10 Albums From The '60s That Changed Rock History

As soon as rock’s sound started to shift, the single no longer had to be confined to just your traditional bite sized fragment. There’s a lot that can be done outside of that timeframe, and the jam bands of the day were looking to stretch their songs out with longer sections that let the music breathe a little more. That wasn’t Pete Townshend’s bag though…he was looking to use his music to tell a story.

Although the Who had experimented with longer song lengths on albums like a Quick One, Tommy was the quantum leap forward for Townshend as a writer, sculpting a story about a deaf dumb and blind boy who tries to meander his way through life before finally finding a calling in rock and roll. While the term rock opera wouldn’t become a thing for a few more years, Pete didn’t skimp out on either end of the spectrum, having the same bombast that you would find in rock and roll, only with the added melodrama that comes with the best stage adaptations.

For every standalone song like Pinball Wizard or Go To the Mirror, you never forget that you’re listening to little pieces of the greater whole, as you empathize with the characters and find your heart broken when Tommy’s followers turn on him on We’re Not Gonna Take It, putting him back into his self confined shell where he can’t speak a word out of line. It might be a bittersweet ending, but what it meant for rock going forward was a lot more adventurous.