The Bottom Line
Pros
- Entertaining presentation of live rock concert by about 20 musical performers
- Emphasizes musical performance and captures a bit of the feeling of a live concert
- Provides excellent commentary by two members of The Who, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend
Cons
- Not particularly visual since not a movie
- Not particularly dramatic since not a filmed version of a stage opera
- Except for the commentary, DVD provides no extras of any consequence
Description
- DVD containing live concert performance by The Who of 1969 rock "opera" Tommy
- Songs include "Pinball Wizard," "I'm Free" and "Listening to You"
- "Guest" performers are Elton John, Patti LaBelle, Phil Collins, Billy Idol and Steve Winwood
- Concert took place in 1989 at Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles
- DVD provides feature-length commentary by lead singer Roger Daltrey and composer Pete Townshend
- DVD contains montage of stills running about two-and-a-half minutes
- Run time of feature performance: 1 hour 2 minutes
- DVD release date: June 6, 2006
Guide Review - The Who — Tommy Live DVD Review
This DVD contains a live concert performance by The Who (Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle) of a cycle of songs based on a sketchy narrative. Collectively, the cycle is called Tommy, billed as a rock opera, but here performed as a rock cantata. The Who are the principal singers on most numbers, but there are songs spotlighting "guest" artists Elton John, Patti LaBelle, Phil Collins, Billy Idol and Steve Winwood. The principals are backed by nine instrumentalists and three vocalists.
The narrative in Tommy centers around a boy who has a traumatic experience and shuts down, seemingly deaf, dumb and blind. However, he later recovers and becomes a messianic figure. But Tommy is really all about the music, with the best-known song being "Pinball Wizard," performed here by Elton John.
I thoroughly enjoyed both the concert portion of the DVD and the so-called visual commentary. The visual commentary used an interesting method, which was to superimpose video of Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend on top of the concert footage. Townshend—who composed nearly all the songs for Tommy—is a man of unusual intelligence and depth, which was reflected in the commentary. It gave me a deeper understanding of the work, which I had only seen previously before in Ken Russell's 1975 movie version. Although some might consider Tommy to be a period piece, I highly recommend this concert DVD.
