The Who, from The Kids Are Alright
Televisions all over the country were tuned in for the Super Bowl halftime appearance yesterday. I just got done reading that the viewership for Super Bowl 44 was the highest in recorded history. We were also treated to a performance by The Who.
When I’m not blogging or writing (or playing with Moosie, Mojo and Oscar, or talking to The Dauphin,) I’m on Twitter. I can give it up at any time. Yeah. During yesterday afternoon’s festivities, Craig Terrill of the Seahawks Tweeted something to the effect that those who didn’t care for the performance were “haters”. He likes Pete Townsend’s windmill guitar move. While I have some affection for Mr. Terrill (defense rules, baybee, especially Seahawks D,) this is my response to him, and pretty much everyone else.
When I was younger, (and dinosaurs roamed the earth,) The Who were considered one of the preeminent bands in the world. Think the Stones, Led Zeppelin, etcetera. The reason why The Who’s performances were not to be missed? Their music captured the rebellion, fury and passion of a generation determined to live a different life than their parents did. If you didn’t get the point from their lyrics, they’d smash their instruments at the end of the set. Maybe this seems like a waste of a perfectly good guitar. At the same time, it’s hard for me to imagine a couple of exceedingly wealthy sixty-somethings singing the following:
We’ll be fighting in the street
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
The anthem that millions of people have listened to a thousand times, the lyrics that cause people in our age group to shake their heads ruefully, or pump a fist in fury,
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
Roger Daltrey’s scream of rage and frustration, are oddly empty when delivered in a carefully sanitized, corporate-approved network performance. Obviously, a twenty-minute musical performance won’t transport us back to the time it was more important to spend the last money you had on concert tickets and some kind of mind-altering substance. We’re adults, and we should behave ourselves, so to speak. I wonder, though, how those who wrote the songs feel about performing them now, when they are obviously so removed from that mindset. I also wondered how the younger people watching felt about seeing guys old enough to be their grandpa singing a song that should end with an extended middle finger instead of yet one more ad for Bud Light.
Where is the outrage?
If there was ever a time the lyrics to “Won’t Get Fooled Again” spoke to a generation, it’s right now.
Don’t get me wrong. I liked the light show. The concert sent me scurrying off to You Tube later that evening to listen to some of The Who’s songs I still love. (“Love Reign O’er Me”, anyone?) I just wonder what would have happened if, after he played the last note of the last song, Pete Townsend would have smashed his guitar one more time.
-S
Excerpted lyrics copyright Pete Townsend, used for editorial purpose only




