TOMMY the ROCK OPERA was released in 1969.
Big hype as if it was the marriage of Mozart to Shakespeare.

The movie was released in 1975. I was in college.
Went to the Movie with great expectations, only to see a far-fetched story about a blind kid who played pin-ball set to incessant banging chords and contrived sounding interludes.
Bored to death.

The WHO was a huge band, but lyrically, nothing all that great to be heard.

That was symptomatic of the era. All rock bands were "genius,"...but actually, they were not.

STAIRWAY is arguably the biggest single "rock" song of all time.
Never knew what the lyrics were about.
Saw Plant in an interview once and he could not really give a satisfying answer as to what they were about. He fell back on the tired old art cliche about the meaning being different for every listener. Shakespeare was about something and the writing made it clear.

My opinion:
Stairway was a very pleasant musical melody, with poetic-ish sounding lyrics which ALL set up, what is very arguably the most iconic electric guitar solo of all time.
Nothing that the WHO did was close.
You can hear STAIRWAY on the radio every day in 2025. You hardly hardly ever hear the WHO.

https://soundcloud.com/sunset-poet-of-texas