I’ve gotta admit that when this was sent to me in the mail I let out a soft groan, as I quietly thought to myself, “This is territory that Townshend and company have traveled upon far too many times already! Enough, already! Relegate it to the past…and leave it there!”
With that thought in the front of my mind, I popped this disc into my machine. 90 minutes later I sat there still in awe of the sheer quality in both audio and visual, and still grinning from the plethora of genuinely entertaining interviews presented here.
Virtually everyone who had anything even remotely connected to the making of this seminal recording is presented here in interviews that both astounded and surprised me. I found Roger Daltrey’s comments to be especially insightful.
Even when my associate interviewed Daltrey ad nauseum about Tommy-and its aftermath-a few years ago, there was no mention by Daltrey about life for himself and his bandmates being “harder” as a result of its success. However, Daltrey makes it quite clear on this documentary that life was certainly no bed of roses for the band after the overwhelming rush of big bucks and bigger stadiums that Tommy unleashed in its stupendous, worldwide success.
The bonus material-eight songs from “Tommy” and some 1969 interview segments from the iconic German TV pop/rock show “Beat Club”-is nice, but IMHO adds nothing new or of particular interest for most Who fans to feast upon. Buy this for the comprehensive and fascinating interviews all of which, with the exception of the long-winded, almost boorish music critic Anthony Decurtis, are a sheer delight.
