The meaning behind the album; pinball is Tommy's autisic gift... (Tommy - The Who)

Member Name: carnabychick

Product:	Tommy - The Who
Date:	08/06/02 (1215 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Helps to understand the issue of autism., Well tackled by a young Pete Townsend

Disadvantages: Few realise what Tommy's actually about

'Pinball wizard, yeah great rock song, Elton John covered that too' The pinball wizard is more than that. Tommy IS the pinball wizard, the unfortunate boy whose tale is told from birth to manhood...

The Who unearthed the taboo subject of autism in 1969 - a time when few knew about it and other rock bands merely hinted at social issues. Mr Townsend at the age of 23 tackled the subject extremely well. It gets my goat that people who hear Tommy including some here still haven't mentioned it's direct link with autism.

There are various forms of autism. Male babies are more prone to autism than girls, which is a life long disability. Autistic people like routines - i.e they like to have their dinner at a certain time, are repetitive, ask the same questions over again or perhaps want to watch the same film many times. Autistic people are usually very gifted. This talent could involve being a great painter or a mathematician. For example my brother who's autistic can immediately tell you what the day will be on 26 May next year. Autistic people are not physically disfigured therefore little sympathy is shown when they unintentionally show their symptoms in public.

Tommy is the typcial autistic person - 'that deaf, dumb and blind' kid. He is male and his gift or talent is that he is thee pinball wizard. He is ignored by his mother and sexually abused by his 'wicked uncle Ernie'. He is taken advantage of by the gipsy in the 'Gipsy and acid queen' song. 'Tommy doesn't know what day it is' shows he doesn't know it's Christmas day and nobody has bothered to explain it to him. His cousin is also unsympathetic and takes to bullying Tommy.

Tommy gets his just deserts towards the end, he denounces his 'wicked uncle Ernie' for starters, mentioning he will never hurt him again. Tommy has thus developed into a mentally strong man despite his unfortunate boyhood.

Li
sten to the album extremely carefully, each song, each verse and each word to fully realise this is the tale of an autistic boy aswell as a fantastic rock opera. Listen...

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