The Who - Music Band

The Who

Before enrolling in American Popular Music, I had decent background on a fair amount of bands and artists we have talked about in class, including, but not limited to, Eric Clapton, The Beatles, and The Eagles. These artists are some of my Dad’s favorite, so therefore I learned a lot about them from him; however, he has never been a fan of The Who. Therefore, I was rather excited when I was assigned a research paper on The Who; a band who I really knew nothing about before American Popular Music. In the following paper, I will provide details about The Who’s individual band members’ lives, as well as information in relation to the band in general.

The Who had four main members: Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, and Keith Moon. In addition to being the band’s guitarist, Pete Townshend took on the roll as the primary song writer. The most interesting fact I found about Townshend, is that he owns his own book publishing company. He actually published a book of his own called “Horse’s Neck” which consisted of a variety of short stories. Townshend has maintained a musical interest throughout his life, even after The Who broke up in 1983 (The Who Official Band Website).

Roger Daltrey has always been a passionate musician; to the point where he even designed many of the bands guitars (The Who Official Band Website). Recently, Daltrey’s passion for music resurfaced. According to Mayer Nissim, a reporter for Digital Spy, “Roger Daltrey has confirmed that he is to tour The Who's 1969 album Tommy in full.” This article is from April 27th, 2011. Through further research, I found that the band had joined again in 2006 and released their first album in twenty-four years (The Who Official Band Website). The upcoming tour will be made up of former band members Townshend and Daltrey, as well as five additional musicians, including Simon Townshend, Pete’s younger brother (Nissim).

Townshend and Daltry are said to be the only returning band members. Thus my curiosity was spurred as to what happened to John Entwistle and Keith Moon. Through browsing The Who’s website, I found that John died in 2002 of a heart attack. The most interesting fact I discovered about Entwistle was that he earned the nickname