"In their early days, with songs like My Generation and guitar-smashing antics on stage, The Who symbolized rebellious youth," said Harris Allen, a disc jockey at New York City rock station WNEW-FM. "But as they grew older, their songs matured as well, dealing with more complex psychological themes while retaining the powerful musical punch."

"I'd say The Who, more than any other band, provided the soundtrack as the baby boom generation grew up. Yet their music has proved to be so timeless that it's been embraced just as much by the next generation."

The Who found its early trademark when Townshend accidentally broke his guitar on stage one night at the Railway Hotel and the crowd went wild when he finished it off. At least, that's how the legend goes. The gimmick worked, and brought more people in to hear the music and see the show.

But the pressures of touring only served to magnify whatever artistic differences the band members had and, for a while, the destruction of instruments at the end of the show served as a release. That, and destroying hotel rooms, downing Southern Comfort and using each other as punching bags.

The Who — Townshend, Entwistle, Daltrey and Keith Moon — formed in London in 1964, but didn't click with the public until an appearance on the British television show Ready, Steady, Go. Stateside, The Who didn't make an impression on the American public until the 1967 single Happy Jack, which reached No. 24 on the Billboard charts.

The band's career really took off with the 1969 release of Tommy, a 90-minute rock opera written by Townshend. The story of a deaf, dumb and blind boy who becomes a pinball champion and then a despot, Tommy was heralded as both a major breakthrough in opera and the downfall of the art form.

Youths everywhere identified with The Who, thanks to songs like Baba O'Reilly (with its chorus, "Teen-age wasteland"), Won't Get Fooled Again and Bargain from the 1971 album Who's Next.

Townshend followed that up with his second rock opera, Quadrophenia, the story of the tortured inner life of the Mods, British youths who followed the escapist maxim "It is best to look good, and to feel good, if only for the moment."

The late-'70s punk movement stole The Who's trademark power chords and social commentary and turned it up a notch or two, but the band kept right on rocking.

Concerts featured Townshend on guitar, brandishing his arm in a distinct and often-copied windmill motion; Daltrey on vocals, whipping his microphone around and miraculously catching it at just the right moment; Moon's emphatic and crazed drumming; and Entwistle on bass, just standing there observing the whole mess.

But as the band members got older, some found it difficult to grow up in a young man's medium.

The album Who Are You was the last one by the original band. Moon died in 1978 of an overdose of a sedative that had been prescribed to curb his alcoholism. Kenny Jones, formerly of the Small Faces, took Moon's place. A year later, the band released The Kids Are Alright, a concert documentary of its early years.

More disaster followed The Who in December 1979 when 11 people were trampled to death or asphyxiated in a rush for seats at a concert at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum. That tragedy led to the end of what was known as "festival seating" at most rock concerts. Since then, concertgoers have purchased assigned seats, except for some stadium floors.

The rock 'n' roll lifestyle took its toll on Townshend as well. He went through many personal problems around this time, including alcoholism. The man who wrote "I hope I die before I get old" was finding it difficult to cope with fame and age.

The Who played what the group termed its final tour in 1982, but solo projects by Townshend, Entwistle and Daltrey have kept the band members in the public eye until its current tour.

Reporter Barbara Isaacs contributed to this story.