Deaf, Dumb & Blind: Sensory Details

Per their usual protocol, one of The Who’s main goals behind creating the arrangements and performances of Tommy involved audience participation. But unlike songs from their repertoire like “I Can’t Explain” (1964), “Magic Bus” (1968), and “You Better You Bet” (1981)[1] which bore call-and-response arrangements, Tommy’s tunes required greater in-depth listening from the audience—causing all members to drop everything and pay 100% attention to the music played and lyrics sung, visually and audibly. Much like the high one gets from listening to any of The Who’s music, in doing so for Tommy in full, listeners would have out-of-body experiences[2] from the overwhelmingly picturesque sea of music surrounding their senses, therefore [theoretically] becoming deaf, dumb, and blind themselves!!!!!!

As a Who devout, I can personally vouch for this philosophy wholeheartedly. Should you expose your ears to the band’s quadraphonic (four-speaker stereo) studio album recording of the Rock Opera, in which feedback drawn from the original members’ instruments (vocal, percussive, and melodic) creates a wall of sound that causes all musical notes to bounce off each other, leaving the listener entranced; or if you desire to partake in the many live recordings of Tommy[3]; maybe you wish to indulge in the enriching London symphonic-orchestral version of the Rock Opera from 1972; or the colorfully atmospheric Broadway Musical rendition from 1993; all alternatives of which provide the listener with the opportunity to have their systems reinvigorated thanks to the empowerment of the musical selections from beginning to end. Regardless of your choice of experience, the electrifying Rock Opera removes all prior thoughts, worries, even [temporarily] altering the basic functioning of human bodily systems upon giving it a proper listen.

As the Tommy movie eloquently advertised itself in 1975: Your senses will never be the same! In this case scenario, the powerful visual stimulants accompanying the revised recordings of the original songs—in turn devising a 100% musical script with no straight dialogue between any characters at any time in the “performance”—takes viewers on a hurricane whirlwind of a sensory intake that can leave you numb inside from the blunt characters and events appearing simultaneously.[4] Should those results occur, then you yourself have officially become Tommy himself![5]

Tommy’s sense of sight, hearing, and thought become immediately removed from his system following the inexcusable parental escapade in “1921”,and he begins his “Amazing Journey” through life as a deaf, dumb, and blind boy. Of all the sensorial musical numbers belonging to the original 24-piece Rock Opera that underwent revision for the distinguished renditions of the work, “Amazing Journey” received the most significant lyrical variations.

For the movie: by completely eliminating the original first two verses from recitation, composer-guitarist-vocalist-actor-musical director Pete Townshend put a different spin on the song upon inserting a new verse at the beginning and moving the fifth verse up to the second stanza, subsequently entirely changing the narrative of this signature tune from first- to third-person. Following that noticeable introductory alteration came a series of random rewordings of vocabulary initially used in the original verses:

Verse 1, original and live Tommy albums

“Deaf, dumb, and blind boy/He’s in a quiet vibration land/Strange as it seems, his musical dreams/Ain’t quite so bad”

Verse 1, Tommy Movie:

“Now he is deaf/Now he is dumb/Now he is blind/The guilty are safe/But always accused by his empty eyes”[6]

In the Tommy Broadway Musical, along with a lyrical change in age from ten to four years old in the second verse[7], during the introduction to “Amazing Journey”, Tommy’s mother—aware that her son has just witnessed a traumatic event in the murder of his mother’s lover by his biological father upon returning home from World War II—recites the following monologue to her static son, pausing between lines due to her son’s lackluster body language indicating an absence of responsive movements and signals, to encourage internal tranquility:

Tommy, everything is going to be alright. Do you understand?

…

You needn’t be afraid, love. Tommy, do you hear me?

…

Tommy, do you understand Mummy?[8]

…

Tommy! … Tommy!

Further into the song, the fourth verse was originally penned as follows:

“A vague haze of delirium creeps up on me/All at once a tall stranger I suddenly see/He’s dressed in a silver sparkled glittering gown/And his golden beard flows nearly down to the ground.”

But for the movie, said verse bore the following lyrical updates:

“A vague haze of delirium creeps up on him/Soaring and flying images spin/He is your leader, he is your guide/On the amazing journey/Together you’ll ride”.

Subsequently, in the Broadway musical, the wording of: “creeps up on him” converted to “seeps in his mind”; “blind” (from the movie take) soon expanded to “spin” therein; with the remainder of the verse retaining the revised lyrics for the movie version of the song, albeit rewritten in the first-person tense.

The reverse shift in written-tense occurred very briefly (and almost inaudibly) in the fifth verse, when “my symphony” became “HIS symphony”. Way to refer to oneself in the third-person the second time around!

Last of all, although the sixth and final verse originally bore the following utterance…:

“His eyes are the eyes thattransmit all they know/Sparkle warm crystalline glances to show/That he is your leader/And he is your guide/On the amazing journey/Together you’ll ride.”

