The Who classic inspired by Meher Baba and his 44 years of silence
Pete Townshend once said there are only two classic rock bands: The Who and The Rolling Stones. However, there is one distinct deviation between the two. As Keith Richards would tell you regarding the pitfall his own band avoided but The Beatles plummeted into, he never got into all that India “shit”. However, The Who were, in fact, wrapped up in the in-vogue spiritualism too.
In fact, Townshend believed that he was one of the first to tap into this. He told Apple Music that prior to the 1960s, pop music was merely there for dancing. “Music even today is about much more than that,” he explained. “It has a function which is to help us understand what is going on in the world and to help us understand what is going on inside us, so the purpose and the duty of somebody who makes music is very different to the way it used to be. […] And I think I was the first to articulate that and try to explain it.”
With that in mind, ‘Pinball Wizard’ is one of those songs that has such a disparate seeming story, devoid of the usual rock ‘n’ roll tropes and trappings, that many assume it simply must be allegorical. This is an understandable notion based upon the fact that surely a band couldn’t just write a song about a deaf, dumb and blind pinball kingpin without it having some underlying ties to society at large.
In truth, the message behind The Who’s rock opera Tommy was heavily based on the teachings of Indian spiritualist Meher Baba (1894-1969). The concept of Tommy, therefore, closely mirrors Meher Baba’s idea of awakening to a higher realm. As the spiritual leader once told the Los Angeles Times: “Philosophers, atheists and others may affirm or refute the existence of God. But as long as they do not deny their very existence they continue to testify their belief in God.”
Baba’s message was that the goal of life was to realise the absolute oneness of God, a presence from whom the universe emanates as an unconscious whim, materialised into conscious divinity through our existence. In turn, to reflect his own teachings, Baba lived in silence for the final 44 years of his life having reached enlightenment. The muteness of Tommy as a character reflects this.
As Pete Townshend told Rolling Stone back in 1969 upon its release, “Tommy’s real self represents the aim – God – and the illusory self is the teacher; life, the way, the path and all this. The coming together of these are what make him aware. They make him see and hear and speak so he becomes a saint who everybody flocks to.” The offshoot of this was that Tommy as, a character, experienced the world through the vibrations of a pinball machine, which would figuratively be reflected in the vibrations of music.
As far as a creative impetus for rock music goes, that is about as nebulous as it gets. However, what singled Pete Townshend out as a unique creative force is that such a spiritual and deep synopsis could be transmuted into something so fun and palatable. As a songwriter, Townshend may well have had both feet planted firmly in the realm of spiritualism, but he was still peaking over into the mainstream and never lost sight of what makes a hit. ‘Pinball Wizard’ is the perfect example of his dichotomous, head in the clouds yet finger-to-pulse approach. It is simple rock with a higher purpose.
