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Woke producers have cut one of the most famous lines of The Who’s iconic song Pinball Wizard from a musical celebrating Live Aid. Lyrics referring to that ‘deaf dumb and blind kid’ who ‘sure plays a mean pinball’ have been airbrushed from the song, which the legendary rock band played at the landmark charity concert in 1985. Fans have now accused the show’s producers of ‘wokery at its worst’ and said people ‘should boycott the show if the lyrics aren’t reinstated’. Pinball Wizard was one of just four songs chosen from the band’s extensive repertoire and belted out by its lead singer Roger Daltrey when the band took to the Live Aid stage at Wembley on July 15 in a primetime slot of 8pm. The Who gave special permission for their hit song to feature in Just for One Day, a musical based on the 1985 global extravaganza, which opened to mixed reviews at the Old Vic in London before transferring to the West End this year. The song entered rock ‘n’ roll history as part of the band’s 1969 rock opera album Tommy, which was later made into a fantasy film featuring Tommy as the ‘deaf, dumb and blind boy’ who becomes a pinball champion. Elton John famously sings the song in the 1975 film. The central theme of the opera is that the ‘deaf, dumb and blind’ boy in the song psychosomatically loses his senses after witnessing a murder, but regains them playing Pinball. However, in the new show’s version, the phrase ‘deaf, dumb and blind kid’ is replaced with an instrumental section. The producers denied they had cut the phrase to avoid offending modern audiences, but instead suggested the song was used in the musical to introduce the character of disgraced impresario Harvey Goldsmith, who worked on Live Aid as a concert promoter and did not have hearing, sight or speech difficulties. They told The Times that the character at the heart of the song was entirely different from Goldsmith, and the specific lyric did not fit with their musical’s narrative, and it had been taken out because it was ‘clearly not relevant to Harvey as a real person’. Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine in the 1970s, The Who lead guitarist Pete Townshend said ‘the whole point of Pinball Wizard is to let the boy have some sort of colourful event and excitement’. Townshend gave his approval for Pinball Wizard to be used in the musical along with permission granted by other musicians, including the surviving members of Queen and the estate of David Bowie for tracks the artistes played at Live Aid.