…The Tommy movie had something rather different in mind:

“His eyes are the eyes thattransmit all they know/The Truth burns so bright it can melt winter snow/A towering shadow so black and so high/A white sun burning the earth and the sky”

And for the Broadway Musical, “shadow” became “figure”, as “black” switched

to “brilliant”. Brilliant!

Following the deaf, dumb, and blind boy almost every step of the way since his fate became instigated in the electrifying year and musical selection, “1921”, ultimately bowing out from audio production once Tommy’s mirror image collapses and his senses become restored in “Smash The Mirror”, the striking instrumental entitled “Sparks” serves as a key underlying musical-sensorial theme in the entire Rock Opera of Tommy. Segueing immediately after “Amazing Journey” in medley style on all Tommy studio albums and during live concert performances, “Sparks” is essentially divided into two instrumental halves—both of which musically depict the Rock Opera titular character’s perspective on life, relieving Tommy Walker of eternal senselessness.

The first half—immediately following the lyrical closure to “Amazing Journey”, almost making the song a medley with no pause whatsoever in between musical shifts—features a danceable combination of Funk and Rock music styling, placing great emphasis on John Entwistle’s trademark electric bass playing in the original 1969 studio recording, expanding to Pete Townshend’s power chords on electric guitar during live concerts.[9] Given the descriptive telling of the internal musical stimulations and visions developed within Tommy’s newfound deaf, dumb, and blind ten-year-old brain throughout the preceding tune, the scintillating instrumental performance of “Sparks” essentially simulates the said inner encapsulations and hallucinations of the lead character in the Rock Opera through musical notes—thereby making up the show in show-and-tell, in terms of the encapsulating imagery and audio files.

As for the second half of this stirring, thematic instrumental, the resonating colorful chord patterns on electric guitar combined with the splintering snare drums and blaring cymbals—all instruments topped off by the ear-piecing electronics exploding from the onstage amplifiers (almost to the point of lighting flaming sparks in the flesh) do the composition’s title justice in terms of creating an authentic musical aura of actual sparks—acutely resembling those spreading from fireworks. Bearing a more syncopated arrangement than the catchy groove of the introduction, the second section of “Sparks” thoroughly simulates symptoms of the mental breakdown Tommy experiences upon becoming deaf, dumb, and blind at the end of the plot-setting musical number, “1921”, preceding “Amazing Journey”. Complete with episodic seizures, loss of mind control, leading to an overall internal collapse, Tommy’s character has now become a basket case (for the time being). As he fades into unconsciousness, symbolized by the slowing music in the instrumental’s Coda—closing with the same chords that opened “Amazing Journey”—the instrumental calmly concludes, leading to a pause before the commencement of the next song, and chapter in the opera—“Eyesight To The Blind (The Hawker)”.

When it comes to the Tommy movie, “Sparks” takes on a whole new identity. Unusually distanced (by six songs) from its fatherly “Amazing Journey” (that tune being significantly lyrically reconfigured in and of itself), the ear-perking first half of the instrumental gets entirely eliminated from the production—cutting right to the more sparkling compositional elements that appear more frequently throughout numerous musical selections belonging to the Rock Opera as a whole. In the movie, “Sparks” appeared right after Tommy (played by Who lead singer Roger Daltrey) has been seduced by his wretched Uncle Ernie (played by original Who drummer Keith Moon), in “Fiddle About”[10](written by founding Who bassist John Entwistle). At this point, Tommy’s parents still have not learned to better care for their fragile son, after back-to-back horrific encounters with his two abusive older extended family members, before each of which, Tommy’s mother temporarily reconsidered leaving her dear son in human harm’s way TWICE—in a double take of “Do You Think It’s Alright?”, sung between “Cousin Kevin” and “Fiddle About”—so that she and her husband could have a fun night out and about partying and focusing entirely on each other without having to tend to their naturally needy son. Upon her and Uncle Frank’s arrival home from a long (and presumably enjoyable) evening out on the town, Tommy’s mother once again questions her son’s safety via the final chant of “Do You Think It’s Alright?”—containing lyrics reflecting Tommy’s physical presence near the mirror placed before him in his home. Receiving a drunkenly sound confirmation from her lover, Uncle Frank, the couple elect to leave Tommy alone for a third time. But this time, a different outcome occurs!

