, you know?
0:17:20 > 0:17:22This was a guy in two worlds, you know?
0:17:22 > 0:17:24He's in a rock'n'roll world.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27He's coping with stardom and, at the same time,
0:17:27 > 0:17:31he's trying to be a boy, trying to understand himself,
0:17:31 > 0:17:35and he's trying to be a man and be a good husband.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39It is a warning that if you don t use the experience that you have,
0:17:39 > 0:17:43if you don't use the qualities that you develop wisely
0:17:43 > 0:17:48and kindly and in a good way, you know, you end up in shit.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51MUSIC: "Eyesight To The Blind" by Sonny Boy Williamson
0:18:01 > 0:18:06There's that brilliant use of Sonny Boy Williamson, one of the, you know,
0:18:06 > 0:18:11original great blues figures, and a song called Eyesight To The Blind,
0:18:11 > 0:18:15you know, a nod to both where this music came from,
0:18:15 > 0:18:21where The Who came from and a perfect use of an old song in a new context.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24I was attracted to it because it was about...
0:18:24 > 0:18:29He refers to a deaf, dumb and blind guy in his song.
0:18:29 > 0:18:30I like singing this...
0:18:30 > 0:18:34probably most out of all the things we've ever done.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38It's challenging, it's incredibly challenging
0:18:38 > 0:18:41but, at the end of it, it's incredibly rewarding.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44And it fit in beautifully, I think.
0:18:44 > 0:18:50It created a reference back to our lineage, our heritage,
0:18:50 > 0:18:54our influences... and it's a fucking great song, too.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57# You talk about your woman
0:18:57 > 0:19:00# I wish you could see mine
0:19:02 > 0:19:05# Yeah, you talk about your woman
0:19:05 > 0:19:08# I wish you could see mine... #
0:19:10 > 0:19:12I don't know why Kit...
0:19:12 > 0:19:15It's always puzzled me why he double-tracked everything.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18It's not like I haven't got quite a fat voice to start with
0:19:18 > 0:19:22but it did give it that kind of other worldly quality.
0:19:22 > 0:19:26# She's got the power to heal you
0:19:26 > 0:19:28# Never fear
0:19:31 > 0:19:34# She's got the power to heal you
0:19:34 > 0:19:36# Never fear... #
0:19:36 > 0:19:37It solved a problem in a narrative.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40I wanted there to be a pimp.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42I wanted the Acid Queen to have a pimp.
0:19:42 > 0:19:47I didn't want the Acid Queen to be entirely responsible
0:19:47 > 0:19:52for corrupting the boy, sexually speaking.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54Pete just has a darker turn of mind
0:19:54 > 0:20:01and, you know, addressed these things, and powerfully so
0:20:01 > 0:20:04Nothing at all could ever be too strong for an album
0:20:04 > 0:20:06and nothing was off-limits.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08It was amazing that the band supported him
0:20:08 > 0:20:11and were not anti-critical of him, Meher Baba and all the rest of it.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14Cos the thing was that they could probably sense that he was
0:20:14 > 0:20:16definitely inspired from his confidence
0:20:16 > 0:20:17that he got from Meher Baba.
0:20:17 > 0:20:19We were always supportive,
0:20:19 > 0:20:21that had been going on for years, but there was something
0:20:21 > 0:20:26in Kit's belief in us that I always knew that it would be OK,
0:20:26 > 0:20:30and that Pete would kind of go on to write this kind of work.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37# Did you ever see the faces of the children?
0:20:37 > 0:20:40# They get so excited
0:20:43 > 0:20:45# Waking up on Christmas morning
0:20:45 > 0:20:49# Hours before the winter sun's ignited... #
0:20:49 > 0:20:54On Christmas Eve, I would be left on my own,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58and with a fire and all the presents round the tree. Magic.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01Just waiting, waiting while my mum and dad went to the pub,
0:21:01 > 0:21:04got smashed, came back at one o'clock in the morning,
0:21:04 > 0:21:08put me to bed. Then I'd wake up and open my presents and, yeah
0:21:08 > 0:21:09that was good times.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13# And Tommy doesn't know what day it is
0:21:15 > 0:21:20# He doesn't know who Jesus was or what praying is
0:21:20 > 0:21:28# How can he be saved from the eternal grave?
0:21:29 > 0:21:32# See me
0:21:34 > 0:21:37# Feel me
0:21:38 > 0:21:41# Touch me
0:21:43 > 0:21:45# Heal me... #
0:21:45 > 0:21:48There is that extraordinary moment in the recording of Tommy
0:21:48 > 0:21:53where I arrive late, looking forward to doing my bit, you know,
0:21:53 > 0:22:00which is singing the emotional bits, "See me, feel me..."
0:22:00 > 0:22:04You know, because, you know, I had such a tough childhood,
0:22:04 > 0:22:06so I would be able to really sing it.
0:22:06 > 0:22:07And I knew that, you know,
0:22:07 > 0:22:10Roger had had a couple of goes and Kit had kind of gone,
0:22:10 > 0:22:13"I don't think you'd better do this, Rog.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15"I think I might better leave this to Pete."
0:22:15 > 0:22:17And I come in and I hear this.
0:22:17 > 0:22:19# See me
0:22:21 > 0:22:23# Feel me
0:22:24 > 0:22:27# Touch me
0:22:28 > 0:22:30# Heal me... #
0:22:31 > 0:22:36And I realised that Roger has occupied Tommy,
0:22:36 > 0:22:41in such a way, though, that other people were unable to occupy him.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45# Heal me... #
0:22:45 > 0:22:47I was just inhabiting the music
0:22:48 > 0:22:52I think everybody has a longing in them...
