Who are you?

Who are you? Who – Who? That’s the question that millions of people watching the Super Bowl XLIV halftime show were probably asking.

The Who, better known as Roger Daltry and Pete Townsend (the two other original members offed themselves with drugs before Columbus came to America) would have been far better suited to star in a halftime commercial for the AARP rather than performing as the halftime musical guests.

Now I’m not a teenager myself, but the Who was already past their prime when I was in high school. Since then, they have come and gone depending on when they needed an infusion of cash into their bank accounts. They have literally disappeared for decades, only to reunite every time Halley’s Comet appears in the sky. Roger Daltry sounded like a rooster trying to crow with a bad case of laryngitis, (which is the norm for him for the last couple of decades) and Pete Townsend looked like a whacked-out geezer who should be sitting on a park bench feeding the pigeons.

Just as some athletes, many musical acts don’t seem to know when to give it up. Last night’s performance should really be the Who’s last. Don’t get me wrong, there are still many performers in the same age bracket as the Who, who are still very viable and still very talented – some even get better with age. The great Charlie Daniels is 73 years old, and he’s better in every way than he was 20 – 25 years ago. The other problem with the Who is that because of their constant on again – off again retirements, they haven’t built a fan base that crosses generational lines. Most of their hard-core fans from the sixties and seventies have probably died from drug overdoses, or are too embarrassed now to admit that they were once fans.

I don’t know the research that was done by the NFL and the producers of the Super Bowl that led them to book the Who, but I bet that some heads will be rolling once the stupidity of the choice comes into full scope. You can also bet that next year the NFL will overcompensate for their mistake and probably book someone like Miley Cyrus.

As for Roger Daltry and Pete Townsend, they should just chill out and enjoy their wealth, and find something else to do that doesn’t cause any further embarrassment to their children and grandchildren.