"In fact, what I was out to show is that someone who has suffered terribly at the hands of society has the ability to turn all these experiences into a tremendous musical awareness. "The kid is having terrible things done to him, because that's life as it is," he said. When the "sick" charge began affecting record sales, Townshend responded. DJ Tony Blackburn and others labeled it "sick" and banned it briefly. The opening strumming chords are a recurring musical theme on the album.Įarlier Who songs "Rael" and "Glow Girl" contained early variations of Tommy themes.Īt the time, the BBC misinterpreted the song as a mocking of handicapped people. It's about a deaf, dumb and blind boy who magically becomes a pinball star and impresses local kids in London. The album's storyline is famously convoluted, but "Pinball Wizard" is easy to follow. Stewart has also included versions on My Favourite Songs, Sing it Again, Rod, and Storyteller. Rod Stewart performed the song with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Choir in 1973. His version is also included on his albums Caribou, Greatest Hits Vol.
#WHO WROTE PINBALL WIZARD MOVIE#
But they don't."Įlton John performed the song in the 1975 movie and on the soundtrack. People could also be divine if they would listen to him. He starts off being nothing and ends up being something - divine. Townshend said, "We made Tommy deaf, dumb and blind so we could give him in the opera everything he hadn't. When miraculously cured, he subjects his disciples to the same entombment he endured, luring them to a camp where they are ordered to practice pinball wearing dark glasses and earplugs. Goldman's summary of "Pinball Wizard" and its context in the rock opera: "Preserving only his sense of touch (the chief inlet of soul in this age?), Tommy triumphs by becoming a pinball wizard, the idol of a youth cult. The late Albert Goldman, later vilified for writing controversial biographies about Elvis Presley and John Lennon, wrote in Life magazine in 1969: "Considered as music, Tommy is magnificent, the final crystallization of the hard-rock style in an art as dry, hard, lucid, as unashamedly conventional and finely impersonal as the music of the most severe classicist." Some critics scoffed, but most were enthusiastic. Tommy, still the Who's best-known work, was singer-guitarist Pete Townshend's attempt at fusing rock-and-roll with more serious, established musical culture. "Pinball Wizard" was the first single from the rock opera Tommy.
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