0:22:53 > 0:23:00..to be understood, to be loved and that's what I tried to do.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08I was very, very well aware that
0:23:08 > 0:23:12it was going to do something a little bit deeper,
0:23:12 > 0:23:17and in that Kit Lambert was an absolute dynamo of support.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21But then, it wasn't just Kit, we did have Chris Stamp in there
0:23:21 > 0:23:25who's, again, very, very influential on the input of Tommy.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28Their partnership and their work together
0:23:28 > 0:23:31was extraordinary and magical.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34Tommy was everything.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36You know, we were going to... we were going to sort of
0:23:36 > 0:23:39put everything into Tommy. It was going to be the, sort of
0:23:39 > 0:23:41the great big last-ditch effort you know,
0:23:41 > 0:23:46of all this sort of creative juice that we'd had for all these years.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49If ever I had any doubts, you know... If ever I said, you know,
0:23:49 > 0:23:51"Oh, God, you know, it all feels a bit pretentious,
0:23:51 > 0:23:52he would just say, "Oh, fuck them."
0:23:53 > 0:23:57You know. "Just fuck them all, you know?
0:23:57 > 0:23:59"What does anybody know about opera?"
0:23:59 > 0:24:02But the person that was most helpful to me in constructing
0:24:02 > 0:24:07the story was actually the guy doing the artwork - Michael McInnerney.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09As a creative in the band, you know,
0:24:09 > 0:24:12Pete needed somebody to be able to talk his ideas out to.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15We were still in the studio developing the music,
0:24:15 > 0:24:17so I would go and I would talk to him about it,
0:24:17 > 0:24:19I would play him my demos.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22He often got to hear my songs before the band.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25The cover carried a kind of symbolic idea
0:24:25 > 0:24:30of what I felt the overarching idea of the album was.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33I was trying to carry this idea of what it would be like,
0:24:33 > 0:24:35in a sense, to be this character,
0:24:35 > 0:24:37trying to imagine what it's like
0:24:37 > 0:24:42if you can't see, you can't hear, you can't speak, what kind of world
0:24:42 > 0:24:46you're in, you know, how infinite and how large that might be.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50I had to try and find a kind of visual method to sort of do that.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52I don't think Mike has ever surpassed it.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54He's done some fantastic work,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57but I do think that it's up there with Magritte.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00# Extra, extra, read all about it
0:25:00 > 0:25:02# Extra... #
0:25:02 > 0:25:05My first major interview about Tommy was with Jann Wenner
0:25:05 > 0:25:08of Rolling Stone magazine before the fucking album was made,
0:25:08 > 0:25:13in which I pitched the album and he printed it in its entirety.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16I didn't know at the time that was the first time he'd, apparently
0:25:16 > 0:25:18had ever articulated that,
0:25:18 > 0:25:20and I think that he might have been making it up
0:25:20 > 0:25:24as he was going along, you know it was kind of occurring to him
0:25:24 > 0:25:27But he'd laid it out in very rational form.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31And he said that, really, that interview cleared it -
0:25:31 > 0:25:32clarified it in his head.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36What's interesting, reading that interview
0:25:36 > 0:25:39is the conviction that I had that we, as a band,
0:25:39 > 0:25:42could kind of create this journey for this boy.
0:25:42 > 0:25:44We could sort of make this music
0:25:44 > 0:25:48that evoked all of these different aspects of life
0:25:48 > 0:25:51and very, very ambitious, you know,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54but I was convinced that we could do it.
0:25:54 > 0:25:59# We're on our own, cousin
0:25:59 > 0:26:04# All alone, cousin... #
0:26:04 > 0:26:07Pete Townshend is one of the most sensitive souls who's ever
0:26:07 > 0:26:09found their way into rock'n'roll.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13And I think that's the secret of Tommy, is he was sensitive
0:26:13 > 0:26:17to his own issues and to the fact that there were probably
0:26:17 > 0:26:22other people out there dealing with some of the same psychosexual
0:26:22 > 0:26:27childhood abuse, bullying, all these themes that are so of the moment.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31Young Tommy went through, you know, sexual molestation, bullying,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34drugs and whatever, that Pete had gone through.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38Pete was an unhappy kid, you know, full of, you know, doubt
0:26:38 > 0:26:43and shame and feelings of inadequacy and the inability to get a girl
0:26:43 > 0:26:48And he's really...pretty painfully frank in his music..
0:26:49 > 0:26:51..at a time when you're not supposed to be
0:26:51 > 0:26:55# You won't be much fun being blind, deaf and dumb
0:26:55 > 0:26:59# But I've no-one to play with today... #
0:27:00 > 0:27:03Bullying at that time, it was just, you know, it was just...
0:27:03 > 0:27:07It was par for the course. It was the way that society operated.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10Policemen didn't pull you aside and, you know...
0:27:10 > 0:27:13They would just smack you round the head, you know?
0:27:13 > 0:27:17It was just this kind of, you know, teachers would batter you
0:27:17 > 0:27:19with lumps of wood, you know, and that's what life was like.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23# I'm the school bully
0:27:24 > 0:27:28# The classroom cheat
0:27:28 > 0:27:36# The nastiest play friend you ever could meet... #
0:27:36 > 0:27:42He asked John to write those difficult songs
0:27:42 > 0:27:45those dark songs, because when Pete was younger
0:27:45 > 0:27:47he had some bad...
0:27:47 > 0:27:50sexual experiences and bullying experiences.
0:27:50 > 0:27:52I didn't want to have to write those songs,
0:27:52 > 0:27:55but I knew that they had to be in the story.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57I knew that we had to deal with the reality
0:27:57 > 0:28:01of what a boy like Tommy would go through.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05As I tried to deal with it,
0:28:05 > 0:28:12I would either go into kind of white-flash anxiety or rage...
