Sickness will surely take the mind
From: Amazing Journey
Where minds can’t usually go
I got the Tommy LP when I was about 14. I was already a really big Who fan. My Uncle had a green jacket with a Who back patch on it he’d gotten from a concert in Minneapolis in ’82. I thought it was the coolest jacket ever. He had also left a few records at my house including Quadrophenia and my absolute favourite Who record of all time Live at Leeds.
Beyond Pinball Wizard—and the parts that were included in the My Generation jam on Live at Leeds—I was not at all familiar with Tommy or it’s status as a rock opera. It was a double album, and my dad was buying, so I went for it. It actually took me many years to appreciate everything about the album, but I did identify with Tommy right away.
I felt isolated from people at that age, and a bit afflicted. Inside a shell that was hard to come out of. I was mercilessly taunted by my peers for being different, although I was not really all that unusual on the outside, beyond being a bit overweight and near-sighted. Just a kid who was shunted around between parents who were too busy with work to really notice me. My inherent lack of sociability and athletic prowess made me an outcast, and the mid-80’s were not that dissimilar a time to when Tommy was a boy and his cousin Kevin decided there was a lot he could do with a freak.