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"Talkin' 'Bout Our Generation."

The majority of the crowd was of junior-high and high-school age, with a sprinkling of older Who fans. In fact, most of the audience was not yet born when The Who recorded its 1965 teen anthem, "My Generation," with its famous line, "Hope I die before I get old."

Pete Townshend is 37, and instead of worrying about dying before he gets old, he now writes about fears of middle age. But when the band cranked up for yet another go-round of "My Generation," it was one of the most enthusiastically received numbers of the show. Hard to tell whether the audience or the band felt younger during the tune.

At the end of a spectacular performance of "Cry If You Want" (in which Daltrey ran around the stage swinging his microphone from a long cord, and guitarist Townshend leapt about, throwing his arm windmill-fashion in circles as he bashed out some of the noisiest, loudest guitar solos of the day), two teen-aged girls on the outfield turned to each other with raised eyebrows. "Not bad for an old man!" one shouted. "Yeah!" the other agreed.

As usual with promoter Bill Graham's "Day on the Green" concerts at the stadium, the stage was constructed (in the rain) at the far end of center field. Huge speaker columns were set at either side of the 100-foot-long platform. In front of them were draped 30-foot-high screens, with "W-H-O" spelled out across them, the "W" over the left speaker columns, "O" over the right, and the bar of the 'H' formed by the awning over center stage.

By the time The Who came on at 6:15 p.m., the sky had begun to darken, and midway through their set, the nighttime setting, with tens of thousands of fans crowded together on the field, had become a fantasy world of loud rock and brilliantly colored lighting effects.

The Who finished off a 25-song performance with the only non-original song, a remake of the Isley Brothers' "Twist and Shout." Fans cheered, screamed and looked skyward as a fireworks display capped the evening.

At 3 p.m. opening act T-Bone Burnett kicked off with a strong half hour of rockabilly-based rock. A former member of Bob Dylan's band, Burnett stuck to dance-oriented material. And, with an exquisite touch of subtle moralizing, he dedicated his version of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" to former A's manager Billy Martin.

English punk band The Clash followed with a powerful hour of heavily political songs, ranging from "Spanish Bombs," through "Guns of Brixton" to "English Civil War." Most of the crowd apparently was well aware of The Clash's music, although the band hasn't really broken through to pop radio.

It was late enough in the year that singer Joe Strummer didn't need to fear sunburn on his mostly shaven head, topped by a Mohawk hair strip down the middle.

The hour-long breaks between acts was filled with various forms of entertainment. The stadium scoreboard was lit with rock trivia questions (and answers), along the lines of "What was the name of the retired rock star played by Mick Jagger in the film 'Performance.'"

Giant beach balls were tossed from the stage into the crowd after The Clash's performance. The balls bounced along on a sea of hands around the outfield and infield.

The backstage area was another splendid example of why rock bands praise Bill Graham. The entrance was a lane of artificial turf through wooden fences that displayed framed posters of past Days on the Green. They led along mobile home trailers that served as the three bands' dressing rooms, back to a barbecue pit, basketball court, outdoor eating area and a gray, winged-dog water fountain.

At the last minute The Who decided they wanted to be given the same treatment Graham had accorded the Stones last year, so half the backstage area was blocked off for the band members only. It seemed a pointless gesture because all afternoon the backstage area was unusually quiet and uncluttered, so much so that Clash members were able to casually walk about and talk to visitors without interruption.