0:28:16 > 0:28:18And I tried a few times...
0:28:23 > 0:28:25..but in the end I just kind of gave John a brief.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29I just said, "Do you think you could crack this?" And he said, "Yep.
0:28:38 > 0:28:40# I'm your wicked Uncle Ernie
0:28:40 > 0:28:44# I'm glad you won't see or hear me as I fiddle about
0:28:44 > 0:28:46# Fiddle about Fiddle about
0:28:46 > 0:28:48# Your mother left me here to mind you
0:28:48 > 0:28:50# Now I'm doing what I want to
0:28:50 > 0:28:52# Fiddling about Fiddling about
0:28:52 > 0:28:54Fiddle about
0:28:55 > 0:28:59# Down with the bedclothes Up with your nightshirt
0:28:59 > 0:29:00# Fiddle about... #
0:29:00 > 0:29:04What's so extraordinary about those two songs
0:29:04 > 0:29:07is that they're so powerful and they're so deeply felt
0:29:07 > 0:29:11and they're so accurate that I wonder whether, like me
0:29:11 > 0:29:16John had lots of friends who had stories to tell.
0:29:16 > 0:29:18Child molestation is not discussed,
0:29:18 > 0:29:20it's not generally a pop music theme, you know,
0:29:20 > 0:29:27but it's one of the big, you know, successful themes of Tommy.
0:29:27 > 0:29:31Pete was selling us and sharing with us his pain.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34I mean, he had this part of when he was young,
0:29:34 > 0:29:37of his mother and father not getting on,
0:29:37 > 0:29:39and his mother was a singer and stuff,
0:29:39 > 0:29:43and they left him for a time with his grandmother, this Denny,
0:29:43 > 0:29:46who was a little bit strange.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50My experience of abuse as a child is something which
0:29:50 > 0:29:52I don't fully recall.
0:29:52 > 0:29:54I get the sense that there's something that has happened
0:29:54 > 0:29:59to me as a child, something that is erotic or sexual,
0:29:59 > 0:30:02or disturbing or dark, or something in nature
0:30:02 > 0:30:05because of dreams that I've had and memories that I have.
0:30:05 > 0:30:10But I was very, very young, you know,
0:30:10 > 0:30:13I was between the ages of 4 and 5? when I was
0:30:13 > 0:30:16with my grandmother, and I just know that some weird shit went down
0:30:16 > 0:30:20# Fiddle... #
0:30:28 > 0:30:32# Your child ain't all he should be now
0:30:32 > 0:30:36# This girl could put him right
0:30:37 > 0:30:41# I'll show him what he could be now
0:30:41 > 0:30:45# Just give me one night
0:30:47 > 0:30:51# I'm the gypsy The Acid Queen
0:30:51 > 0:30:54# Pay before we start... #
0:30:56 > 0:30:59I go to a very strange place when I sing it.
0:30:59 > 0:31:01It's like, "Can you give me permission to sing this song?
0:31:01 > 0:31:05"I'm going to sing it like a woman who's going to rape a child in order
0:31:05 > 0:31:06"to make it better."
0:31:06 > 0:31:10I'm 68 years old, there's not much analysis for me.
0:31:10 > 0:31:13I've got a pretty picture of what kind of person my mum was.
0:31:13 > 0:31:16I love her, I love the memory of her, but I also know
0:31:16 > 0:31:20that she was a complete halfwit in many respects, you know.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24And she abnegated a lot of her duty to me as a young mum,
0:31:24 > 0:31:26and when I sing the Acid Queen
0:31:26 > 0:31:29there's a bit of my mother's voice comes in there.
0:31:29 > 0:31:31I'm kind of... I'm kind of angry with my mother.
0:31:31 > 0:31:34I'm angry with all women who are mothers.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37It's a misogynist song in a way you know,
0:31:37 > 0:31:40and I can sing it as a woman and...
0:31:42 > 0:31:46"If your boy ain't all he should be now, this girl can put him right."
0:31:46 > 0:31:49There's a sense of "oh, how arrogant you are."
0:31:49 > 0:31:53# Give us a room Close the door
0:31:53 > 0:31:56# Leave us for a while
0:31:56 > 0:32:00# Your boy won't be a boy no more
0:32:01 > 0:32:04# Young but not a child... #
0:32:06 > 0:32:10What The Acid Queen represents to me is that female force.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13It's a fairytale figure, you know?
0:32:13 > 0:32:16It's the wicked queen, it's the wicked witch,
0:32:16 > 0:32:20and yet, in Grimm's Fairy Tale language, it's a very erotic figure.
0:32:20 > 0:32:25It's erotic, powerful, manipulative, fixing figure.
0:32:25 > 0:32:30"I can fix you. Come in, young man, I'll show you the future."
0:32:31 > 0:32:35And what a great power for a woman to have over a young man...
0:32:36 > 0:32:39..the power to give him his first real orgasm.
0:32:41 > 0:32:43# My work is done now Look at him
0:32:43 > 0:32:47# He's never been more alive
0:32:48 > 0:32:51# His hand, it shakes His fingers clutch
0:32:52 > 0:32:55# Watch his body writhe
0:32:57 > 0:33:01# I'm the gypsy The Acid Queen
0:33:01 > 0:33:04# Pay before we start
0:33:04 > 0:33:06# The gypsy
0:33:06 > 0:33:11# I'm guaranteed to break your little heart... #
0:33:13 > 0:33:15Kit Lambert had got me tape-machines
0:33:15 > 0:33:19very, very early in my writing career in 1964, so I'd been
0:33:19 > 0:33:22working on tape, and by the time I started to work on Tommy
0:33:22 > 0:33:25I had a fully-fledged recording studio in my house at home.
