SACD The Who – Tommy

Tommy as a hybrid stereo SACD from Analogue Productions: The Who’s 1969 concept album, mastered direct to DSD from original analogue sources. All 24 tracks play in one continuous sequence – from the “Overture” to “We’re Not Gonna Take It”.

A story that grows out of a band

With Tommy, it is worth starting well before “Pinball Wizard”. The “Overture” introduces musical ideas that will return, while brief connecting scenes and longer instrumental passages turn separate songs into one continuous experience. A phrase that first seems incidental can gain real weight when it comes back – and when the album plays straight through, you can follow every one of those returns.

The story of a boy cut off from his surroundings, who becomes a focus for other people’s desires, is far more than an excuse for big choruses. Intimacy, dependence and a longing for release sit beside grotesque, unsettling episodes – the music can be beautiful without making the story comfortable. If you mainly know Tommy from its triumphant concert moments, the studio album has something more fragile and more gripping in store.

London, 1968–69

Recorded largely at London’s IBC Studios between September 1968 and March 1969, Tommy was produced by Kit Lambert and released in Britain on 23 May 1969. This is the original studio recording, not the later film soundtrack with its guest performers: here the story grows out of The Who’s own sound and relationships.

The songwriting credits show that collaboration beautifully. Alongside Pete Townshend’s central contribution are John Entwistle’s “Cousin Kevin” and “Fiddle About”, Keith Moon’s “Tommy’s Holiday Camp” and Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Eyesight to the Blind” – some of the shortest, strangest scenes keep the album from settling into a single solemn mood.

One exact studio date inside the larger story

“Pinball Wizard” has a particularly precise history: The Who date the session to 7 February 1969 at Morgan Studios rather than IBC. The single appeared in March, before the full album followed in May, so listeners could meet the character before hearing the whole story.

Tommy contains 24 tracks, but they are not 24 identical pop songs: an overture, brief scenes, returning material and the longer “Underture” all play different roles, and an instrumental idea can take on new meaning when it returns. Michael McInnerney’s cover paintings belong to the original 1969 album world, too. And “We’re Not Gonna Take It” lands with full force when the whole journey comes before it.

The hybrid stereo SACD from Analogue Productions

CAPP 252 SA is a hybrid stereo SACD from Analogue Productions. According to the publisher, it was mastered direct to DSD from original analogue sources. The SACD layer plays on SACD-capable players, the CD layer on any conventional CD player. The disc contains all 24 tracks of the original album, from the “Overture” to “We’re Not Gonna Take It”.

You order from Michael 45 in Germany. We arrange the US import and ship from Hilden.

Also in another edition: Tommy

More SACDs by The Who: Live At Leeds · My Generation

Artist page: All titles by The Who

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Musicians

Documented selection of participating musicians. Personnel may vary by track; this list does not claim to be complete.

• Roger DaltreyHarmonica, Vocals
• Pete TownshendAcoustic guitar, Electric guitar, Keyboards, Vocals, Banjo
• John EntwistleElectric bass, French horn, Flugelhorn, Trumpet, Vocals
• Keith MoonTambourine, Timpani, Vocals, Drums