Who Likes The Who

I like Zeppelin too but The Who were damn good.

Oh I get it. No sir. I Won't Get Fooled Again.

who?

The Who are arguably the greatest Rock 'n' Roll band to date. Zeppelin was a rock band, but the two bands embraced different genres of rock. Zep was metal, The Who was rhythm and blues. They were, and are, both amazing. Both had fantastic lead singers. Both had great musicians, though Jimmy Paige was a better guitarist than Pete Townsend. The Who had better composing than Zep, and created the Rock Opera format, first with Tommy and then with the superior Quadrophenia (one of the best-recorded rock albums I have ever heard.) In wild man Keith Moon, The Who had the second-best drummer in rock history, Ginger Baker of Cream being the all-time best, and probably the best drummer, period, in the history of all pop music, and that includes Gene Krupa, so there is no shame in being second-best. The Who, with Live At Leeds, gave us what is still the greatest live rock album ever, in terms of performance and quality of recording, including a complete live rendition of Tommy. Years later--and I love that they did this--Zep released historic tapes of several of their live concerts, and the album, How The West Was Won, shot straight to Number 1. It was like Paige was saying, "We haven't been a band in years and, fuck you very much, we can still do a Number 1 album any time we want." Both bands are exceptional. So are The Rolling Stones, and Queen, and, to a lesser extent, 10 Years After. I saw The Who, The Stones and 10 Years in concert and I'll remember it all till the day I die, and I hope beyond. Whatever band you think is best, you're right. But I can state this for a fact: No band, not even Jefferson Airplane (who would play sets that went on for 2 days), not even Hendrix (who is a god to me), not even Queen (who I think, on balance, truly is the greatest rock band thus far in history) can equal the sheer, stark ENERGY of The Who. Talkin' 'bout my g-g-g-generation . . .