0:33:25 > 0:33:27I loved it.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30And he would come in with a new demo and we'd write,
0:33:30 > 0:33:34and then we'd build up from a very simple demo...
0:33:34 > 0:33:39And slowly, but surely, the story pieced itself together
0:33:39 > 0:33:41in some kind of sense.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53# Ever since I was a young boy I played the silver ball
0:33:53 > 0:33:56# From Soho down to Brighton I must have played them all
0:33:56 > 0:34:00# But I ain't seen nothing like him in any amusement hall
0:34:00 > 0:34:06# That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball... #
0:34:09 > 0:34:13Before Pinball Wizard, Tommy was a kind of rock star.
0:34:13 > 0:34:18I saw him as, I suppose, a guitar-playing rock star,
0:34:18 > 0:34:19cos Tommy was about music.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23It was about a young man who is deaf, dumb and blind,
0:34:23 > 0:34:26but can hear music through vibrations,
0:34:26 > 0:34:30so he can feel stuff, so he can feel music.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33They wanted some feedback on how it was going
0:34:33 > 0:34:40and the album they were making and Kit Lambert knew Nik Cohn,
0:34:40 > 0:34:44who was the writer on the Guardian, and he was a rock critic, and
0:34:44 > 0:34:49they brought him in and he listened to their...what they'd got so far.
0:34:49 > 0:34:51I said, "What do you think?"
0:34:51 > 0:34:55"And he said, "It's... It's wonderful. It's really wonderful.
0:34:55 > 0:34:57"Wonderful music. I love it.
0:34:57 > 0:35:02"But...it's a pity it's about a guru."
0:35:02 > 0:35:05And I said, "Well, it's not really about a guru.
0:35:05 > 0:35:07"No, it's not a guru. He's not a guru.
0:35:07 > 0:35:14"He's somebody who can feel vibrations and music and through,
0:35:14 > 0:35:19"you know... And it turns into a kind of a spiritual language
0:35:19 > 0:35:23"that he understands and that other people around him can see."
0:35:23 > 0:35:28And he kind of goes, "I think that's even worse than a guru.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31He used a wonderful expression he said, "It's a bit po-faced.
0:35:31 > 0:35:33"And it's a bit heavy, religious and... But I'll give it four stars.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36"It's GOOD, you know, but it's not..." And that wasn't good enough.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40I knew him and we used to play pinball together quite a bit,
0:35:40 > 0:35:44and he'd written a book called Arfur - with an F - Pinball Queen,
0:35:44 > 0:35:47and I'd met this kid who he'd based the story on,
0:35:47 > 0:35:49played pinball with her,
0:35:49 > 0:35:52and we used to go out and play pinball in Soho together.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55And Pete said she beat him every single time.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03And so I said, "What about if, instead of him being, like,
0:36:03 > 0:36:07"a, you know, a phenomena, musically-speaking,
0:36:07 > 0:36:09"he's a pinball champion?"
0:36:09 > 0:36:13thinking I was kind of like, lowering the, you know, the...
0:36:13 > 0:36:16And you know, "He plays pinball He can play pinball.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18"He's deaf, dumb and blind,
0:36:18 > 0:36:20"but through vibrations he can play pinball."
0:36:20 > 0:36:25I said, "Would you give it a good review if he was a pinball star "
0:36:25 > 0:36:28And Nik Cohn said something like,
0:36:28 > 0:36:32"Ah, yes, I think I would give that a five-star review...
0:36:32 > 0:36:34"with an extra ball."
0:36:35 > 0:36:40So I rushed home that night and wrote Pinball Wizard.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00# Ever since I was a young boy I played the silver ball
0:37:00 > 0:37:04# From Soho down to Brighton I must have played them all
0:37:04 > 0:37:08# But I've never seen anything like him in any amusement hall
0:37:08 > 0:37:15# That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball... #
0:37:15 > 0:37:17Pinball Wizard is a crucial song.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20It's actually the whole thing in a nutshell,
0:37:20 > 0:37:22and it's incredibly powerful.
0:37:22 > 0:37:26The first time I heard it, I was literally blown backwards
0:37:26 > 0:37:28it was so powerful.
0:37:28 > 0:37:31And I felt it was too sweet and, you know,
0:37:31 > 0:37:33so if this is someone singing about Tommy,
0:37:33 > 0:37:36it should have a bit more meat and potatoes...
0:37:37 > 0:37:39..which is what I gave it.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42# He stands like a statue Becomes part of the machine
0:37:42 > 0:37:46# Feeling all the bumpers Always playing clean
0:37:46 > 0:37:50# He plays by intuition The digit counters fall
0:37:50 > 0:37:54# That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball
0:38:02 > 0:38:04# He's a pinball wizard
0:38:04 > 0:38:05# Had to be a twist
0:38:05 > 0:38:10# A pinball wizard's Got such a supple wrist... #
0:38:12 > 0:38:16I think that it was such a clever device, a perfect vehicle.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19Nothing to do with words, just to do with feeling the flippers
0:38:19 > 0:38:21and feeling the...
0:38:21 > 0:38:25And feeling the ball and scoring a great score.
0:38:25 > 0:38:27You don't need words for that.
0:38:27 > 0:38:31What it did was inject this incredible silly, colourful,
0:38:31 > 0:38:35daft notion into the whole thing which, in actual fact,
0:38:35 > 0:38:40totally redeemed but also created a much better focus for my notion
0:38:40 > 0:38:43that somebody who was deaf, dumb and blind could do something miraculous.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47# He ain't got no distraction Can't hear no buzzing bells
0:38:47 > 0:38:49# Don't see no lights a-flashin
0:38:49 > 0:38:51# Plays by sense of smell
0:38:51 > 0:38:55# Always gets a replay Never tilts at all
0:38:55 > 0:39:00# That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball... #
0:39:00 > 0:39:03Listening to the production on Pinball Wizard,
0:39:03 > 0:39:06and it's absolutely genius, but it's a masterpiece.
