![]() ![]() Pete Townshend – backing vocals, co-lead vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar.Pinball Wizard was also played during the Super Bowl XLIV Halftime Show on 7 February 2010. Bootleg recordings show that this song has been known to last as long as 8 minutes (at a concert at the Rainbow Theatre in London on 3 February 1981), although live versions lasting as long as that are extremely rare. The live performances rarely deviated from the album arrangement, save for an occasional jam at the end sometimes leading to another song. ![]() This song is one of the band's most famous live songs, being played at almost every Who concert since its debut live performance on. The single version was slightly sped up and runs to 2:57, whilst the natural length album version runs to 3:04.Ĭash Box said "Pinball Wizard" was "sensational", saying "Retaining the joyful exaltation of early pop rock, the Who add a proficiency and modernization that clicks with the accuracy of a Beatles-gone-heavy." Billboard described the single as "a solid beat rocker." Record World described it as an "exciting side." Live performances The song "Pinball Wizard" was written and recorded almost immediately. Knowing Cohn was an avid pinball fan, Townshend suggested that Tommy would play pinball, and Cohn immediately declared Tommy to be a masterpiece. Following this, Townshend, as Tommy 's principal composer, discussed the album with Cohn and concluded that, to lighten the load of the rock opera's heavy spiritual overtones (Townshend had recently become deeply interested in the teachings of Meher Baba), the title character, a "deaf, dumb, and blind" boy, should also be particularly good at a certain game. In late 1968 or early 1969, when the Who played a rough assembly of their new album to critic Nik Cohn, Cohn gave a lukewarm reaction to it. It was a perpetual concert favourite for Who fans due to its pop sound and familiarity. Nevertheless, the song was a commercial success and remains one of the most recognised tunes from the opera. Townshend once called it "the most clumsy piece of writing ever done". The lyrics are written from the perspective of a pinball champion, called "Local Lad" in the Tommy libretto book, astounded by the skills of the opera's eponymous main character, Tommy Walker: "He ain't got no distractions / Can't hear those buzzers and bells / Don't see lights a flashin' / Plays by sense of smell / Always gets a replay / Never seen him fall / That deaf dumb and blind kid / Sure plays a mean pinball.", and "I thought I was the Bally table king, but I just handed my pinball crown to him". Despite the title, it has no musical connection to the Who's 1968 UK single " Dogs". The B-side of the "Pinball Wizard" single is an instrumental credited to Keith Moon, titled "Dogs Part Two". The original recording was released as a single in 1969 and reached No. Of course you have to do the same thing up and down the neck, down to the 2nd fret and up to the 10th." Pinball Wizard" is a song written by Pete Townshend and performed by the English rock band the Who, featured on their 1969 rock opera album Tommy. Keeping the middle finger up enough to not interfere with the all-important 3rd string is one challenge and getting the 1st and 2nd strings to sound at all - I've about given up on that. When I was practicing last night I was trying to get my palm out and away from the back of the neck and that seemed to help, but there are limits to that because of needing to keep the thumb wrapped around the top. I'd be curious to know what you major dudes do with your fretting hand to make this clean. I am finding these chords very hard to form cleanly and what makes it worse is that your hand needs to land right on it correctly you're strumming like a drunken British former art school student so you can't really fix things after the fact without sounding worse. The thumb frets the 6th string on the 7th fret and also mutes the 5th string. The middle finger stays on the 8th fret between the two chords and the pinky simply lifts off the 9th fret to resolve the suspension. ![]() The "You're Playing It Wrong" column in Guitar Player has the basic Bsus/B chord sequence asĪnd the tab on has it the same except for the 1st string being muted:
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