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“Quiet Please, It's a Bloody Opera”!

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“Quiet Please, It's a Bloody Opera”! UNIVERSITETET I OSLO “Quiet Please, it’s a bloody opera”! How is Tommy a part of the Opera History? Martin Nordahl Andersen [27.10.11] A theatre/performance/popular musicology master thesis on the rock opera Tommy by The Who ”Quiet please, it’s a bloody opera!” Martin Nordahl Andersen 2011 “Quiet please, it’s a bloody opera!” How is Tommy part of the Opera History? Print: Reprosentralen, University of Oslo All photos by Ross Halfin © All photos used with written permission. 1 ”Quiet please, it’s a bloody opera!” Aknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors Ståle Wikshåland and Stan Hawkins for superb support and patience during the three years it took me to get my head around to finally finish this thesis. Thank you both for not giving up on me even when things were moving very slow. I am especially thankful for your support in my work in the combination of popular music/performance studies. A big thank you goes to Siren Leirvåg for guidance in the literature of theatre studies. Everybody at the Institute of Music at UiO for helping me when I came back after my student hiatus in 2007. I cannot over-exaggerate my gratitude towards Rob Lee, webmaster at www.thewho.com for helping me with finding important information on that site and his attempts at getting me an interview with one of the boys. The work being done on that site is fantastic. Also, a big thank you to my fellow Who fans. Discussing Who with you makes liking the band more fun. See you all in London sometime? To be able to use the photos of Ross Halfin is a privilege. Thank you so much for the permission. To my fellow master students Sissel Myhre and Linda Engebråten. I’m not alone in being a nerd, thank God! Our coffee meetings are already greatly missed. To Lisa and Gunder and the rest of my family. Thank you for love and support. 2 ”Quiet please, it’s a bloody opera!” Tommy contents: 1.0 Overture ...................................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 It’s a boy! – Introduction ............................................................................................................... 4 1.2 1921 - Task and thesis .................................................................................................................. 9 1.3 Amazing Journey: Approaching musical analysis ....................................................................... 13 1.4 Sparks: Locating the popular music/theatre studies text ........................................................... 19 1.5 Eyesight to The Blind: Literature and recordings ....................................................................... 25 2.0 Christmas ................................................................................................................................... 30 2.1 Cousin Kevin – or A new bastard genre? ..................................................................................... 30 2.2 The Acid Queen – “Christmas” analysis....................................................................................... 41 3.0 Underture .................................................................................................................................. 55 3.1 Do you think it’s alright? The Who and Tommy Live .................................................................. 55 3.2 Fiddle About – Tommy as “unofficial” theatre ............................................................................ 60 3.3 Pinball Wizard – the performance evolves.................................................................................. 64 3.4 There’s a Doctor! The “official” event in Royal Albert Hall ......................................................... 71 3.5 Go to The Mirror: Christmas as the center of drama .................................................................. 78 3.6 Tommy can you hear me: album/concert connections .............................................................. 79 4.0 Smash the Mirror – Tommy’s legacy debated ........................................................................ 80 4.1 Sensation – rock opera? .............................................................................................................. 80 4.2 Miracle Cure – the rock stage art ................................................................................................ 81 4.3 Sally Simpson – music legacy ....................................................................................................... 82 4.4 I’m Free – the popular music/performance studies marriage .................................................... 83 4.5 Welcome...................................................................................................................................... 84 4.6 Tommys holiday camp ................................................................................................................. 85 5.0 We’re not Gonna Take it – Final thoughts ................................................................................ 86 Literature ........................................................................................................................................... 88 Discography ....................................................................................................................................... 90 Audio Visual sources.......................................................................................................................... 92 3 ”Quiet please, it’s a bloody opera!” 1.0 Overture 1.1 It’s a boy! – Introduction My theory about pop music is very simple: it is in pop music and through the experience of pop music performance that we find the theatre of our time. A song isn’t popular just by being constructed as a pop song, neither is an audience an audience without a song they connect to – a song needs an audience to make it popular. Likewise, a pop music performance isn’t a performance without an audience defining what kind of performance it is. An audience is in return defined by the songs and pop performances they embrace. The audience and the song/music/performance operate together when they meet, either from the speakers/headset in an audio – theatrical setting or in the concert hall/venue in a real theatrical setting. That meeting between music and the audience has for some years been an overreaching arch in my studies, be it in music or performance studies – and it has had impact on my life as a music consumer, theorist and performer. In other words, I am a keen advocate for live and audio performance-related popular music studies. In this particular thesis, I will try to explain what impact the music of Tommy by British rock band The Who had on a seemingly musically uneducated audience1 when the album came out in 1969 and how it continues to fascinate music listeners in the contemporary rock world. My first encounter with The Who was not through Tommy but the televised Quadrophenia concert from Hyde Park in 1996 and needless to say it opened my eyes to a whole new way of taking rock seriously, and at the same time, pumping it full of comedy and dark laughter. The 1 This thesis is in large parts based on two earlier term papers (see Literature section for more info), written when I was an undergraduate student at the University of Oslo. The reason for combining them is very simple – I recently realized I’d written the same paper twice but in two different research departments with six years passing in between them. They’re not the same of course and originate from two very specific yet different events and circumstances. What they share however, is that they are both centered around British rock act The Who and the music from their classic rock album Tommy. Method, analytical content and background, however, is vastly different as the papers represent to separated disciplines in art studies. In short, this is an attempt to bring them together as one and see if the two textual approaches were in fact one. 4 ”Quiet please, it’s a bloody opera!” starting point of this thesis however, originates in real life, untelevised and seemingly unmediated events, relating to my own life as a music consumer and Who-megafan2. The first shall I say, epiphany, happened during the opening chords of “Can’t Explain” when I attended a Who show in Tinley Park right outside of Chicago IL in 2002. The band had gone through rough times as their founding member and bassist John Entwistle had died the night before the tour was scheduled to start in Las Vegas two months earlier. I was at the time a student at the department of theatre studies at UiO, and during the semester following my trip to the States we were taught about myths, ancient rituals and religion seen through the eyes of theatre studies. From the books and material presented on the subject the impression was that this was something that belonged to the dark past when people travelled hundreds of miles to a certain religious destination, today exemplified by Muslims and their Mekka pilgrimage. Seen in this light, the Chicago Who concert was a ritual, an event created by the audience – with a little help from the band - to confirm our definition of ourselves as a crowd who’s cultural identity is shaped by the music of The Who. I discovered then and still argue now that there is absolutely no difference between walking four hundred kilometers to kneel in front of a relic than saving up a month’s salary to go half around the globe to see your favorite band. The only differences
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