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COMMENTARY: Who makes the Who the Who? 
August 23, 2002
BY TOM MOON
PHILADEPHIA INQUIRER

Imagine the deliberations that went on in the Who camp
after the June 27 death of bassist John Entwistle. One
day they were getting ready for a tour, the next the
surviving members, shocked and grieving, were
confronted with existential questions about the
chemistry and composition of a rock band. 

They canceled a few dates, declined all interview
requests, then followed that old show-must-go-on
axiom. But before they made that decision, there had
to be some hand-wringing: What, exactly, constitutes
the Who? 

Is it the vision of songwriter Pete Townshend? Roger
Daltrey's defiant wail? Did the band's identity derive
from the defiant pounding of drummer Keith Moon, or
the agile, subterranean rumbling of Entwistle, the Ox?
Or was it the collision of wills and personalities, a
particular sonic alchemy that gave us some of the most
rousing rock of the '60s? 

And when you see the Who now, does who's playing the
songs matter as much as the songs themselves? Is it a
band, or a Who revue? 

An enduring myth about rock bands is that even when
the musicians are less than competent, their energy
and character are part of the identity. But as beloved
groups have lost members, we've seen different
approaches to this problem. 

The Rolling Stones kept right on after Brian Jones
left in 1969. When Led Zeppelin's John Bonham died in
1980, the other members immediately retired the band
name. Singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page
have reunited to play Zep material, but under their
own names -- acknowledging the original foursome's
special chemistry, and signaling fans not to wait for
the comeback tour. 

Zeppelin's high-road approach hasn't become an
industry model, unfortunately. Key members of Lynyrd
Skynyrd were lost in an airplane crash in 1977, and
the survivors have tried several times to regroup,
with limited success. 

As the surviving members of the Who puzzled this out,
they had to contemplate when to fade away. 

Just because there's still a market for the Who
doesn't mean that market should be served. For while
the band symbolizes survival against long odds every
time it takes the stage, its revue-style approach --
and its treatment of musicians as interchangeable
parts -- can't hope to approach the same energy and
sense of purpose that distinguished the original Who. 

Any group of musicians can make "we won't get fooled
again" reasonably rousing. It takes four true
believers, pooling their talents, to make "hope I die
before I get old" mean something.


=====
-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com
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