"the who---their bombast and operatic and operatic seriousness can get fatiguing". Ain’t it the truth! That trait spoiled The Who for me when it appeared in the "Won’t Get Fooled Again" era, though "Tommy" hinted at it. Townshend’s writing became more deliberate and contrived (though Tommy really started it, his pre-Tommy writing being very different), and he started relying on that damn synthesizer, something I found glaringly out-of-place in The Who. And Daltry started holding his notes far too long, to the point of his voice becoming hoary (it had merely been the group’s weak point, but was now actually a disqualifier for top-tier Rock Band status imo). And that "Yeeeeeaaaaahhhhh!" in "WGFA" is just so corny. And, as LJ said, bombastic.
To me The Who’s forte was the 2-1/2---3 minute Power Pop song, crisp teenage anthems. Moon’s drumming also took a turn for the worse after Tommy---sluggish, with his snare 2/4 backbeat at the back end of the pocket rather than at the front where it had been, following the band’s pulse rather than leading it, as it had been up to Tommy (in Tommy it is right about in the pocket’s center, creating a deep groove they hadn’t before had). And his fills, rather than the brief mostly-snare drum flourishes of his earlier playing, became overly-long, pointless tom-tom plod-fests. I saw them live on the ’68 "A Quick One" tour, and he and they were bursting with kinetic energy. Then the ’69 "Tommy" tour, where it was still in evidence, but starting to slip away. By the time of "WGFA" it was gone. It sounded like they were swinging for the bleachers, trying too hard. But of course I was in the minority with that opinion, as they were gaining in popularity, not declining. As with most artists/groups/bands, I find their early work far superior to their later.