0:39:06 > 0:39:11# I thought I was the Bally table king
0:39:11 > 0:39:16# But I just handed my pinball crown to him... #
0:39:23 > 0:39:25Next day he brought it in, played it to everyone.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28He thought, "Oh, God, I'm embarrassed by this."
0:39:28 > 0:39:29I came in and I played it,
0:39:29 > 0:39:33and the great thing about it was that it was obviously the hit.
0:39:33 > 0:39:35And Damon Lyon-Shaw, the engineer, said,
0:39:35 > 0:39:37"That'll be a number-one hit, you know."
0:39:37 > 0:39:40And they all went, "This is great." And he went, "Oh, really?"
0:39:41 > 0:39:44I think it got to number four.
0:39:44 > 0:39:46HE LAUGHS
0:39:46 > 0:39:49# That deaf, dumb and blind kid. . #
0:39:49 > 0:39:52Nik, true to his word, gave the album a fantastic review.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07With Tommy, it was the first time we used eight-track
0:40:07 > 0:40:10and we didn't know what to do with them.
0:40:10 > 0:40:13I've seen the multi-tracks from Tommy
0:40:13 > 0:40:15and there's three tracks empty
0:40:15 > 0:40:18Cos they'd insisted all the way that they wanted to be able
0:40:18 > 0:40:22to play it on stage, cos there was all sorts of great ideas came up.
0:40:22 > 0:40:24Kit Lambert had asked me to dance around the room
0:40:24 > 0:40:27like a ballet dancer holding a microphone for an effect.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30He was wonderful because he would just try everything.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33He'd try the kitchen sink, he'd throw it all in.
0:40:33 > 0:40:34He'd make terrible mistakes.
0:40:34 > 0:40:37The next thing we knew, we'd be marching around the studio
0:40:37 > 0:40:39playing trombones, you know?
0:40:40 > 0:40:44Would I have changed him for someone more polished?
0:40:44 > 0:40:46No, we wouldn't have been what we are today
0:40:46 > 0:40:48without his early production.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52It was quirky, it was cranky, and it wasn't like anybody else
0:40:52 > 0:40:53In Damon Lyon-Shaw,
0:40:53 > 0:40:58he did pick an absolutely excellent engineer who got fantastic sound
0:40:58 > 0:41:02so, you know, he just left that kind of stuff to the engineer.
0:41:02 > 0:41:03He interfered a bit, you know?
0:41:03 > 0:41:07Damon Lyon-Shaw talks about the fact that Kit always wanted
0:41:07 > 0:41:08the needles in the red,
0:41:08 > 0:41:11and all they did was they turned down the bit behind the needles
0:41:11 > 0:41:13so that the needles were always in the red,
0:41:13 > 0:41:15but they were actually recording clean.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17So, everybody got what they wanted.
0:41:17 > 0:41:19The making of the record
0:41:19 > 0:41:23and that period of our career was the most joyous time -
0:41:23 > 0:41:27it was wonderful. And going to work a lot, working in the studio all day,
0:41:27 > 0:41:31going out to do gigs at night what more could anybody have wanted?
0:41:32 > 0:41:38Kit made recording fun, there's no question about it, it was great fun.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41# There's a man I found who can bring us all joy
0:41:41 > 0:41:44# There's a doctor I've found could cure the boy
0:41:44 > 0:41:46# A doctor I've found... #
0:41:46 > 0:41:49What's probably more important in the context...
0:41:49 > 0:41:53and that these songs I DID manage to tackle, you know,
0:41:53 > 0:41:58in the shape of the doctor's song "Go To The Mirror!"
0:41:58 > 0:42:03was the complicity of parents and social workers,
0:42:03 > 0:42:06and doctors and do-gooders,
0:42:06 > 0:42:12in a sense, to try to get round the problems that this child might have.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15# He seems to be completely unreceptive
0:42:17 > 0:42:20# The tests I gave him show no sense at all
0:42:20 > 0:42:25# His eyes react to light The dials detected
0:42:26 > 0:42:33# He hears but cannot answer to your call... #
0:42:33 > 0:42:35The reason why none of the other cures,
0:42:35 > 0:42:39the quacky cures or even the, you know, the credible medical cure,
0:42:39 > 0:42:43the reason why none of them work is that because...
0:42:43 > 0:42:45What's actually happened, of course,
0:42:45 > 0:42:47is that Tommy is not deaf, dumb and blind,
0:42:47 > 0:42:50he's not even really autistic, you know?
0:42:50 > 0:42:55What's actually happened is that he's been traumatised
0:42:55 > 0:42:57and is in a kind of shutdown state.
0:42:57 > 0:42:59# Tommy, can you hear me?
0:43:01 > 0:43:04# Can you feel me near you?
0:43:05 > 0:43:07# Tommy, can you see me?
0:43:09 > 0:43:11# Can I help to cheer you? #
0:43:11 > 0:43:15What cures him is that the mother smashes the mirror
0:43:15 > 0:43:19that he's looking at himself in and breaks the spell.
0:43:19 > 0:43:23# Do you hear or fear or Do I smash the mirror? #
0:43:27 > 0:43:29GLASS SMASHES
0:43:30 > 0:43:34And when she smashes the mirror he not only sees himself
0:43:34 > 0:43:37for the first time in the trauma of that moment,
0:43:37 > 0:43:39but he realises the power
0:43:39 > 0:43:42of his mother's loving rage and frustration.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45And that's kind of, in a sense what brings him to his senses.
0:43:45 > 0:43:48And so then, "Da-dah! I'm free.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59# I'm free
0:43:59 > 0:44:03# I am free
0:44:05 > 0:44:11# And freedom tastes of reality. . #
0:44:13 > 0:44:18The whole thing is metaphorical of course.
0:44:18 > 0:44:20It's about a coming of age, you know?
0:44:20 > 0:44:23About the fact that each of us as young men,
0:44:23 > 0:44:25that that happens to us at some point.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29We break away from stuff that we've clung onto in our childhood
0:44:29 > 0:44:30and we...
0:44:31 > 0:44:37..assume our power as men, and that's what happens to Tommy.
0:44:37 > 0:44:41It's a pivotal song. It's the pivotal song.
0:44:41 > 0:44:46It's from hereon in that all the problems need to be solved. .
0:44:46 > 0:44:48because you're back in the real world.
0:44:48 > 0:44:50# I'm free
0:44:52 > 0:44:54# I'm free... #
0:44:54 > 0:44:58I think we probably discovered something about our sound in Tommy
0:44:58 > 0:45:00when we played at the Ronnie Scott's Club.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03And they decided to have a proper full-blown press launch.
0:45:03 > 0:45:05They booked Ronnie Scott's Club
0:45:05 > 0:45:07which, in itself, was a unique experiment,
0:45:07 > 0:45:11to have a rock band playing at the famous London jazz venue
0:45:11 > 0:45:15And it was very hostile. They said, "Well, I know people there
0:45:15 > 0:45:18"and they said the press were drunk, and sort of shouting at them
0:45:18 > 0:45:19"and leering at them."
0:45:19 > 0:45:23And as we started to play, somebody shouted out
0:45:23 > 0:45:25"Smash your guitar, you sick BLEEP!"
0:45:28 > 0:45:31So, I think that's kind of where we were, you know,
0:45:31 > 0:45:34and whoever said that was drunk on our free booze,
0:45:34 > 0:45:36so we didn't really have many friends.
0:45:36 > 0:45:38And so Pete said, "Right, let them have it."
0:45:38 > 0:45:40I turned it up. I turned everything up.
0:45:40 > 0:45:45We played with tremendous vigour and passion and vengeance,
0:45:45 > 0:45:47and fear that it wouldn't work
0:45:47 > 0:45:50And we played to absolute silence...
0:45:50 > 0:45:52incredibly loudly,
0:45:52 > 0:45:57but the ovation at the end kind of took us by surprise, I must admit.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00That was... That was stunning.
0:46:00 > 0:46:05The real change in The Who happened when they played it live,
0:46:05 > 0:46:07not from the album.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10That's when The Who sound really started to bed in.
0:46:10 > 0:46:12# I'm free
0:46:13 > 0:46:16# I'm free
0:46:18 > 0:46:23# And I'm waiting for you to follow me... #
0:46:24 > 0:46:27Several things happened to me at that time.
0:46:27 > 0:46:30I was a Mod with curly hair, which was worse than having the pox.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33And my wife said to me,
0:46:33 > 0:46:35"Why are you straightening your hair? It's beautiful."
0:46:35 > 0:46:38She said, "Just let it hang out "
0:46:38 > 0:46:41And she, again, gave me the confidence to do it
0:46:41 > 0:46:45So, I kind of gained a different physical persona.
0:46:45 > 0:46:47# I'm free
0:46:49 > 0:46:51# I'm free
0:46:54 > 0:46:59# And I'm waiting for you to follow me... #
0:47:01 > 0:47:03He was your archetypical rock star of the '70s,
0:47:03 > 0:47:07with his fringed jacket and his long hair and his bare chest.
0:47:07 > 0:47:12Roger was definitive in the role and no-one will ever sing Tommy
0:47:12 > 0:47:17the way Roger, you know, Daltrey did and does.
0:47:17 > 0:47:23The fact of suddenly realising "Oh, my God, we've got
0:47:23 > 0:47:27"a rock god as a singer and not just an annoying fucker
0:47:27 > 0:47:32"who disagrees with everything we say," you know?
0:47:32 > 0:47:35It all added up to turning me into the kind of rock star
0:47:35 > 0:47:39that I became. Previous to that I was just another pop singer.
0:47:39 > 0:47:44Daltrey sort of became the kind of visual expression of Tommy.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48The audience was watching Roger singing Tommy as Tommy -
0:47:48 > 0:47:50it was totally different.
0:47:50 > 0:47:56# And I'm waiting for you to follow me... #
0:47:58 > 0:48:03Roger just became this figure who was at the centre of things. .
0:48:03 > 0:48:05and it changed everything.
0:48:07 > 0:48:12# How can we follow? How can we follow? #
0:48:12 > 0:48:16What we have to accept is that what he's got a following for
0:48:16 > 0:48:17is pretty bloody stupid.
0:48:17 > 0:48:21You know, he's got a following again, it's metaphorical.
0:48:21 > 0:48:25If he's a pinball champion, it's just about as credible
0:48:25 > 0:48:30and valid as somebody, you know having a huge following
0:48:30 > 0:48:35for writing songs about boys that wank over pictures
0:48:35 > 0:48:37and smashing guitars.
0:48:37 > 0:48:40So, you know, it was quite close to home.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42This is about pop culture,
0:48:42 > 0:48:46and the people around him, his pinball fans, see this
0:48:46 > 0:48:50and they kind of go, "Wow, you know, you were deaf, dumb and blind and
0:48:50 > 0:48:55"now you're OK and you can see, and you have this incredible freedom."
0:48:55 > 0:48:57That's what his fans respond to
0:48:57 > 0:49:00and they kind of go, "We want what you've got."
0:49:00 > 0:49:04He has all these followers and they're basically in a holiday camp.
0:49:09 > 0:49:10# Good morning, campers
0:49:10 > 0:49:15# I'm your uncle Ernie and I welcome you to Tommy's holiday camp
0:49:18 > 0:49:21# The camp with a difference Never mind the weather
0:49:21 > 0:49:24# When you come to Tommy's The holiday's forever... #
0:49:28 > 0:49:31The wonderful thing about The Who, of course,
0:49:31 > 0:49:34was that what was a fairly po-faced idea to begin with
0:49:34 > 0:49:35and probably far too...
0:49:37 > 0:49:41..far too serious, really, to have worked for a rock band
0:49:41 > 0:49:42was that, as we worked through it,
0:49:42 > 0:49:44it got lighter and lighter and lighter.
0:49:44 > 0:49:47Keith Moon came up with the idea that, instead of Tommy opening up
0:49:47 > 0:49:51his home for hundreds and hundreds of people,
0:49:51 > 0:49:52that it would be a holiday camp
0:49:52 > 0:49:55# The camp with a difference Never mind the weather
0:49:55 > 0:49:59# When you come to Tommy's The holiday's forever... #
0:50:02 > 0:50:05So it was lighter and funnier and more delightful.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12Tommy finally turns to the people around him
0:50:12 > 0:50:14and says, "Listen, this is really simple.
0:50:14 > 0:50:16# Welcome... #
0:50:16 > 0:50:18You know, "If you really want what I've got,
0:50:18 > 0:50:22"if you want what you THINK I've got, then maybe you should just live
0:50:22 > 0:50:25"the kind of experience that I lived.
0:50:25 > 0:50:28"Pretend to be deaf, dumb and blind, you know,
0:50:28 > 0:50:33"witness a few murders, you know, do what I did.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36"Do as I do and you will end up where I am.
0:50:36 > 0:50:41# Welcome to the camp I guess you all know why we're here
0:50:43 > 0:50:49# My name is Tommy and I became aware this year
0:50:51 > 0:50:56# If you want to follow me You've got to play pinball
0:50:58 > 0:50:59# And put in your earplugs
0:50:59 > 0:51:01# Put on your eye shades
0:51:01 > 0:51:04# You know where to put the cork .. #
0:51:05 > 0:51:08Woodstock was the thing that changed The Who.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12There was something about the gathering of Woodstock
0:51:12 > 0:51:14and the message of Tommy.
0:51:14 > 0:51:18They all put it into this marvellous kind of birth, really,
0:51:18 > 0:51:20of The Who and Tommy in America
0:51:20 > 0:51:24and it made them legends, really, that performance.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27It broke The Who definitely in America.
0:51:27 > 0:51:31I mean, that's when they really became an iconic band.
0:51:31 > 0:51:34If you look at our gig book, we're at 2,000- or 3,000-seaters,
0:51:34 > 0:51:41but it went from that to 120,00O overnight. It was ridiculous.
0:51:41 > 0:51:42It was crazy.
0:51:42 > 0:51:44# We're not gonna take it
0:51:46 > 0:51:47# We're not gonna take it... #
0:51:49 > 0:51:53Suddenly there was money and everything, you know, fame
0:51:53 > 0:51:55and it elevated them completely
0:51:55 > 0:51:57And then that period of my life
0:51:57 > 0:51:59that was a bit difficult to deal with.
0:51:59 > 0:52:01One of the things that I probably knew was that
0:52:01 > 0:52:04if it was as successful as I felt it might be,
0:52:04 > 0:52:10it would challenge the life that my wife and I hoped for.
0:52:10 > 0:52:14It would challenge the life that we were trying to create around us,
0:52:14 > 0:52:19which was a very loving, normal English life.
0:52:21 > 0:52:26And it was very difficult to do that in a band like The Who.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28Nothing became real.
0:52:28 > 0:52:30No-one was... People started treating you...
0:52:30 > 0:52:32It's not you that changes,
0:52:32 > 0:52:34it's the people around you - everybody, you know,
0:52:34 > 0:52:37everyone treats you differently So you go, "What's going on?
0:52:37 > 0:52:40"Cos I haven't changed, I'm still me."
0:52:43 > 0:52:48# We're not gonna take it
0:52:49 > 0:52:52# We're not gonna take it
0:52:53 > 0:52:55# We're not gonna take it
0:52:57 > 0:53:00# We're not gonna take it
0:53:00 > 0:53:03# Never did and never will... #
0:53:03 > 0:53:05I think it's a human thing.
0:53:05 > 0:53:07It's something that people do,
0:53:07 > 0:53:10building our celebrities up and then knocking them down.
0:53:10 > 0:53:13What society does is it takes what the charismatic
0:53:13 > 0:53:18figure in society can give us, and then runs with it and takes it away.
0:53:19 > 0:53:22And this takes the form of a kind of a rebellion,
0:53:22 > 0:53:23and this is what happens to Tommy.
0:53:23 > 0:53:25# See me
0:53:28 > 0:53:30# Feel me... #
0:53:33 > 0:53:39I started my journey as a fan, my journey as somebody who was
0:53:39 > 0:53:44looking to music and celebrity and glamour...
0:53:46 > 0:53:48..for something.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51Where DO you find the answers and how DO you grapple with them?
0:53:51 > 0:53:57And what do you want from artists or gurus or spiritual leaders?
0:53:57 > 0:54:00You know, how much do you need to do yourself?
0:54:00 > 0:54:05Pretty much every great spiritual leader in the history of humankind
0:54:05 > 0:54:09has said, "You know, at the end of the day look within your own heart."
