I was listening to the Who's Tommy today and I thought about the term "pinball wizard". I was born in 1980 so I wasn't around during this extraordinarily time in music and pinball, but I was wondering if Pete Townsend coined the phrase or if "Pinball Wizard" was around before the song?? The term pinball wizard is now pretty entrenched in pinball culture. I spent some time online doing research but really didn't find anything predating the song. I'd be interested to know more about the origins of the term "Pinball Wizard".

I've done so much "reflecting" to that album!

I can only imagine that the song Pinball Wizard influenced "wizard mode" in modern pinball games?

So basically Pete created the Pinball Wizard, and now we have neon signs, T-shirts, and wizard mode. I don't think Pete Townsend gets enough credit for his role in shaping pinball! Dude is a genius!!! I'm looking forward to adding Captain Fantastic to my collection some time in the future.

I would be great to hear (or view) your presentation! It is hard to believe that pinball was viewed by many as a "bad thing". I don't get it. Good for Pete to turn pinball into something special and give us a HERO in Tommy! I was looking at some images of the Pinball battle between Rodger and Elton John in the movie Tommy. Tommy was playing a Kings and Queens EM pin, and I couldn't make out the game Elton john was playing. He had a piano for a lock down bar which is a pretty cool mod!

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Good eye Darcy! I bet those machine would be worth some serious coin in the collectors market.