Lately I’ve been rather consumed (even more so than usual…..) with a piece of music that changed my life: ‘Tommy’ by The Who.
This consumption has been provoked by (finally) getting an opportunity to play it live, and in its entirety – with a sterling bunch of fellow Who fans, in our band: ‘The Substitutes’.
It’s actually harder to play than expected, much harder than it is to listen to (- so often the case!): to remember the length of bars, the structure, the changes…… it’s getting there though; and it’s definitely getting me fitter in the process: trying to play like Keith Moon for hours at a time is unquestionably, a workout.
I suppose I could sit back, and coast – but that’s never been my musical nature, I never learnt the art of compromise in playing music, not in drumming. It’s an anathema in rock music anyway, coasting, and most decidedly when playing the Who – the ‘all or nothing’ rule applies; if no passion, no point – and there’s scope for performing with a passion totally unfettered when playing ‘Tommy’.
It’s seriously powerful stuff………musically, emotionally, and personally …..
Something about the central themes of ‘Tommy’ resonated from the very first time of hearing it – the ‘inner search’, the isolation from others, the appeal for understanding, the revelation of vulnerability, the desire to connect, the discovery of unquestionable truth….. I could never have predicted that such themes should become a tangible reality in my own life.
The premise of the narrative for those that don’t know, is that a child is traumatised, and as such becomes emotionally distanced from real life, manifested physically by becoming (apparently) deaf, dumb and blind – but ‘his eyes can see, his ears can hear, his lips, speak’, there is in fact no actual loss of sensory capability, there is only withdrawal – until such time as an act of rage shatters the illusion; the mirror is broken provoking, dramatically, a sudden release and re-birth….but then folly ensues. Though well meaning, misguided appropriation of the newly found knowledge, as means to enlighten others, leads to dissent, revolution – and ultimately, redemption: from the ruination comes a re-affirmation of the core truth…..
Your fairly typical late 60’s pop album then….we’ll, maybe not. It’s hardly a lightweight in its overarching thematic aspirations – and delves into topics that would most likely be stalled contemporarily, of abuse, physically and psychologically ….but what I now find so remarkable, is how accurately trauma is portrayed. I could never have appreciated this accuracy had trauma not featured so recently in my life …. it’s capacity to isolate, and to disable sense and reason.
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I know in the year succeeding Christopher’s death I walked and talked, slept and ate, went to work and applied myself; I functioned basically – but I have virtually no recollection of any of this …. this period of time is all a blur. What I can remember are only snapshots, surreal and fleeting memories as if from a dream. I have no sense of hearing, seeing, or feeling, other than a crippling sense of compression and distance.
Tommys release from such a state is effected by a deliberate and enforced act … my shifts of comprehension have been effected much less dramatically, my mirrors smashed as of in slow motion – but the realisation of more profound truths no less of an epiphany, the re-birthing, as astounding and total….and the subsequent search for meaning, so prevalent at the albums centre, undeniably paralleled.
I can only be grateful to the author – to have scribed such a piece of work; but more so, to have presented so openly, what are obviously deeply, deeply felt concerns, and feelings which are in fact staggeringly raw – and seem ever more so now, witnessed as they are through eyes and ears subjected since to the worst of life circumstance.
Such it seems to me, is the value of words…. and put to such music…. but words, more than anything, derived and arranged so as to reveal, and by doing so, explain the inexplicable….and thereby, comfort. If we none of us shared, our isolation would be both enhanced and consolidated – and as mentioned previously, isolation is the last thing I need, (especially not if effected by duress…. as it was, with Tommy.)
I’m tempted therefore to cite ‘1921’ as the song for the week, in acknowledgement of the undue and negative influence of others….but I think not. Going to go with ‘I Can’t Explain’, by The Who of course ….. where it all began.
The Substitutes set starts with this song …..we’re described as a tribute act, but it’s definitely no act…..
Love to all,
Mx