The Least Popular The Who Member Might Surprise You
The phrase "needs no introduction" was cobbled together for bands like The Who, but in case you glossed over them somehow in their decades-spanning career, here's a quick refresher. Per TheWho.com, they formed in the early 1960s, and after shifts in the name and lineup, solidified in 1964 with singer Roger Daltrey, bassist John Entwistle, drummer Keith Moon, and singer-songwriter-guitarist Pete Townshend. They gave us the epic, trippy rock opera Tommy, the edgy and moody Quadrophenia (whose 1979 film adaptation, according to IMDB, featured Sting in his first film role as "Ace Face," mod extraordinaire), and sold out about every stadium they played.
Moon's drumming was the stuff of legends when he was alive, never mind after his premature death by overdose in 1978, and (again, per TheWho.com) Entwistle's innovative bass playing earned him his own devoted fanbase (he, sadly, died of a heart attack in 2002). And despite Daltrey's role as lead singer, Townshend is regarded as the primary songwriter and all-around creative force in The Who (per Rolling Stone), not to mention his extraordinary skill and showmanship with a guitar.
Daltrey also had a history of distancing himself from his bandmates because he, unlike Entwistle, Moon, and Townshend, didn't dig the whole drug thing, often staying at a different hotel to avoid the inevitable chaos. "Somebody had to be the sensible one," he told the Irish Examiner.
'He don't like the look of me. I don't like the look of him'
"I was the straight one with three addicts in the band," he said. "In the Seventies, quite often I'd stay in different hotels because we got thrown out of so many." The Irish Examiner also used the term "sex symbol" to describe Daltrey, which doesn't exactly endear a guy to people who loved The Who's rough-and-tumble working-class image.
Another strike against Daltrey for the legions of fans in Team Townshend was/is the two men's ongoing bickering, both behind and very in front of the scenes. Townshend and Daltrey have worked together in various iterations over the years, but their rivalry has never been a secret. When asked why they stopped recording in the same studio ages ago, Daltrey told Billboard, "He don't like the look of me. I don't like the look of him." (Nothing if not concise.)
Then there's all the yelling that Daltrey's been doing at his fans. SPIN magazine reported that Daltrey lost it on some fans smoking marijuana in the front row of one of his shows: "I've gotta tell you, all the ones smoking grass down in front here: I'm totally allergic to it. I'm not kidding. Whoever it is down there, you [expletive]ed my night..." Apparently, this has happened many times.
For superfans, it's difficult not to play favorites, and with only these two left standing of the original lineup, they tend toward the guy who wrote most of their favorite songs.