The Who Are the Best Rock Band Ever

The Who make me want to play rock music. Even in their latter stages, with big laser stage shows, and backing tracks of sythesizers, at the heart of things, you’re still talking about basic rock music. I feel like musicians, and music nerds give them enough credit, and the general public know “We Won’t Get Fooled Again” from decades of ceaseless play on classic rock radio, but really, was there ever such a combination of talent to ever record or perform?

Look at the individual components. You’ve got the best rock guitarist, best rock drummer, best rock bassist, and the best rock voice, all mixed in one band. Taken one step further, the greatest guitarist was also the greatest rock songwriter ever. The combination of these elements is unmatched in rock history. It is all that is essential to rock music. There are beats that pound you over and over again. There are rises and falls, and crescendos which became clichéd only after the Who made it so.

The Beatles might have been the greatest musical rock act ever, but really, when it comes down to it, no band ever made rock music like the Who. Those four components, Townsend, Moon, Entwhistle, and Daltrey were literally unstoppable. They were a force. Compared to them, the Beatles sure are pretty, but they don’t make you blood pump. The Rolling Stones don’t even stand a chance in comparison.

Heavy Metal, punk, hardcore, and anything thumping and vital owe the Who a tremendous debt, and though many may aspire to match their greatness, it simply isn’t going to happen.

I’m writing this as I sit on a plane, and watching a VH1 Classic program on the making of Who’s Next, an album synonymous with “arena rock” and regardless of the fact that I’ve heard these songs a million times, and they’re not even really my favorite Who songs, I’m bouncing my seat, wishing that I had a guitar in my hands, and an amp cranked up so I could play along with them.

A loftier part of my brain wishes mightily that I could learn to play drums and even attempt to reach the relentless power of Keith Moon’s beats.

In my guitar playing history, I’ve never had as much fun as I did playing the guitar parts of Who songs we’d covered. At one point, I met this guy David, a recovering drug addict, who was an incredible drummer. He’d played professionally in rock bands for a while before he blew it with substance abuse, and ended up working a normal boring job. His idol was Keith Moon, and it showed in his playing, and apparently in his lifestyle. It so happened that my favorite guitar player was Pete Townsend, and on the few magical times that we managed to get together, and play, I’d never experienced anything like it.

David was good. He literally could have toured with the Who after Moon died, and if Ringo’s son was unavailable.

At one point, he gave me what might have been the greatest compliment I’ve ever received, when he told me that I played more like Townsend than any guitarist he’d ever played with. I remember that every time I pick up my instrument, which is far more rare than I’d like, to be honest.

Part of the reason I know the comparison to Pete is valid is because I was never that good of a technical player. I don’t really think Pete was either. He was a brilliant musician, a claim I’d never make of myself, but when he just plugged in and played along with the guys, it was all about feeling, and never about technique. It was about attitude and a strong undeniable beat. The fact stands that there’s very little in this world more satisfying than the sound and feel of an electric guitar channeled through a crunchy amp, and striking a single, resonant A chord. It’s one finger, laid out flat. Anyone could do it, but there’s something special about the way Pete did it, and the way I love to do it that is so expressive that I fail to describe it in words. It’s why rock music works.

And the Who is the best rock band ever. Other bands will communicate better, or write better lyrics, or make prettier sounds, but no one ever encompassed rock like they do, and no matter how many times I’ve seen it, whenever I see any footage of them performing, it sparks a deep desire to do the same.