ROCK

The Who Keep Rocking Along

By BRUCE MEYER

United Press International

Taking time out from his budding film career to resume the more familiar role of rock 'n' roll star, Roger Daltrey launched simultaneous attacks on a plate of eggs benedict and a variety of tape recorders occupying the rest of his breakfast table.

"The Who — it's a unique situation," he said. "How many chances in your lifetime do you get to spend 11 years with four people who don't particularly get on — it's true, we don't mix socially — and yet come together and create the best rock 'n' roll there is?"

Well, Roger, most of us don't get any chances at all. But then, no one would have given The Who much of a chance, either.

If, in 1966, members of the neophyte rock journalism fraternity had been polled to determine the top bands most likely to succeed over the long haul — to still be around 10 years later — The Who would certainly have occupied the cellar on every list.

A good band, sure — but The Who were as destructive internally as they were on stage.

For every guitar Pete Townshend smashed, for every one of Keith Moon's bashed cymbals and ripped snares, there were a dozen arguments, threats, outright fights offstage.

In 1966, it would have been obvious that The Who would break up sooner or later — probably sooner.

But it never happened.

Dozens of other bands came and went, but The Who just kept right on scrapping with one another and making fascinating, powerful music. Even when they missed (as with Townshend's overly ambitious "Quadrophenia" of a couple of years ago), they maintained their standard of innovative excellence.

And when they hit (the early singles, the magnificent "Who's Next" and, of course, "Tommy"), there just wasn't anyone better.

Pete Townshend is the brain behind the band; he writes virtually all of the material; works the songs out in his home studio and presents them, more or less complete, in the form of "demo" tapes. "After 11 years of doing it," says Daltrey, "Pete knows exactly how the song's gonna be. So there's not really much change from his demos to the finished track — except that the songs sound like The Who, instead of Pete. It's not just the note you sing in a song, it's how you sing it."

The Who's 1975 tour was one of the major events of the year, accompanied as it was by a brand new album, "The Who by Numbers" (MCA-2161), which after the over-produced and somewhat pretentious "Quadrophenia" represents a welcome step backward.

A straightforward collection of tunes, with very little of the diddling about characteristic of Townshend's more experimental efforts, "Numbers" is the happy follow-up to "Who's Next" we've been waiting for since 1971.

Happy is the word. "Numbers," though lacking in some of the brilliance of "Who's Next," displays the Townshend sense of humor better than any Who collection since the early years of "Happy Jack," "I'm A Boy" and "Majik Bus."

It is, all in all, a fine start on the second 11 years.