I felt strangely nostalgic last night.<\/p>\n
I went to my CDs, flipped through them, and I saw a CD I’d not listened to in a while. A long<\/i> while.<\/p>\n
The Who’s Tommy<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I bought this CD in 1996. Early in the year, maybe March or April. Charlottesville. Fashion Square Mall, the Sam Goody’s down at the J.C. Penney’s end of the mall. As I write this, I can picture the store; it’s completely vivid in my mind. I can close my eyes, and navigate the aisles.<\/p>\n
I was on my lunch break from work. I bought the CD. I walked to the other end of the mall, had lunch at Blimpies. A sub of some sort, probably a turkey and cheese. In fact, I’m certain of it.<\/p>\n
I’d never heard Tommy<\/i> before. Oh, I’d heard of<\/i> it. I knew songs like “Pinball Wizard.” But the whole thing<\/i>? Not a clue.<\/p>\n
I thought it was okay. Two years later, at the Borders on West Broad Street in Richmond, I bought the Rhino release of the London Symphony Orchestra version of Tommy<\/i>, the one with Richard Burton. Or was it Richard Harris? I can’t keep them straight. I loved<\/i> that version of Tommy<\/i>. I can’t find what I did with the CD, however.<\/p>\n
I digress.<\/p>\n
Tommy<\/i> grew on me. Never seen the movie.<\/p>\n
How long had it been since I’d last listened to Tommy<\/i> in its entirety? At least two years. Possibly as much as five.<\/p>\n
I sat there and let the “Underture” just wash over me. Closed my eyes, leaned back, and I could almost picture the band, in the studio. Almost<\/i>. I could feel the space between the sounds. Every tap of the drumskin, every crash of the cymbals, every plucked guitar string. It was<\/i> an amazing journey.<\/p>\n
I’ll always associate Tommy<\/i> now with Almost Famous<\/i>, for the scene near the beginning of the film when William first listens to the album and he sees his future ahead of him. Excellent movie, by the way; if you’ve never seen Almost Famous<\/i> (or the extended cut, Untitled<\/i>), what are you waiting for? An engraved invitation?<\/p>\n
Thirteen years ago I bought that CD. And yet, putting it in the stereo, it could have been yesterday. The years just melted away.<\/p>\n
Tommy<\/i>.<\/p>\n
ETA (2-21-09):<\/b> Found the London Symphony Orchestra version of Tommy<\/i>. My filing system makes no logical sense. It was with soundtracks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I felt strangely nostalgic last night. I went to my CDs, flipped through them, and I saw a CD I’d not listened to in a while. A long while. The Who’s Tommy. I bought this CD in 1996. Early in the year, maybe March or April. Charlottesville. Fashion Square Mall, the Sam Goody’s down atContinue reading “On the Wash of Sounds”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[78],"class_list":["post-2088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-the-who","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}