The Who: Tommy Deluxe Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		0.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

The Who: Tommy Deluxe Blu-ray Movie Review

See him, feel him.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 25, 2013

Oh, if only I had been just a little bit more aware. I was actually a kid living in Seattle in 1971 when Tommy received its first fully staged production by Seattle Opera with none other than Bette Midler as The Acid Queen. I’m sure my parents wouldn’t have consented to have taken me in any case, so perhaps that lets me off the hook, at least a little. It actually wasn’t until several years later that I really became aware of Tommy, and even then it wasn’t in the original Who incarnation. My sister was running a service club on a U.S. Army base in Germany and she had come across the European album (as in long playing records) release of the London Symphony version with an all star cast, and she mailed it to me. I was instantly transfixed not just by the music but frankly by the “deluxe” packaging, replete with a really cool illustrated booklet full of illustrations that looked like they could have been drawn by one of The Acid Queen’s customers. I probably didn’t settle down to listening to the Who’s original version of Tommy until several years after that, and then only after I had fallen head over heels in love with Quadrophenia. The London Symphony version of Tommy now sounds slightly bloated to my aging ears, for there’s a spare, visceral quality to The Who’s original version of this now iconic piece that is hard to describe, but which is instantly recognizable once it’s been experienced. Tommy of course went on to further fame as the 1975 film directed by Ken Russell, but even that version can sound pallid when compared to the original. That original has itself been re-released several times over the ensuing decades, including an SACD released about a decade ago with repurposed 5.1 sound. Now comes a so-called “super deluxe” set that resembles the enjoyable (but rather pricey) “Immersion Editions” of Pink Floyd’s Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon and Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here.

It may be reading too much into Pete Townshend’s conception of Tommy, but The Who, who had after all risen to fame with an anthem dedicated to their g-g-generation, might be seen as rather prescient prognosticators of modern youth cut off from human contact, isolated within the bounds of electronic devices. There’s probably no denying that Tommy is not really a plot driven musical (or rock opera or whatever you want to call it), and instead Townshend and his cohorts offer a bare outline of a structure onto which they were able to graft a series of rather remarkable songs. (In this respect, Quadrophenia is a massive step forward, offering both a more coherent, even “traditional”, plot while continuing the band’s always distinctive songcraft.)

Townshend is actually on record stating that he always saw Tommy as a saga of enlightenment, but it’s fascinating to realize that at the time of the original album’s release, many programming directors outright refused to play any cuts off the album due to what was assumed to be prurient content (including the none too subtle references to child abuse). Tommy probably seems a good deal more tame to those who have weathered the punk and grunge movements, but in its day, it was an amazingly powerful piece, and there’s no denying that much (if not quite all) of that power continues to communicate forcefully even today. The story may be a bit haphazard, and may in fact ultimately not make a whole lot of sense, but there is an immediacy to the music that speaks volumes.

The Who: Tommy Deluxe Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Aside from a static menu, there is no video content on this disc.

The Who: Tommy Deluxe Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tommy's audio Blu-ray presentation features both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 mixes. Both are 96/24 and both showed rather healthy bitrates (well over 8Mbps on the 5.1 mix at times). The clarity of the 5.1 mix is one of its most salient features, but as with the 5.1 repurposing that Townshend oversaw a few years ago, there's some smart directionality that actually helps to clarify some of the more crowded elements. A notable example is in "1921", when Tommy is heard protesting "I saw it", etc., while the "You didn't see it", etc., is being sung at the same time. In previous versions, the voices tended to be a jumble, but things are quite clear now due to increased separation. Another major plus is the crispness of the guitar work, especially in what has become one of the defining motifs of the score, a quickly strummed sus4 chord resolving to its appropriate major triad. (A composition teacher of mine in college once joked that Tommy did more for the plagal cadence than hundreds of years of church pieces.) One of the perhaps unexpected elements of this Blu-ray presentation is the increased ambient reverb, which is quite noticeable when one does side by side comparisons with the remastered CD. Whether or not this was added to the Blu-ray mix is unclear, but it's unmistakable. It may in fact simply be a result of the lossless audio. The increased resolution of the audio Blu-ray does occasionally increase awareness of a few niggling performance issues, notably Roger Daltrey's occasionally cracking voice in his higher falsetto range. The additional sonic space afforded by the 5.1 mix has both pluses and minuses with regard to the minimal orchestration. The horn calls come through quite clearly, as do those cool loops that Townshend fashioned from tapes of claves being played backwards, but some of the solo brass sounds overwhelmed.

