"MusiCares is a really, really good foundation that really supports musicians in need," Roger said. In other news, Who frontman Roger Daltrey recently took part in a Zoom interview with Keith Levenson, conductor of the orchestras that have accompanied the band on its recent tours, as part of 's "In the Coop" Q&A series.ĭuring the conversation, Daltrey discussed the difficulties musicians currently are having making a living during the COVID-19 pandemic and encouraged people to donate to the Recording Academy's MusiCares charity. The song reached #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. "Pinball Wizard" is one of the best-known tunes from The Who's lauded 1969 rock opera Tommy. The animated machine is emblazoned with the band's classic red, white and blue bulls-eye logo. The clip takes the viewer on a trip through a Who-themed pinball machine using high-def 3-D graphics. However, in a fated sort of way, the song seemed to reach its spiritual home as the band played it at Woodstock in 1969, just as the sun was peaking over the horizon, leaving the crowd mute in awestruck wonder.The Who has debuted a striking new animated lyric video for its classic 1969 song "Pinball Wizard" at the band's official YouTube channel. In the movie, Elton John makes an appearance as The Pinball Wizard and performed this song with his hit version peaking at number seven in the UK charts. The track itself would go on to be a hit, which played a pivotal part in the 1975 movie based on the album, Tommy, starring Jack Nicholson, Ann Margaret, Tina Turner, and Roger Daltrey himself (who played Tommy). “I found that a stunning thing to call upon while I was in the process of writing ‘Pinball Wizard.’ I analysed every single chord,” Townshend concludes, “and found ways to play them on guitar.” A single bowed note runs throughout that whole piece. “It’s a very plaintive piece, almost like the Samuel Barber composition ‘Adagio for Strings’,” Townshend explained, adding: “Only the Purcell piece was written in 1600 or something. The track itself is built around an old Symphonic piece that Townshend discover around the time of recording, as he told Guitar World back in 2005: “The chordal structure for the intro was inspired by Henry Purcell, who did this very short piece called ‘Symphony Upon One Note.'” The track microwaved Cohn’s lukewarm first thoughts and resulted in a glowing hot review. Townshend decided that the deaf, dumb and blind protagonist should also excel in a certain area and with Cohn being a pinball fanatic, that area of expertise presented itself quite readily.Īlmost immediately after this conversation with Cohn, ‘Pinball Wizard’ was written and written. Afterwards, Townshend discussed the record with Cohn and took his remarks regarding the overbearing fidelity to subtext onboard. The story goes that in late 1968 – or early 1969 – when The Who played a preview of their new album in the presence of legendary critic Nik Cohn, and his reaction to the performance was middling. ‘Pinball Wizard’ is the perfect example of his dichotomous, head in the clouds yet finger to pulse approach. As a songwriter, Townshend may well have had both feet planted firmly in the realm of spiritualism, but he was still peaking over into the mainstream and never lost sight of what makes a hit. However, what singled Pete Townshend out as a unique creative force is that such a spiritual and deep synopsis could be transmuted into something so fun and palatable. As far as a creative impetus for rock music goes, that is about as nebulous as it gets.
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