Super Bowl halftime: The Who sell out

Somehow, I can't imagine rock history playing out this way:

WEST END OF LONDON, 1959 (UPI) - A gangly Pete Townshend goes to the mirror with a guitar strapped across his shoulders. He fingers a power chord, cranks his arm in a windmill-like motion and bellows, "HELLO, MIAMI!"

The future leader of The Who then sings, "That deaf, dumb and blind boy, sure plays a mean football ..."

No, it's highly doubtful that the young "mods" who later became one of the Monsters of Rock included a halftime gig at the Super Bowl among their dreams of stardom. Or the theme songs for CSI, for that matter.

But Miami is exactly where the now 64-year-old Mr. Townshend, Roger Daltrey and the rest of The Who will be on Sunday evening, seen by about 150 million fans as the Saints and Colts take a break from their Super Bowl XLIV battle.

(that's "44" for you non-Roman readers, rather than "extra large with an IV")

Before we discuss how and why the NFL picked such cutting-edge entertainment for the halftime show (what, Gordon Lightfoot wasn't available?), let's take a quick instant-replay booth review of the game's history.

Or, at least, its history as entertainment.

Believe it or not, the first Super Bowl (played in 1967 between Green Bay and Kansas City) didn't have a pregame or halftime rock show. In fact, halftime entertainment that year consisted of either watching the Anaheim High School drill team or counting the 30,000-plus empty seats at the L.A. Coliseum.

Needless to say, in the ensuing decades, everything about the game has gotten bigger, including the halftime entertainment.

The entertainers remained fairly low-key by today's standards through the 1980s (no offense intended, Up with People), until in 1993, some singer named Michael Jackson strolled out onto the XXVII halftime stage.

Since then, the NFL has made sure to hire big names as Super Bowl entertainment, to make sure we don't spend more time hitting the kitchen table buffet than we do in front of the TV during intermission.

The past five years of entertainers reads like a wing of the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, as the NFL went for classic rockers in the wake of 2004's infamous "wardrobe malfunction." Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Prince, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen have rocked our chips and dip.

Which brings us back to Daltrey and Townshend, the two 60-somethings left standing from the original Who lineup. Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, that duo (along with deceased bassist John Entwistle and the late, great Keith Moon on drums) recorded some incredible music and blew away concert crowds with their passionate performances.

But in the past 30 years? Well, they've put out one album since 1982, and it's doubtful we'll hear any tunes from "Endless Wire" on Sunday.

Instead, Townshend has promised the halftime show will include a medley of the following hits: "Pinball Wizard," "Who Are You," "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again."

Call me a cynic, but I can't help but notice that the latter three songs just happen to be the introductory music to three shows on the same TV network that will broadcast the Super Bowl.

In fact, you don't need to be a Crime Scene Investigator to smell the stench of cross-promotion here. C'mon Pete, there are at least a dozen other Who songs better than the synth-driven, repetitive "Who Are You." There's only one reason it's being played.

Townshend and the rest of The Who have come a long way. More than 40 years ago, their "The Who Sell Out" album mocked the commercialism of music with fake ads and radio jingles for everything from baked beans to pimple ointment.

I guess the joke's on them in 2010 as they belt out songs that are now best known as theme music to the CSI shows. Pass the bean and cheese dip. And go Saints!

Joel Donofrio is a copy editor at the Coeur d'Alene Press and the proud owner of several Who and/or Pete Townshend albums. E-mail him at jdonofrio@cdapress.com.