The Saint

Issue date: 2/5/10 Section: Entertainment

The Who then.

A less crowded stage.

"It can only make us better," Keith Moon thought as he stuffed his drum set full of explosives.

It was 1967 and The Who were playing their hit single "My Generation" on a late-night television show.

Moon had fallen into the habit of putting fireworks into his drum set, an effort to add to the insanity of The Who's traditional set-ending instrument smash.

On this particular night, Moon decided to load up his bass drum with about 10 times more cherry bombs than normal. At the end of the song, with guitarist Pete Townsend repeatedly swinging his guitar into the floor, and singer Roger Daltry howling into the mic, Moon hit the detonator, resulting in a massive explosion that disrupted the TV broadcast, deafened the band, and sent cymbal shrapnel into Moon's arm.

Perhaps no other incident so accurately reveals the true nature of The Who, a blue collar band that changed the definition of rock & roll.

Now, The Who have been invited to play the Super Bowl halftime show, a gig played in years past by rock legends such as Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty.

They've come quite a long way from exploding drum kits.

Hailing from London, the four original members of The Who were a solidified band by 1964.

The group centered around the songwriting of Townsend, whose distortion-filled guitar chords backed up Daltry's powerful voice. The songs were greatly complimented by the legendary wild drumming of Moon, and the light active playing of bassist John Entwistle.

The group began playing in London night clubs, but quickly rose to fame on the back of their catchy singles "I Can See for Miles," "My Generation," and "Pinball Wizard."

By 1969, The Who had released four albums, and had multiple top-ten hits. Their reputation as a live band was unparalleled, and based largely on Moon's insane drumming frenzies and Townsend's windmill style of playing guitar.

They continued to play live and put out hit records into the seventies, cementing their legacy as a classic rock band capable of generating accessible singles.

1971's Who's Next featured classics "Baba O' Reilly" and "Won't Get Fooled Again," both radio hits that kept The Who relevant and popular in the new decade.

In 1978, between tours, tragedy struck when Keith Moon died of a prescription drug overdose. The band stayed together for three more years, but never regained their late sixties or early seventies glory.

The Who officially broke up in 1982, but have reunited multiple times for impromptu shows and a few tours.

Bassist John Entwistle died of a cocaine-induced heart attack at the age of 57 in 2002. Townsend and Daltry now tour sporadically under The Who's banner, using a variety of backing musicians to fill in for Moon and Enwistle.

In December of 2009 they released Greatest Hits, a compilation album that features all of The Who's top songs.

Released to celebrate their upcoming Super Bowl performance, Greatest Hits is a fun blend of the sixties and seventies, an essential buy for any classic rock fan.

Townsend has said the band will play a medley of the songs featured on the album including "Pinball Wizard" and "Who Are You."

The halftime show at the Super Bowl is sure to feature a lot of fireworks.

A fitting end for a band who always brought their own.

What the professors say:

"The Who? I thought they were all dead by now."

Dr. Joel Potter, Business College

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