Tommy has now gotten hold of the caricatured mirror which profoundly alters the main character’s perception of himself and everybody else around him—the instrumental serves as the musical background to a hallucinogenic scenario in which Tommy’s multiple beings travel through the mirror and drop out of thin air directly into a junkyard filled with cars, household appliances such as stoves, dishwashers, washers and dryers, and other random metallic objects strewn about. Once landed, Daltrey performs an improvised skit containing shades of Harpo Marx[11]—in which a still deaf, dumb, and blind Tommy stumbles around the junk yard, banging his head on sharp pieces of metal, tripping over uneven surfaces unintended for walking (let alone standing) upon, all in a dreamy situation. The pinnacle of this scene (and the instrumental backing it) occurs when, at the very end, Tommy gets hold of a defunct pinball machine propped up on a stack of old car hoods. Solely using his sense of touch, Tommy begins fiddling around with the gizmo[12], before briefly being captured by a couple of coppers[13] who receive a report from Tommy’s mother and Uncle Frank that their son/“nephew” is missing. Tommy’s mother comes to her son’s rescue at the junkyard itself, while the businessman in Uncle Frank (in reflection of his [former] ownership of Bernie’s Holiday Camp at the beginning of the movie, when he meets Tommy and his mother for the first time) observes Tommy’s newfound talent at pinball—evidenced by his mastery of the pinball machine discovered in the junkyard—and gets an idea for Tommy’s next endeavor at a lifelong cure. Upon the light bulb turning on in Uncle Frank’s head (in accordance with the ones lighting up on the pinball machine beside him), the scene and music fade into the ensuing extravaganza, “Pinball Wizard”[14].

18 years following the pioneering “Sparks” instrumental-cinematic scene, the 1993 Tommy Broadway Musical unveiled an intriguing series of entirely new onstage performances of the “Sparks” composition—involving integrating sections thereof to other songs from Tommy previously free of sparkling overtones, choreographic displays, AND background character dialogue! Like regular live Who shows, and the original studio album, the Broadway Musical version of “Sparks” is split into two semi-equal instrumental parts. As usual, the groovier, hip-shaking opening segues from “Amazing Journey” to the upcoming syncopated components of the latter, lengthier section of the detailed instrumental. Yet, the audio portion shares the spotlight with a dramatized scene taking place in an English Courtroom in the year 1945—involving Tommy’s father, Captain Walker, being accused of committing homicide unto his wife’s lover whom he found in bed with her upon their confrontation in the poignant song, “1921”, marking the momentous occasion in which Tommy’s deafness, blindness, and dumbness suddenly evolve upon him being threatened by his parents to keep the described love affair and corresponding murder of the lover by the father a secret forever. Given the dark, minor, yet ultimately catchy, key of the instrumental’s introduction, its inclusion in the courtroom scene sets the perfect suspenseful mood for the court’s finding Captain Walker innocent of his accused crime. However, a shadow of guilt is cast over the subsequent festivities by young Tommy, whose senseless being remains motionless upon his father’s dismissal from Court. Knowing that his father has betrayed his son gives Tommy every reason in the world NOT to forgive his paternal relative. His disdain appears clear as a bell before the befuddled barristers (and Tommy’s own mother to boot) in the courtroom scene.

Once Court is adjourned and the introductory instrumental to “Sparks” concludes, Tommy immediately gets taken to a chamber where a series of medical tests are conducted on the young lad by a young doctor who delivers some somber news by shaking his head as Tommy’s parents anxiously approach him—all backed by the more melodic, scattered “Sparks” theme. Following the doctor’s revealing the results of the unsuccessful tests, Tommy and his parents exit the staged hospital and prepare for Christmas—colored by the familiar titular tune from the Rock Opera, albeit preceded by a rare, transitional reprise of “Amazing Journey” with fewer lyrics and a shorter, faster musical arrangement.

Ironically, the companion “Sparks” instrumental to “Amazing Journey” receives a rare reprise of its own—albeit separated from its older sibling by seven songs down the line. After making a unique 41-second synthesized special-guest appearance in the introduction to-, followed by a 35-second cameo in the bridge of the significantly revised Broadway version of the Tommy tune, “Sensation”, “Sparks” takes on an entirely new musical symbol through the acquisition of a cymbal, drum, and bell by a pair of psychiatrists who use Tommy as their human lab rat during the ensuing onstage scene of sorts. Upon being prodded by the medical workers to try his hand at each percussion instrument in an attempt to test his motor skills and help develop his sense of sound, Tommy responds with such lackluster effort (as exemplified by the percussive sound effects of each identified instrument sampled on “Sparks Reprise” belonging to the Broadway Musical recording) that both his parents and the psychiatrists give up on the examination, in conjunction with the coda of the Reprise and progression unto the traditionally aligned “Eyesight To The Blind (The Hawker)”.

However, ”Sparks” would fly through the air for one more round of musical fireworks in the Tommy Broadway Musical—in this instance, reflecting the shattered mirror glass upon Tommy’s mother committing the cruel-but-necessary act of breaking the mirror through which her seemingly hopeless son constantly gazes at himself after regularly playing a great game of self-satisfyingly victorious pinball, in the 53-second coda to “Smash The Mirror”. Fortunately for all, the broken mirror brings a life filled with good luck from that point forward, as Tommy becomes relieved of his deaf, dumb, and blind hindrance and begins to shout out to the world for the very first time in the entire Rock Opera, his message- and newfound heavenly feeling of eternal internal and external sensorial freedom via the accompanying tune, “I’m Free”—to which “Sparks” segues via the final strumming of the opening chords to “Amazing Journey”, the last note of which slowly introducesthe ensuing song of freedom. With that, Tommy’s senses have come full circle—having been traced from one moment to the next via this sparkling landmark instrumental.