Pete Townshend has always been obsessed with stories, not just songs. In the mid-’60s, there were few songwriters (the Kinks’ Ray Davies comes to mind) who were more interested than the Who guitarist in crafting songs that related a short tale or painted a character portrait. Listen to those early Who singles and album cuts; many of them are simple, two-and-half-minute stories – ‘A Legal Matter,’ ‘Pictures of Lilly,’ ‘Tattoo’ and (most of all) ‘I’m a Boy.’
Read More: The History of the Who’s ‘Tommy’ | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/history-of-tommy/?trackback=tsmclip