The Who: Tommy Deluxe Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As with the Pink Floyd Immersion sets, what Blu-ray aficionados consider "supplements" may vary from what the general populace does. The entire contents of this package include:

• Disc One contains the original Tommy album digitally remastered in HD.

1. Overture
2. It's a Boy
3. 1921
4. Amazing Journey
5. Sparks
6. The Hawker
7. Christmas
8. Cousin Kevin
9. The Acid Queen
10. Underture
11. Do You Think It's Alright
12. Fiddle About
13. Pinball Wizard
14. There's a Doctor
15. Go to the Mirror!
16. Tommy Can You Hear Me?
17. Smash the Mirror
18. Sensation
19. Miracle Cure
20. Sally Simpson
21. I'm Free
22. Welcome
23. Tommy's Holiday Camp
24. We're Not Gonna Take It


• Disc Two contains Demos and Out-Takes, including 20 previously unreleased tracks.

1. Overture
2. It's a Boy
3. 1921
4. Amazing Journey
5. Dream One
6. Sparks
7. The Hawker
8. Christmas
9. The Acid Queen
10. Underture (Dream Two)
11. Do You Think It's Alright
12. Pinball Wizard
13. There's a Doctor
14. Go to the Mirror!
15. Success
16. Tommy Can You Hear Me?
17. Smash the Mirror
18. Sensation
19. Miracle Cure
20. Sally Simpson
21. I'm Free
22. Welcome
23. We're Not Gonna Take It
24. Trying to Get Through
25. Young Man's Blues

(Note: Tracks 1-23 are Pete Townshend's original demos, while Tracks 24-25 are studio demos and outtakes by The Who.


• Disc Three offers the 5.1 album mix on Hi Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-ray.

1. Overture
2. It's a Boy
3. 1921
4. Amazing Journey
5. Sparks
6. The Hawker
7. Christmas
8. Cousin Kevin
9. The Acid Queen
10. Underture
11. Do You Think It's Alright
12. Fiddle About
13. Pinball Wizard
14. There's a Doctor
15. Go to the Mirror!
16. Tommy Can You Hear Me?
17. Smash the Mirror
18. Sensation
19. Miracle Cure
20. Sally Simpson
21. I'm Free
22. Welcome
23. Tommy's Holiday Camp
24. We're Not Gonna Take It


Disc Four is a live bootleg album with 21 previously unreleased tracks from 1969 live performances of Tommy.

1. Overture
2. It's a Boy
3. 1921
4. Amazing Journey
5. Sparks
6. The Hawker
7. Christmas
8. The Acid Queen
9. Pinball Wizard
10. Do You Think It's Alright
11. Fiddle About
12. Tommy Can You Hear Me?
13. There's a Doctor
14. Go to the Mirror!
15. Smash the Mirror
16. Miracle Cure
17. Sally Simpson
18. I'm Free
19. Tommy's Holiday Camp
20. We're Not Gonna Take It
21. See Me, Feel Me/Listening to You

Additionally, there is a very handsome oversized hardback book that details the entire history of the project, with references to some rather eclectic sources like Bruno Bettelheim's study of infantile autism. This book is stuffed with incredible photographs and other memorabilia. The back cover includes inserts that hold the four discs (see the photograph accompanying this review). Finally, there is a reproduction poster of The Who's London performance of Tommy.

The Who: Tommy Deluxe Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's debatable if at least some fans of The Who and Tommy will want to shell out fairly sizable bucks (even with recent discounts) for this set, especially if they already have at least some of the previously released content. But for those who wonder about the value of these "immersion" or "super deluxe" packages, this is undeniably one of the more handsome entries in this expensive genre that we've seen. The hardback book is chock full of fascinating tidbits about the development of Tommy, and the previously unreleased demos and performances are an incredible window into both the creative process and The Who's undeniably visceral live concerts. The audio Blu-ray is a brilliantly clear and nicely spacious accounting of this iconic work, but whether that makes this entire set worth the price will have to be an individual decision by fans checking their bank balances. For those who don't mind spending this much money, though, Tommy comes Highly recommended.