COMMENTARY

Who makes the Who the Who?

BY TOM MOON

PHILADEPHIA INQUIRER

Imagine the deliberations that went on in the Who camp after the June 27 death of bassist John Entwistle. One day they were getting ready for a tour, the next the surviving members, shocked and grieving, were confronted with existential questions about the chemistry and composition of a rock band.

They canceled a few dates, declined all interview requests, then followed that old show-must-go-on axiom. But before they made that decision, there had to be some hand-wringing: What, exactly, constitutes the Who?

Is it the vision of songwriter Pete Townshend? Roger Daltrey's defiant wail? Did the band's identity derive from the defiant pounding of drummer Keith moon, or the agile, subterranean rumbling of Entwistle, the Ox? Or was it the collision of wills and personalities, a particular sonic alchemy that gave us some of the most rousing rock of the '60s?

The Who with Robert Plant 7:30 p.m. Friday The Palace of Auburn Hills I-75 at Exit 81 248-377-0100 $59.50-$165

And when you see the Who now, does who's playing the songs matter as much as the songs themselves? Is it a band, or a Who revue?

An enduring myth about rock bands is that even when the musicians are less than competent, their energy and character are part of the identity. But as beloved groups have lost members, we've seen different approaches to this problem.

The Rolling Stones kept right on after Brian Jones left in 1969. When Led Zeppelin's John Bonham died in 1980, the other members immediately retired the band name. Singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page have reunited to play Zep material, but under their own names 6 acknowledging the original foursome's special chemistry, and signaling fans not to wait for the comeback tour.

Zeppelin's high-road approach hasn't become an industry model, unfortunately. Key members of Lynyrd Skynyrd were lost in an airplane crash in 1977, and the survivors have tried several times to regroup, with limited success.

As the surviving members of the Who puzzled this out, they had to contemplate when to fade away.

Just because there's still a market for the Who doesn't mean that market should be served. For while the band symbolizes survival against long odds every time it takes the stage, its revue-style approach 6 and its treatment of musicians as interchangeable parts 6 can't hope to approach the same energy and sense of purpose that distinguished the original Who.

Any group of musicians can make "we won't get fooled again" reasonably rousing. It takes four true believers, pooling their talents, to make "hope I die before I get old" mean something.