0:54:09 > 0:54:12"The master gravely shook his head
0:54:12 > 0:54:16"and I knew that despite his infinite wisdom, infinite power
0:54:16 > 0:54:20"infinite awareness, that he WOULD not, COULD not tell me where
0:54:20 > 0:54:26"to look or even what to look for. I had to find the answer myself "
0:54:26 > 0:54:27# Listening to you
0:54:27 > 0:54:30# I get the music
0:54:30 > 0:54:32# Gazing at you
0:54:32 > 0:54:34# I get the heat-heat
0:54:34 > 0:54:36# Following you
0:54:36 > 0:54:38# I climb the mountain
0:54:38 > 0:54:42# I get excitement at your feet. . #
0:54:42 > 0:54:43Everybody!
0:54:45 > 0:54:47The prayer at the end is two-fold -
0:54:47 > 0:54:50one, we hear Tommy remembering
0:54:50 > 0:54:53"See me, feel me, touch me, heal me,"
0:54:53 > 0:54:55and then going back on his flight,
0:54:55 > 0:54:57"Listening to you, I get the music,"
0:54:57 > 0:55:00turning towards the universe and praising her.
0:55:00 > 0:55:04But, also, I get the sense, too ..
0:55:05 > 0:55:07..that this is the audience, as well.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10They're also singing "See me, feel me, touch me, heal me."
0:55:10 > 0:55:13They're also connecting with what it is
0:55:13 > 0:55:16that is the real fact of the matter.
0:55:16 > 0:55:18They are a collection of individuals,
0:55:18 > 0:55:21and each individual has to live his own life.
0:55:22 > 0:55:26And each individual has a relationship with the universe.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29And so the end of Tommy is about that, you know?
0:55:29 > 0:55:33And I think, without having read what Meher Baba said -
0:55:33 > 0:55:36you know, you have to lose yourself in order to find God,
0:55:36 > 0:55:39and you have to lose yourself in order to find your true self -
0:55:39 > 0:55:41I don't think I could have hit on it.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44You could never wish for a better ending to an album
0:55:44 > 0:55:46And it's about you -
0:55:46 > 0:55:49and you, as a listener,
0:55:49 > 0:55:52feel engaged and touched and moved.
0:55:52 > 0:55:57And I think that's what Tommy did for The Who more than anything
0:55:57 > 0:55:59It picked our audience up from being...
0:56:01 > 0:56:05...a pop band-loving audience,
0:56:05 > 0:56:07and moved them into being,
0:56:07 > 0:56:12"wow, this is more than that, there's something else going on here."
0:56:13 > 0:56:15# Listening to you
0:56:15 > 0:56:17# I get the music
0:56:17 > 0:56:19# Gazing at you
0:56:19 > 0:56:21# I get the heat-heat
0:56:21 > 0:56:22# Following you... #
0:56:24 > 0:56:27We always had an idea that Tommy was going to mean something.
0:56:27 > 0:56:29You know, we liked the album
0:56:29 > 0:56:33and we knew it was going to be...kind of important.
0:56:33 > 0:56:36People can find more and more meanings in it,
0:56:36 > 0:56:37and more and more levels of stuff
0:56:37 > 0:56:39as they hear it again and again and again.
0:56:39 > 0:56:41You listen to Tommy now and it moves you,
0:56:41 > 0:56:44and it moves you because the things he's writing about
0:56:44 > 0:56:47are absolutely eternal.
0:56:47 > 0:56:51He was, without question, a pioneer,
0:56:51 > 0:56:56and I would say this is a quintessentially important creation.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59There was a feeling that it was actually something that would last.
0:56:59 > 0:57:01It's true, I think we had shifted.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05At that point, the centre of gravity had moved from popular culture
0:57:05 > 0:57:07from something that was just throw-away
0:57:07 > 0:57:12to something that really started to mean something and had purpose.
0:57:12 > 0:57:15The pre-Tommy Who, the '60s Who
0:57:15 > 0:57:20were a great gimmicky, clever, intelligent pop band.
0:57:20 > 0:57:26Post-Tommy, The Who were heavy, serious rock,
0:57:26 > 0:57:28up there amongst the top three
0:57:28 > 0:57:31Afterwards, for a period, probably the top rock band in the world
0:57:31 > 0:57:35Pete's music will be performed as the new classical music,
0:57:35 > 0:57:39cos it's, in some ways, classically structured,
0:57:39 > 0:57:41and, lyric-wise and emotional-wise,
0:57:41 > 0:57:44they're timeless, and they always will be.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55It does appear to be the only topic of conversation
0:57:55 > 0:57:59that we've had for the past three years, erm..
0:57:59 > 0:58:02so I'm fed up with talking about it,
0:58:02 > 0:58:04I'm certainly not fed up with playing it.
0:58:04 > 0:58:07As Bob Dylan so eloquently said when he came to see Tommy
0:58:07 > 0:58:10for the first time at the Filmore,
0:58:10 > 0:58:12"I've got another appointment.
0:58:17 > 0:58:19But Leonard Bernstein got me by the shoulders
0:58:19 > 0:58:22and said, "Do you realise what you've done?!"
0:58:25 > 0:58:28So, somewhere along the line, I don't know.
0:58:29 > 0:58:31# You feel me coming
0:58:32 > 0:58:34# A new vibration
0:58:36 > 0:58:38# From afar you'll see me
0:58:39 > 0:58:46# I'm a sensation, I'm a sensation
0:58:47 > 0:58:51# They worship me and all I touch
0:58:51 > 0:58:55# Hazy-eyed, they catch my glance... #
0:58:55 > 0:58:58Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd