{"id":300,"date":"2007-02-21T13:31:42","date_gmt":"2007-02-21T18:31:42","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-05-15T21:37:58","modified_gmt":"2009-05-15T21:37:58","slug":"ligtommyl-ig-vs-ligsgt-pepperl-ig-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/ligtommyl-ig-vs-ligsgt-pepperl-ig-really\/","title":{"rendered":"<i>Tommy<\/i> vs <i>Sgt. Pepper<\/i>\u2013 Really?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wKNVa5jnKmw?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nI\u2019m more than a little surprised that in a recent poll RTH\u2019s readers and\/or contributors declared the 1977 Bee Gees\/Peter Frampton vehicle <em>Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band<\/em> to be the <strong>worst rock movie<\/strong>, over my preferred choice, Ken Russell\u2019s 1975 film of The Who\u2019s <em>Tommy<\/em>. Don\u2019t get me wrong \u2013 <em>Sgt. Pepper<\/em> completely deserves its reputation as an utter and complete perversion of everything good and right that The Beatles stood for. But I submit that <em>Tommy<\/em> is an even worse film and, more importantly for the purposes of this blog, a greater <strong>Rock Crime<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Context is everything. Consider that <em>Sgt. Pepper<\/em> contained precious little input from the actual stewards of The Beatles legacy. Rumor has it that <strong>George Harrison<\/strong> and <strong>Paul McCartney<\/strong> appear in the star-studded finale, but frankly, if George and Paul are indeed there, they\u2019re overshadowed by rock titans like <strong>Carol Channing<\/strong> and <strong>Jon \u201cBowzer\u201d Bauman<\/strong>. <em>Sgt. Pepper<\/em>\u2019s soundtrack was produced by <strong>George Martin<\/strong>, true, but I must remind you that he was not, in fact, a Beatle.<\/p>\n<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wGsXlZFfjew?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nOn the other hand, the travesty <strong>Tommy<\/strong> features notable work by all four members of <strong>The Who<\/strong>. Not only did <strong>Roger Daltrey<\/strong> handle the title role, with <strong>Keith Moon<\/strong> in the, shall we say, noteworthy role of Uncle Ernie, and <b>not only<\/b> did <strong>John Entwistle<\/strong> lend his distinct bass lines to the enterprise, but <strong>Pete Townshend<\/strong> helmed the horrible, horrible soundtrack. Let me tell you: More synthesizer-related <strong>Rock Crimes<\/strong> were committed on this soundtrack than at <strong>any time<\/strong> in the 1980s.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s also consider who sat in the director\u2019s chair for each film. <strong>Sgt. Pepper<\/strong> was helmed by Michael Schultz who, besides having helmed subsequent music-related films like <em>Berry Gordy\u2019s The Last Dragon<\/em> and <em>Disorderlies<\/em>, has since moved on to a career directing for television. I\u2019m not calling him a hack per se, but he\u2019s doesn&#8217;t seem like an auteur either.<\/p>\n<p><em>Tommy<\/em>, on the other hand, was written and directed by <strong>Ken Russell<\/strong>, a man who is seldom able to contain himself in realizing his horrible, frightening, gaudy visions on film. That whole artistically dubious glam-camp genre of cinema (<em>Rocky Horror Picture Show<\/em>, <em>Phantom of the Paradise<\/em>, the end of <em>All That Jazz<\/em>) can mostly be blamed on Russell.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/k8T1ZR98aEA?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nBut these elements are ultimately only parts of the bigger whole; the main reason <em>Tommy<\/em> defeats <em>Sgt. Pepper<\/em> in the badness game. See, everybody knows that <em>Sgt. Pepper<\/em> sucks, and we can all revel in its badness in the best <em>Mystery Science Theater<\/em> way. On the other hand, while I know plenty of intelligent people who can tolerate <em>Tommy<\/em>, the people who truly hate it tend to be Who devotees. This movie is essentially designed to piss off the very people it should be courting first and foremost. Beatles fans can laugh at the folly that is <strong>George Burns<\/strong> posing with a white Les Paul in <em>Sgt. Pepper<\/em>. Who fans can only grit their teeth in pain at the combined memories of <strong>Ann-Margret<\/strong>, <strong>Oliver Reed<\/strong>, Jack Nicholson, <strong>Eric Clapton<\/strong>, Tina Turner, Elton John and every other moment of every other frame of <em>Tommy<\/em>. I hold Russell and Townshend both directly responsible for this, and you could make a case that the film of <em>Tommy<\/em> sets the stage for The Who\u2019s many subsequent artistic travesties. Thank God for <em>The Kids Are Alright<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m more than a little surprised that in a recent poll RTH\u2019s readers and\/or contributors declared the 1977 Bee Gees\/Peter Frampton vehicle Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band to be the worst rock movie, over my preferred choice, Ken Russell\u2019s 1975 film of The Who\u2019s Tommy. Don\u2019t get me wrong \u2013 Sgt. Pepper completely deserves <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/ligtommyl-ig-vs-ligsgt-pepperl-ig-really\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[34,33],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}