The Who – "Eyesight to the Blind" (1969)

Just a word from her lips

And the deaf begin to hear

Since the protagonist of the Who's brilliant Tommy is a deaf, dumb, and blind boy, I always assumed that "Eyesight to the Blind" – which is about a woman whose mojo is working so well that just encountering her can restore hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, and eyesight to the blind – was written especially for Tommy.

But as we learned in a previous 2 or 3 lines, "Eyesight to the Blind" was written by Sonny Boy Williamson II in 1951, almost two decades before Tommy was released.  It is the only song on Tommy not written by the Who.

Tommy's father was an RAF pilot in World War II who was presumed dead after his plane was shot down over Germany.  His pregnant wife gave birth to Tommy, then met a man who became her lover.  When Tommy's father returned home after years in a Nazi POW camp, he found his wife in bed with her new lover and murdered him.

At least, that's what happened in the original recording of Tommy and in the 1993 Broadway musical based on the album.  In the 1975 movie version of Tommy, the lover killed Tommy's father.

From the 1975 movie: Ann-Margret (as Tommy's
mother) and Roger Daltrey (as Tommy)

Either way, Tommy witnessed the murder.  But his mother commanded him to ignore what he had seen and heard, and to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT: 

You didn't hear it

You didn't see it

You never heard it, not a word of it

You won't say nothing to no one!

Tommy eventually overcomes his deafness, dumbness, and blindness, which are psychosomatic rather than physical in nature. 

Here's the Who's version of "Eyesight to the Blind," which is very different from the Sonny Boy Williamson II original and the covers that other blues musicians (like Mose Allison) recorded.

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Mose Allison – "Eyesight to the Blind" (1959)

Every time she starts to shakin'

The dumb begin to talk

Mose Allison was born on his grandfather's farm near Tippo, Mississippi, in 1927.  His family had a piano, and when he was only five years old, he started playing the songs he heard on the local jukebox by ear.

"Wait just a cotton-pickin' minute," you say.  (Allison's family grew cotton, by the way.)  "Did they even have jukeboxes in 1932?"

I'm glad you asked.  

The first coin-operated phonograph was invented in 1890.  It could play only one record, and didn't have amplification – you listened through a listening tube.

An eight-turntable audiophone

About the time Allison was born, something called the audiophone was invented.  The audiophone was a coin-operated device with eight turntables in a Ferris wheel-like configuration, with a different 78-RPM record on each turntable.  

When he was in high school, Allison's favorites included Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan and especially Nat "King" Cole.  He played trumpet in the school band and began writing songs of his own.

Mose Allison

By the time he turned 30, Allison had moved to New York City, where he performed and recorded with many jazz greats as well as his own Mose Allison Trio.  

"Eyesight to the Blind" was released in 1959 on Autumn Song, his fifth album for Prestige Records, a famous New York City jazz label:

Allison sped through "Eyesight to the Blind" in only one minute and 43 seconds.  His tempo is so quick that it forces him to elide the original lyrics considerably.  (You have to wonder if the recording studio – or maybe his piano – was on fire.)

Allison has a fairly high voice, and his singing style is not soulful – you'll never mistake Mose Allison for James Brown or Joe Cocker.  His singing on "Eyesight to the Blind" is fine, but what distinguishes this record is the piano solo, which covers a lot of ground in only 40 seconds.  

Here's Mose Allison's "Eyesight to the Blind":

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Sonny Boy Williamson II – "Eyesight to the Blind" (1951)

Every time the little girl starts lovin'

She bring eyesight to the blind

"Eyesight to the Blind" is a classic 12-bar blues song that was written by Sonny Boy Williamson and released as a single in 1951.

The Who included a cover of the song in Tommy.  Until recently, that was the only version of the song I had ever heard.  

By Sonny Boy Williamson, I mean Alex (pronounced "Aleck") Miller, not John Lee Curtis "Sonny Boy" Williamson.

Sonny Boy Williamson I

John Lee, who was born in Tennessee in 1914 and moved to Chicago in 1934, was one of the most recorded blues musicians of the thirties and forties.  He was the first great blues harmonica player.

Alex Miller, who was born in Mississippi in 1912 (or perhaps 1908, or perhaps 1899) was also a blues singer/songwriter who could play a mean harmonica.  The sponsor of a Helena, Arkansas radio show that Miller appeared on began billing him as Sonny Boy Williamson in what appears to have been a blatant attempt to capitalize on the fame of the Chicago Williamson.

Sonny Boy Williamson II

John Lee, who was killed by a robber in 1948 – his last words were "Lord, have mercy!" – is now referred to as "Sonny Boy Williamson I."

Miller, who died of a heart attack in 1965, is known as "Sonny Boy Williamson II."

Williamson II recorded a live album with the Yardbirds at a UK club in 1963, when Eric Clapton was that group's lead guitarist. That album wasn't released until two years later.

While he was in the UK, Williamson II supposedly set his hotel room on fire while trying to cook a rabbit in a coffee percolator.  (I'm guessing drugs and/or alcohol were involved, but that's just a guess.) 

Here's "Eyesight to the Blind":

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: