The Who: Then and now, A to Z

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

The Who of yesteryear: from left, Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle and Keith Moon. Moon died of an accidental prescription-pill overdose in 1978, and Entwistle died in 2002 of a cocaine-related heart attack, but Daltrey and Townshend are still going strong four decades after the band's beginnings in London. Associated Press photos

Roger Daltrey, left, and Pete Townshend perform at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, Mass., in May. They're set to perform Tuesday at the Blaisdell Center and Wednesday at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center.

The Who 7:30 p.m. Tuesday Blaisdell Arena $65, $95 (877) 750-4400 7:30 p.m. Wednesday Maui Arts & Cultural Center $95 (808) 242-7469

But, really, who gives a Happy Jack? The Who are back in town!

Well, at least two of the original lot of 'em are. Pete and Rog. The moody lead guitarist/songwriter extraordinaire and the scrappy muscular-voiced frontman who still insists on a mike cord. The last original members of one of rock's greatest, most influential, most controversial and loudest bands.

The Who's shows this week at Blaisdell Arena (nearly sold out) and Maui Arts & Cultural Center (tickets still available) are the band's first in the Islands since 1967. They opened that one for the guys who gave a forever grateful world "I'm Henry VII, I Am." Of course The Who trashed the stage first.

You'll find details on that show and 25 other bits of Rog, Pete, Keith and John minutiae in our A-to-Z guide of interesting, if not always necessarily essential, Who facts.

Long live rock.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, The Who: vocalist Roger Daltrey, guitarist/vocalist Pete Townshend (1964-present); bassist John Entwistle (1964-2002), drummer Keith Moon (1964-1978), drummer Kenney Jones (1978-1982). Current side players include keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick, drummer Zak Starkey (Ringo's son), bassist Pino Palladino and rhythm guitarist Simon Townshend (Pete's brother).

Beginnings. Townshend and Entwistle met in London as grade-schoolers in the 1950s, eventually forming a Dixieland band. Entwistle left in 1962 to join Daltrey in a rock band called The Detours, and suggested Townshend join when that band's rhythm guitarist left. Daltrey switched from lead guitar to vocals, Townshend moved into his spot, and Moon replaced the drummer (see "Y," below). The band became The Who in early '64.

C.S.I. Producers of the hit CBS series are either The Who's biggest fans or extremely superstitious. They've paid the band serious cash for use of its songs as opening themes for "C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation" ("Who Are You"), "C.S.I. Miami" ("Won't Get Fooled Again") and the fall debuting "C.S.I. New York" ("Baba O'Riley").

Durst, Fred, and Limp Bizkit. Responsible for the worst-ever cover of a Who song, a painful 2003 revisiting of "Behind Blue Eyes." We all know what it's like to be the sad man now, Fred.

Essential Who. Studio albums: "Tommy" (1970), "Who's Next" (1971), "Quadrophenia" (1973), "Who Are You" (1978). Compilations: "Then & Now: 1964-2004 (2004), "The Ultimate Collection" (2002). Live albums: "Live At Leeds" (1970).

F-f-f-fade away. Not the F-word, kids. Daltrey had to learn "My Generation" so quickly that his famous lryical stutter, "Why don't you all, just f-f-f-fade away," actually resulted from an inability to read Townshend's scrawled lyrics.

Goodbye. The only Who road trek officially called the band's "farewell tour" was its 1982 one. Its success eventually begat reunion gigs/tours in 1985, 1989, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2002 and beyond. Each successive gig/tour is rumored as the band's swan song, but Daltrey told the London Daily Telegraph last year, "As long as Pete's there on guitar and I'm there to sing the lead, you're going to have The Who. ... We're going to keep playing until we drop dead." With Daltrey, 60, and Townshend, 59, still going strong, we'll probably all die before these two are too old to go on the road.

High Numbers, The. Band name The Who briefly adopted in late 1964. After The High Numbers first single "I'm The Face/Zoot Suit" and on-stage fashion choice of dressy suits flopped with Mod audiences, the band dressed down and changed its name back to The Who.

"I Can See For Miles." According to Townshend, "The ultimate Who record."

Join Together. The Who have played some of rock's most famous gigs, including The Monterey International Pop Festival (1967), Woodstock Music & Arts Fair (1969) and Live Aid (1985).

Keith Moon, interior designer. Among the hotel-room redesigner's projects on the road: blowing up a toilet with cherry bombs (New York, 1968); chopping an entire room's worth of furniture into kindling (Saskatoon, 1968); carving a huge hole in a wallto get to the next room (New York, 1971); (with Townshend) ramming a marble coffee table through a wall and, eventually, through a window and into the pool along with a TV set (Montreal, 1973).

Low points on vinyl. The post-Moon "It's Hard" (1982), except for "Eminence Front"; and "Face Dances" (1981), except for "You Better You Bet."

