25 Days of Christmas Music: Christmas

The Who's 1969 rock opera Tommy is both an admirable feat of storytelling and the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. But man, is it a good album. Anyway, the song "Christmas" comes at a point in the opera when Tommy's mom and step-dad are still coming to grips with the repercussions of Tommy's deaf, dumb, and blindness.

Here's a live performance at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 (with a bonus but unChristmasy track "The Acid Queen"). Please try not to be overwhelmed by Roger's fringe, Pete's extraordinarily high-waisted pants, and Keith's insane drumming.

See that bassist to the left? I just learned his name is John Entwistle. He's apparently incredibly mellow.

Note: I could have used a scene from the film version of Tommy, but I promised quality. Also, the combination of Ann-"overwhelming vibrato" Margret, Oliver "tone deaf but still cast in musicals" Reed, and the glassy eyed stare of a small child gives me the creeps.

Dudes that look way too much alike

So today I saw the movie L'enfant, and the main guy was kind of like a young and not very shrewd Bil Sykes. And then I thought of the movie Oliver! and the actor who plays Bil Sykes. And then I couldn't really remember what he looked like except a cross between Javier Bardem and that dude in PS I Love You who wasn't Gerard Butler/Katherine Heigl's dead lover from Grey's Anatomy (yeah, I actually saw that episode). Anyway, I looked them all up and I can say with 12387% certainty they are the same person.

Javier Bardem...

...and Jeffrey Dean Morgan...

...are the same as Oliver Reed* as Bil Sykes.

*Totally creepy in this movie as well as in Tommy. Why was he even cast in musicals?