Today’s classic early ’70s song of the day is the combo of “See Me, Feel Me/Listening to You” by the Who. This single, released in September of 1970, hit #12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
As most of you know, “See Me, Feel Me” and “Listening to You” were two tunes from the Who’s rock opera, Tommy. The Tommy album was released more than a year earlier, in May of 1969, and peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Tommy is all about a deaf, dumb, and blind boy who becomes a pinball wizard and a spiritual leader to the masses. It was later adapted into a real opera (in 1971), a movie (in 1975), and a Broadway musical (in 1992). When I was in junior high, our local Indianapolis FM radio station, WNAP, would play the two-disc album in its entirety late at night, and I recorded it off the radio on my cheapie little cassette recorder before plunking down the bucks for the real vinyl album.
All the tunes from Tommy were written by Pete Townshend, the group’s guitarist. He came up with the idea for the rock opera after being introduced to the work of Meher Baba, and Tommy was his attempt to translate Baba’s teachings into music.
The “See Me, Feel Me/Listening to You” single was released after the Who’s appearance at 1969’s legendary Woodstock music festival and subsequent visibility in the Woodstock concert film, released in March of 1970. This single, along with the Assembled Multitude’s “Overture from Tommy” instrumental single, released about the same time, brought renewed attention to the rock opera and the Tommy album.
And here’s today’s daily bonus track of the day, the “See Me, Feel Me/Listening to You” segment from the Tommy movie, with Who singer Roger Daltrey as Tommy. I wasn’t a big fan of the movie myself, but definitely love the original album.
