Our Kind of Spirituals, No. 67: The Who, “Christmas / The Acid Queen”

It took 35 years of following the Who for me to hear “Christmas,” from Tommy, as a Christmas song, which in its barbed way it is.

It took hearing “Christmas” as a parent for me fully to grasp the obvious truth that Tommy is a drama about the conflict between parents and children, between the old ways (Christmas) and the new (Tommy’s insensate seeking). The song is sung from the point of view of Tommy’s parents, who wonder how, with no way to grasp their tradition, he can be saved. Partway through the father calls out, “Tommy can you hear me?” and the son replies as best he can: “See me, feel me, touch me, heal me …”

It took seeing and hearing this Who performance of “Christmas” from the Isle of Wight festival in 1970 for me to remember again just how phenomenally ambitious the Who were – acting out the conflict of a whole society at earsplitting volume, with the band members taking roles, adopting different characters’ voices, and the like.

It took finding this solo piano demo of “Christmas” for me to realize just how fully Pete Townshend – age twenty-three – identified imaginatively with Tommy’s flummoxed father.

It took seeing all this, hearing it, feeling it, to realize again just how determined a seeker Townshend is – and that his seeking, as much as his guitar playing, is what made him a hero of mine in the first place.

“Tommy doesn’t know what day it is / Doesn’t know who Jesus was or what praying is …”

Truly, he saw and heard the felt the vibrations of his generation and the ones to follow better than even he realized.