Moore, Michael vs. Pete Townshend. Miffed at Townshend's refusal to allow him use of "Won't Get Fooled Again" to follow up President Bush's final line in "Fahrenheit 9/11," Moore told Film Comment magazine that the guitarist nixed the request because he is "not a fan of Michael Moore's and in fact supports the war and supports Tony Blair and doesn't want the song used in any way that would make Blair look bad." Replied Townshend on his Web site, "It seems to me that this aspect of (Moore's) nature is not unlike that of the powerful and willfull man at the center of his new documentary. ... I wish him all the best with his new movie ... but he'll have to work very, very hard to convince me that a man with a camera is going to change the world more effectively than a man with a guitar."

New Who. The first studio tracks by The Who in more than two decades — the semi-autobiographical "Real Good Looking Boy" and Entwistle tribute "Old Red Wine" — were included in the band's umpteenth retrospective "The Who Then and Now! (1964-2004)," released in March. Townshend penned both songs.

One American Top 10 hit, like, ever. Though The Who have always been a huge live draw in America, the band has only claimed one Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hit, 1967's "I Can See For Miles," which peaked at No. 9. The Who had 16 Top 40 hits on the Hot 100 between 1967 and 1982. Ultimately two of The Who's most beloved songs, "My Generation" and "I Can't Explain" peaked at No. 74 and No. 93, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100. The Who have also never had a No. 1 album stateside.

Possession charges cleared. After a four-month investigation by London Metropolitan Police, Townshend was cleared of January 2003 charges that he possessed indecent images of children. The guitarist had been arrested for paying to see a child pornography Web site in 1999. In his defense, Townshend said that he had hoped the images would jog memories of possible sexual abuse against him as a child for an autobiography he was writing. Charges were dropped when police found no downloaded images of child abuse on seized computers from his home and office.

"Quadrophenia." Released in 1973, The Who's second successful Townshend-crafted double-disc rock opera (see "T," below, for the first) explores the darker side of the British Mod scene that first embraced the band.

Recent set list. Sydney, Australia on Wednesday. "I Can't Explain," "Substitute," "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere," "Baba O'Riley," "Behind Blue Eyes," "Real Good Looking Boy," "Who Are You," "5.15," "Love Reign O'er Me," "Drowned," "Eminence Front," "The Kids Are Alright," "You Better You Bet," "My Generation/Old Red Wine," "Won't Get Fooled Again," "Pinball Wizard," "Amazing Journey/Sparks," "See Me Feel Me," "Listening To You."

Sept. 7, 1978. Keith Moon, 31, dies of an accidental prescription-pill overdose soon after the release of "Who Are You," the band's multimillion-selling comeback album after a three-year hiatus. Daltrey, Townshend and Entwistle have all said the band truly ended when the mercurial Who-defining drummer died. Townshend and Daltrey move on when Entwistle, 57, dies of an cocaine-related heart attack in 2002.

That deaf, dumb blind kid. The words "rock opera" were introduced to the musical lexicon with the release of The Who's legendary 1969 double concept album "Tommy." A Townshend-composed musical tale of a sensorily-challenged child who finds his raison d'Ætre in pinball, "Tommy" begat a 1975 film version starring Daltrey and a 1993 Broadway musical. The stage version won five Tony Awards.

Unwelcome in Australia. Who shows there this week were the band's first since 1968, when they were booted from the country for generally unruly behavior, and drinking a bottle of beer on an airplane from Adelaide to Melbourne. The Who wasn't banned from the country for life, but Townshend vowed he'd never return. After several recent years trying, Daltrey finally convinced a still reluctant Townshend to return. "We were working on new songs (last year) and it's not good being in a studio for a year, for me," Daltrey told the Daily Telegraph last month. "So I said, 'Let's go to Australia then,' and amazingly, he said yes."

Very first and only Hawai'i show. A September 1967 opening gig for an already-way-uncool Herman's Hermits at Honolulu International Center (now the Blaisdell Arena). Big in England but just hitting in America, The Who were called "nobod(ies)" by The Advertiser, while the competition's concert review mixed up Entwistle and Daltrey. Welcome back, guys.

"Won't Get Fooled Again." In a recent fan poll by British music magazine Mojo, the all-time greatest Who song.

X-ing guitars. Townshend's signature on-stage habit of decimating perfectly good electric guitars began early on. Tired of dealing with the substandard sound system during one of The Who's regular gigs at London's famous Marquee Club, Townshend killed the first of untold hundreds of his guitars in 1964.

"Your drummer's crap!" Pointed criticism Moon famously uttered after jumping on stage at an early Daltrey/Townshend/Entwistle gig, smashing the drum kit and demanding membership.

Zappa, Frank. Fledgling thespian Moon's first acting gig was as "The Hot Nun" in Zappa's 1971 "200 Motels," a debaucherous part-fiction/part real-life view of a Mothers of Invention tour.

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8005.