Sell-Out Crowd

ON THE COVER OF THE WHO SELL OUT, the legendary British rock band’s 1967 album, lead guitarist, songwriter and resident genius Pete Townshend is pictured mocking commercialism by rolling a giant can of Odorono deodorant under his arm, while lead singer Roger Daltrey haplessly sits in a bathtub filled with Heinz Baked Beans. On the back cover, drummer Keith Moon squeezes the contents of a giant tube of Medac acne medicine onto a giant pimple; bassist John Entwistle, dressed in a Tarzan suit, extols the virtues of a Charles Atlas get-strong course.

As satirically dead-on as that album package was 40 years ago, it has proved painfully prophetic. Boomer icon Townshend, 61, who once took “a bow for the new revolution,” has recently gone utterly loopy in his capitulation to Madison Avenue’s biggest spenders.

Consider what Townshend has done in just the past few years: He allowed “Baba O’Riley,” his teen-angst epic and the opening track of Who’s Next, one of the best albums in rock history, to be used to sell SUVs and Hewlett-Packards. He sold his theme from the classic 1969 rock opera, Tommy, to help hype Claritin allergy medicine. He licensed the 1979 song “Who Are You?” to cable network TNN and the TV show CSI: Las Vegas. He sold “Love, Reign O’er Me” from the Who’s second rock opera, Quadrophenia, to 7-Up. And he licensed “Bargain,” another standout track on Who’s Next, to Nissan.

There’s more: Townshend also sold his 1982 solo hit “Let My Love Open the Door” to NBC and J.C. Penney. He allowed his 1966 song “Happy Jack” to be used to sell Hummers. He sold the classic 1971 “Won’t Get Fooled Again” to Chris Matthews for his MSNBC news-talk program Hardball. He sold his early hit “I Can’t Explain” to the PGA Tour/ABC Sports, “Pinball Wizard” to Saab and “Going Mobile” to CBS-TV in New York City. And he allowed “I Can See for Miles,” a track appropriately off The Who Sell Out, to be used by Sylvania Silverstar Headlights.

Granted, most of us trade at least some of our youthful principles for a little security and comfort. But how much money does Pete Townshend really need? And unfairly or not, we just expect a little more from our poets, artists, and idols —Townshend being all three. He was always more iconoclastic and aggressive than the flower children of that era—but he was a visionary. Now he’s a salesman.

Nevertheless, The Who show at the ipayOne Center on March 1, Daltrey’s 63rd birthday, is one of San Diego’s most highly anticipated concerts of 2007. The band’s latest CD, Endless Wire, its first full studio record since the underrated It’s Hard nearly 25 years ago, is good—sometimes even great. And the current tour is getting unlikely but unanimous raves.

Despite the absence of frenetic drummer Keith Moon, who died in 1978, and thunderous bass player John Entwistle, who died in 2002, Townshend, Daltrey and a stellar supporting cast that includes Ringo Starr’s son, Zac Starkey, on drums are playing with power, passion and purpose. Townshend and Daltrey know this could be their final scream, their final opportunity to rock the world before hanging up The Who banner for good and officially entering geezerhood.

But on this tour, in good conscience and for truth’s sake, Townshend should play every TV commercial that’s used one of his songs as a way of acknowledging that he’s sold these timeless rock classics, and to some degree his own legacy, to the highest bidder. Okay, we forgive you, Pete. Just please don’t sell “Behind Blue Eyes” to Acuvue color contact lenses, or we’re really outta here.

For ticket information, call 619-224-4171.

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