In one of the better Roger Daltrey interviews published in anticipation of his solo tour he he was motivated to get his voice in shape for several upcoming Who projects. Said he “we have some big events lined up.” This week’s announcement of The Who’s scheduled appearance as the halftime band at the Super Bowl came as the tour was still in progress, so it’s pretty likely Daltrey knew about the big game as he suited up for these small-venue scrimmages.
After a history of questionable entertainment choices game sponsors decided to get big name popstars to do a short set, with the ultimate purpose of boosting television ratings. After Janet Jackson’s curious “wardrobe malfunction” in 2004 we have seen a royal flush of music’s biggest face cards: Paul McCartney, The Stones, Prince, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen.
Super Bowl performers traditionally play four songs. Since these are veteran performers with decades of material, they can never touch every base. OK, wrong game. But the criteria is to play their best and best known material, which is always a matter of opinion.
Right away, we can be pretty sure that we will hear “Who Are You,” ” Won’t Get Fooled Again” and “Baba O’Riley” with one other choice; possibly “Pinball Wizard” or “Can’t Explain.” The band needs to give the people what they want, but I’ve heard all of these songs enough time for this lifetime. Pete, write me, and I’ll send you a list of four worthwhile songs that haven’t been done to death.
Even though the brilliance of the Who has been obvious to anyone with a brain for a very long time, there are segments of the population that aren’t on the bus. The band can’t help making the wrong choices here, but we shouldn’t complain. The music industry has the annoying habit of selling the same product to the same people every few years. This show stands a chance of widening the circle, and some of these newbies will dig deep enough to sell a few more copies of Quadrophenia.
