Whooooooo are you?

Hey kids,

Fabulous game last night -- close until the very end, when the only turnover of the entire contest wound up being a huge play. When all is said and done and people look back on the list of great all-time quarterbacks, you may need to cue up the Tracy Porter interception when talking about why John Elway and Tom Brady were better quarterbacks than Peyton Manning. And this Super Bowl won't be remembered as an all-time classic, like the last two years were, or the Montana-to-Taylor game, or the Rams-Titans nailbiter, or the Scott Norwood miss. But it was solid. (Exceptional job also by CBS. If you needed any further proof that Phil Simms is the best color analyst not named Cris Collinsworth, look no further than his breakdown of the Lance Moore 2-point conversion. Expertly handled.)

But that's neither here nor there. On to the Super Bowl music: I seem to be in the majority in thinking that The Who's halftime show was a whole lot of Roger and Pete in the sound mixing (rightfully so -- they're the only two original members left), and that the performance continued the NFL's post-Nipplegate tradition of safe, non-controversial acts and song choices.

Wait. The Who? Safe?

Yes, and yes. I was pleasantly surprised that neither of my worst fears were realized during the 12-minute spectacle: first, that they stayed away from "My Generation," which is an inappropriate choice for 60-somethings to sing, mostly because the band was only one-for-four (Keith Moon) on the infamous line, "I hope I die before I get old." Second, Mr. Daltrey exercised extremely good judgment during "Who Are You" by refusing to come close to the "aaaah, who the .... are you!" line heard on the original recording. Such an occurrence would have involved either a tacky let-me-move-the-microphone-away-while-I-curse-just-for-the-hell-of-it moment, or a lengthy bleep by CBS, which would have robbed the performance of some of its integrity. No, this was a very, very tasteful halftime show -- no drum kits exploded and no guitars were smashed in the making. It wasn't in the league of either Bruce Springsteen last year or Tom Petty the year before, but considering these guys' ages, pretty respectable. (The post-9/11 U2 show is still the best in my opinion, by a Grand Canyon of a margin. And to be fair, the second-to-last commercial before halftime last night featured "My Generation," so it was there, kinda.)

That being said, here was the setlist:

"Pinball Wizard"
"Baba O'Riley"
"Who Are You"
"See Me, Feel Me"
"Won't Get Fooled Again"

It was a given that the three non-Tommy songs would be included, as they are not only the band's three most arena-ready tunes but the three themes to CBS's highly-profitable CSI franchise. And unfortunately, Pete Townshend revealed the setlist about two weeks before the show, so there was absolutely no element of surprise. That being said, I would have loved to have seen them open with "Who Are You" and then launch into a straight Who's Next medley, "Behind Blue Eyes" into "Bargain" into "Baba O'Riley" and then closing, of course, with "Won't Get Fooled Again." But I saw the original Broadway production of Tommy as a kid and I've seen the movie, so I appreciated the band's dip into history there. Before I heard Townshend's announcement, I was holding out hope for either "The Real Me" or "Magic Bus," but that's just personal preference.

If I had to pick a perfect, five-song Who playlist, though, here's what I would choose:

"Who Are You"
"1921" (from Tommy)
"Eminence Front"
"Love, Reign o'er Me"
"Baba O'Riley"

Ah, well. Guess iTunes and my own screaming and clapping for crowd noise will have to do.

-- pl

P.S. Queen Latifah's "America the Beautiful" was American, and beautiful, and also felt very contrived. Carrie Underwood, of American Idol fame, would have gotten a "pitchy" comment from Randy Jackson on her last note, but was otherwise spot-on with the National Anthem. Also, nice to see the 2010 HoF class a mere day after election, and did anybody else feel sorry for Len Dawson during his trophy march?