Editing Tommy (The Who album) (section)

==Background==
Townshend had been looking at ways of progressing beyond the standard three-minute pop single format since 1966.{{sfn|Marsh|1983|p=214}} Co-manager [[Kit Lambert]] shared Townshend's views and encouraged him to develop musical ideas,{{sfn|Marsh|1983|p=215}} conceiving the term "[[rock opera]]". The first use of the term was applied to a suite called ''Quads'', set in a future where parents could choose the sex of their children. A couple want four girls but instead receive three girls and a boy, raising him as a girl anyway. The opera was abandoned after writing a single song, the hit single, "[[I'm a Boy]]".{{sfn|Marsh|1983|p=217}} When the Who's second album, ''[[A Quick One]]'', ran short of material during recording, Lambert suggested that Townshend should write a "mini-opera" to fill the gap. Townshend initially objected, but eventually agreed to do so, coming up with "[[A Quick One, While He's Away]]", which joined short pieces of music together into a continuous narrative.{{sfn|Marsh|1983|p=227}} During 1967, Townshend learned how to play the [[piano]] and began writing songs on it, taking his work more seriously.{{sfn|Marsh|1983|p=283}} That year's ''[[The Who Sell Out]]'' included a mini-opera in the last track, "Rael", which like "A Quick One{{nbsp}}..." was a suite of musical segments joined together.{{sfn|Marsh|1983|pp=282, 283}}

{{quotebox|width=50%|quote=The package I hope is going to be called ''"Deaf, Dumb and Blind Boy."'' It's a story about a kid that's born deaf, dumb and blind and what happens to him throughout his life&nbsp;... But what it's really all about is the fact that&nbsp;... he's seeing things basically as vibrations which we translate as music. That's really what we want to do: create this feeling that when you listen to the music you can actually become aware of the boy, and aware of what he is all about, because we are creating him as we play."|source=[[Pete Townshend]] talking to [[Jann Wenner]], August 1968{{sfn|Marsh|1983|pp=313,314}}}}

By 1968, Townshend was unsure about how the Who should progress musically. The group were no longer teenagers, but he wanted their music to remain relevant.{{sfn|Marsh|1983|pp=293–294}} His friend, ''[[International Times]]'' [[art director]] Mike McInnerney, told him about the Indian spiritual mentor [[Meher Baba]],{{sfn|Marsh|1983|p=294}} and Townshend became fascinated with Baba's values of compassion, love and introspection.{{sfn|Marsh|1983|p=296}} The Who's commercial success was on the wane after the single "[[Dogs (The Who song)|Dogs]]" failed to make the top 20, and there was a genuine risk of the band breaking up.{{sfn|Marsh|1983|p=308}} The group still performed well live and spent most of the spring and summer touring the US and Canada,{{sfn|Neill|Kent|2002|p=190}} but their stage act relied on Townshend smashing his guitar or [[Keith Moon]] demolishing his drums, which kept the group in debt. Townshend and Kit Lambert realised they needed a larger vehicle for their music than hit singles and a new stage show, and Townshend hoped to incorporate his love of Meher Baba into this concept.{{sfn|Marsh|1983|p=309}} He decided that the Who should record a series of songs that stood well in isolation but formed a cohesive whole on the album. He also wanted the material performed in concert, to counter the trend of bands like [[the Beatles]] and [[the Beach Boys]] producing studio output that was not designed for live performance.{{sfn|Marsh|1983|p=310}}

In August 1968, in an interview to ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', Townshend talked about a new rock opera and described the entire plot in great detail, which ran to 11 pages.{{sfn|Marsh|1983|pp=313–316}} The Who biographer [[Dave Marsh]] subsequently said the interview described the narrative better than the finished album.{{sfn|Marsh|1983|p=316}} Townshend later regretted publishing so much detail, as he felt it forced him to write the album according to that blueprint.{{sfn|Neill|Kent|2002|p=191}} The rest of the Who, however, were enthusiastic about the idea, and let him have artistic control over the project.{{sfn|Neill|Kent|2002|p=192}}