Back when The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and The Who and all those other titans of pop's Golden Age were just starting out in the halycon days of the '60s, none of them could have guessed they'd still be a going concern nearly five decades later. And actually, judging from countless interviews with your Lennons, your Jaggers and your Townshends, they all would have predicted the exact opposite. I wonder how they all felt when they realized their success had transformed them from energetic upstarts to lumbering institutions? They came, they conquered, they became part of the cultural wallpaper.
With that in mind, I don't know what I was expecting when it was announced The Who would be playing this year's Super Bowl Halftime Show, but I certainly wasn't anticipating anything as cringe-worthy as watching Townshend and Daltry croak through a medley of "Pinball Wizard," "Baba O'Riley," "Who You Are," "See Me, Feel Me" and "Won't Get Fooled Again."
"Hope I die before I get old," indeed.
Frankly, I'd prefer to remember them like this:
Or even this:
