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The Who: Past Perfect
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Kids across the U.S. will be asking themselves the same question this Thursday: The Who?
That’s the night that VH-1’s third annual Rock Honors, a tribute to classic rock band The Who, airs. The concert was taped Saturday in Los Angeles, with appearances by Sean Penn, Rainn Wilson, Adam Sandler, Patrick Stump, and Coldplay; and featuring covers by Pearl Jam, the Foo Fighters, Flaming Lips, Incubus, and Tenacious D. The show ended with a live performance by The Who’s lone surviving original members Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey.
A great show, but permeated by the slightly sour smell of sadness. This is why I hate lifetime achievement awards. No matter how glowing the kudos and how deep the genuflecting, it’s the industry’s way of telling you to move on. The people Townsend and Daltrey claimed as “My Generation” all have fake hips and pacemakers and have boarded the Magic Bus for Florida. Time for them to follow suit is the subtext.
“Wanna know why they were the greatest? Because they were the first ones to really rock hard," said Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass.
Typical of these kinds of ceremonies. Everything was past tense. Like The Who are those straggling party guests who don’t get the message that it’s bedtime. We’ve had a wonderful evening, but now that you’ve built FM radio, redefined pop music, created rock opera (and probably music video), and raised guitar smashing to an art form, we’re getting sleepy.
