Early this week I gave the Who's Superbowl halftime show thumbs up and since then I've heard some people say that it was, among other things, uninspired. Uninspired my ass! Zak Starkey nailed the drums, Pete appeared to be totally into it, and Roger's voice was on, not to mention the custom Who light show. Who's complaining?
What's this? A rock band that can actually play their instruments and really sing. Does anyone remember what song or songs Janet whats her face sang with Justin what's his name?
Peter Townshend says that he originally wanted to play Won't Get Fooled Again, Baba O'Riley and Who Are You (as I see it, the best part of the CSI TV shows)
He tells Rolling Stone "I thought we'd just do the CSI songs - my pitch was to do three regular-length songs, and fall back on what was very familiar. But Roger Daltrey felt he needed something that gave him more narrative scope, as he described it.
"He and my brother Simon, our touring guitarist, and one of the lieutenants in the crew put together a track. Surprisingly, I thought it worked really well.
"Roger and I have a great relationship these days, so I trusted him to do that job."
Pete says he was never fazed by the notion of how many people might be watching (turns out it was about 106 million). "When the NFL started to talk to us, one of the things they spoke about was the numbers. I said, 'I've done a solo show in front of 80million people on TV'. The numbers make no difference.
"It's best if I tell the truth: I felt nothing. It doesn't matter if it's in a great big football stadium or a little club somewhere - as soon as I get close to a stage I feel at home, very safe and secure. It feels completely normal."
Granted, one thing Pete says was missing from the game? Cheerleaders. For the full interview with Townshend, click through to Rolling Stone.com
Meanwhile, 40 years ago this weekend, came the recording of the Who album The New York Times would name as 'the best live rock album ever made'.
Here's a montage of footage from the Who Live at Leeds University, where they performend two shows, Valentines Day 1970 and the following day.
Enjoy,
Jeff.