Tommy - The Who (1969)

The Who's Tommy is one of my favorite albums in the entire history of rock music for several reasons. I have been completely blown away by Pete Townshend's songwriting and guitar work on the album ever since the first listen back in the late '60's/early '70's. Personally, I think that Tommy is The Who's high water mark (not Who's Next, although that album is excellent and one of my favorites too). Pete Townshend's "rock opera" idea is fully realized here, after some flirting with the format in earlier Who albums. The cohesiveness of Tommy is astounding and I've always thought it had a pretty cool story to tell. I have listened to the entire album countless times and I always prefer to listen to it in its entirety. If I had to pick a handful of albums to that I HAD to have, Tommy would be top 5 on that list. This is the album that I keep coming back to time after time. And even after some 37 years after its initial release, I always seem to discover some new little detail each time I listen. Whenever life becomes a little too intense, Tommy is my go-to head adjustment. I put on the album and listen to it from beginning to end and things are always better after its over. Tommy also holds the distinction of being the very first music album I ever checked out of a library (The Cape May County Library did an ambitious experiment with dubbing cassettes for circulation in the early '70's and I wore out my copy of the Tommy cassette before I had to give it back).