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The Who - Tommy   

Tommy is the fourth album by the English rock band The Who, released by Track and Polydor in the United Kingdom and Decca and MCA in the United States. A double album telling a loose story about a "deaf, dumb, and blind boy" who becomes the leader of a messianic movement, Tommy was the first musical work to be billed overtly as a rock opera. Released in 1969, the album was mostly composed by guitarist Pete Townshend. In 1998 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame for "historical, artistic and significant" value.

Tommy was originally released as a two-LP set with a booklet including lyrics and images to illustrate parts of the story. The cover is presented as part of a triptych-style fold-out cover. All three of the outer panels of the triptych are spanned by a single pop art painting by Mike McInnerney. The drawing is a sphere with diamond-shaped cutouts and an overlay of clouds and seagulls rendered with a figure-ground ambiguity similar to that in the work of M. C. Escher. To one side a star-spangled hand bursts from the dark background, index finger pointing forward. (The image above only shows the central panel of the triptych.) The label's executives insisted on having a picture of the band on the cover, so, small, barely recognisable images of the band members' faces were inserted into the gaps in the sphere, each with an outstretched hand like a groping Tommy Walker.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 96 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album was ranked number 90 on VH1's 100 Greatest Albums of Rock & Roll and appears in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. NME named it the 16th on "NME Writers All Time Top 100" in 1974. Q ranked it 9th on their list of "The Music That Changed The World: Part One 1954-1969" in 2004.

Tracks

  • A1)   Overture
  • A2)   It's A Boy
  • A3)   1921
  • A4)   Amazing Journey
  • A5)   Sparks
  • A6)   Eyesight To The Blind (The Hawker)
  • B1)   Christmas
  • B2)   Cousin Kevin
  • B3)   The Acid Queen
  • B4)   Underture
  • C1)   Do You Think It's Alright?
  • C2)   Fiddle About
  • C3)   Pinball Wizard
  • C4)   There's A Doctor
  • C5)   Go To The Mirror!
  • C6)   Tommy Can You Hear Me?
  • C7)   Smash The Mirror
  • C8)   Sensation
  • D1)   Miracle Cure
  • D2)   Sally Simpson
  • D3)   I'm Free
  • D4)   Welcome
  • D5)   Tommy's Holiday Camp
  • D6)   We're Not Gonna Take It

Track listing above is from 1969-Jan-01 | UK | Track Record - 613013/4 LP

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