History Trivia / TheWho

** The second occurred after the release of ''Music/{{Quadrophenia}}'', which was not as popular or as well-received at the time as Townshend had hoped it would be. This, in conjunction with his drinking problem, caused him to take a brief break from songwriting before returning two years later with the stripped-down and alarmingly cynical ''The Who By Numbers''.

* CreatorsFavoriteEpisode: In his memoir, Roger Daltrey regards ''The Who By Numbers'' to be his favourite album by them.

** The 1975 album ''The Who By Numbers'': "Pete Townshend's suicide note".

* RoleEndingMisdemeanor:
** This very nearly happened to Roger Daltrey. He'd regularly fist-fight with other members of the band and was fired after knocking Townshend unconscious during one rehearsal. He was rehired after "My Generation" became a hit, on the condition that he'd control his temper.
** The band has admitted that at the end the only reason they didn't fire Keith Moon was that they knew it would make his downward spiral from "lovable drunk" to "walking liability" even worse.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: "Magic Bus" manages to still sound reasonably timeless until it betrays the fact that it was written [[UsefulNotes/OldBritishMoney before British currency was decimalised]] with "Thruppence and sixpence every day just to drive to my baby".

* BreakthroughHit: "My Generation" from ''Music/MyGeneration'', "I Can See for Miles" from ''Music/TheWhoSellOut'' in the U.S.

** Townsend thought that their Live Aid performance was the worst gig they played, due to technical issues and the band having been out of practice for years.

** The band hated their iconic performance at UsefulNotes/{{Woodstock}}. Roger Daltrey declared it as "the worst gig [they] ever played" and Pete Townshend said, "I thought the whole of America had gone mad."

** For MeetTheNewBoss, MagicBus, PowerPop, GoingMobile and TeenageWasteland.

* DevelopmentHell:
** Since at least the early 1990s, Roger Daltrey has been attempting to put a Keith Moon biopic on the big screen. Creator/RobertDowneyJr. was once considered for the lead role before, in Daltrey's words, he "read the script and did everything in it." Creator/MikeMyers was teased all throughout the 2000s to be playing the man himself, but after its intended release day in 2007 passed, nothing has come of it. Currently, IMDB lists the film as "Untitled Keith Moon Project", with Myers still attached to the title role.
** ''Endless Wire'' languished here for most of the early 2000s, simply because 20 years had already passed since the release of ''It's Hard'', and each passing year meant that the expectations of new Who material would be nigh-insurmountable, not helped by John Entwisle's sudden death in 2002. It was finally released in 2006, 24 years after ''It's Hard.''

** Townshend had also burned out on Music/{{Tommy}} by the beginning of the 1970s, particularly as it [[ToughActToFollow threatened to eclipse]] everything the band had done at that point and was the yardstick by which all subsequent Who/Townshend works were measured. He was faced with the task of replacing ''Tommy'' as the centerpiece of the Who's live set. Unfortunately for him, ''Lifehouse'' and ''Rock Is Dead--Long Live Rock'' were abandoned, and ''Music/{{Quadrophenia}}'' suffered technical issues live which led to friction that threatened to split up the band. These events, and Keith Moon's tragic death in 1978, may have continued to haunt Townshend at least until the first breakup of the Who in 1982.

** As mentioned above, this very nearly happened to Roger Daltrey. He'd regularly fist-fight with other members of the band and was fired after knocking Townshend unconscious during one rehearsal. He was rehired after "My Generation" became a hit, on the condition that he'd control his temper.
** And the band has admitted that at the end the only reason they didn't fire Keith Moon was that they knew it would make his downward spiral from "lovable drunk" to "walking liability" even worse.

** ''The Who By Numbers'' took an unusually long time to complete. This was not because of technical difficulties, but because of the band members's lack of interest and because of Pete's [[CreatorBreakdown writer's block and feeling of disenchantment from his music]].

* CreatorBreakdown: Pete Townsend has had several:

* LifeImitatesArt: ''Music/TheWhoSellOut''? Rock stars doing commercials? Hilarious in 1967. Now ''de rigeur'' for every musician, including The Who themselves.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: A second abandoned ConceptAlbum, ''Rock Is Dead--Long Live Rock'' chronicling the Who's history, was worked on in 1972. According to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, tracks salvaged from the piece included the singles-only tracks, "Join Together", "Relay" and "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Long Live Rock]]", "Put the Money Down" from ''Odds And Sods'', and early versions of the ''Music/{{Quadrophenia}}'' tracks, "Is It In My Head", "The Punk and the Godfather" and "Love Reign O'er Me", among other tracks.
** At one point in the late 1960s, there were plans for the Who to have their own TV show with content somewhat akin to ''Series/{{The Monkees}}'' (best seen in the promo films for "Happy Jack" and "Call Me Lighting"). This idea ultimately failed to materialize, probably for the best.

* TropeNamer: For MeetTheNewBoss, MagicBus, PowerPop, GoingMobile and TeenageWasteland

* AwesomeDearBoy: Pete and his colleges have often mentioned that the driving force behind the band has always been that Pete is simply "a fan of his own music."

* PromotedFanboy: Scot Halpin, a nineteen-year old fan who performed with the band during one concert. Keith Moon had passed out mid-show and was unable to play the drums, so Halpin stepped in for him.

* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: As mentioned above, this very nearly happened to Roger Daltrey. He'd regularly fist-fight with other members of the band and was fired after knocking Townshend unconscious during one rehearsal. He was rehired after "My Generation" became a hit, on the condition that he'd control his temper.
** And the band has admitted that at the end the only reason they didn't fire Keith Moon was that they knew it would make his downward spiral from "loveable drunk" to "walking liability" even worse.

* CreatorBreakdown: Pete Townsend had several:

* DevelopmentHell

* TheOtherDarrin: Zak Starkey and Pino Palladino.

* RealitySubtext: Supposedly, the reason Pete Townshend sang "A Legal Matter" was that Roger Daltrey was divorcing his wife at the time.

* WriterRevolt: One day in 1978, Pete Townshend was taken to a New York bank where he discovered an account with over $1 million in his name that his managers had hid from him. It was certainly a culmination of his dissatisfaction with the music industry, leading Townshend to write a few questioning songs with a meta flair on ''Who Are You'' ("New Song", "Music Must Change", "No Road Romance", "Sister Disco").

* OneOfUs: Pete Townshend is a big animation fan. He produced ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'' and based on his positive review of ''Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded The U.S.'' he loves anime, as the book heavily covers the subject as well as anime porn, and cosplay among other things.

** The band hated their iconic performance at UsfulNotes/{{Woodstock}}. Roger Daltrey declared it as "the worst gig [they] ever played" and Pete Townshend said, "I thought the whole of America had gone mad."

** His most recent was in the early 2000s, when he began personally researching sexual abuse in children under the belief that he may had been molested as a child and didn't remember. Unfortunately, his research led him to a child pornography site, which landed him on a sex offender's list for eight years.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: "Magic Bus" manages to still sound reasonably timeless until it betrays the fact that it was written before British currency was decimalised with "Thruppence and sixpence every day just to drive to my baby".

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: A second abandoned ConceptAlbum, ''Rock Is Dead--Long Live Rock'' chronicling the Who's history, was worked on in 1972. According to TheOtherWiki, tracks salvaged from the piece included the singles-only tracks, "Join Together", "Relay" and "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Long Live Rock]]", "Put the Money Down" from ''Odds And Sods'', and early versions of the ''Music/{{Quadrophenia}}'' tracks, "Is It In My Head", "The Punk and the Godfather" and "Love Reign O'er Me", among other tracks.

** Both of the {{Precision F Strike}}s in "Who Are You" were supposedly ad-libbed by Daltrey but left in anyway.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: A second abandoned ConceptAlbum project, ''Rock Is Dead--Long Live Rock'' chronicling the history of the Who, was worked on in 1972. According the TheOtherWiki, tracks salvaged from the piece included the singles-only tracks, "Join Together", "Relay" and ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Long Live Rock]]", "Put The Money Down" from ''Odds And Sods'', and early versions of the ''Music/{{Quadrophenia}}'' tracks, "Is It In My Head", "The Punk And The Godfather" and "Love Reign O'er Me", among other tracks.

** A band whose image was largely built around [[RockersSmashGuitars their at-the-time-shocking and revolutionary act of wrecking their equipment onstage]] and for wrecking hotel rooms and causing havoc on tour[[note]]The Holiday Inn chain banned them for life from their hotels in the 1960's[[/note]] had the misfortune of being in constant debt for much of that decade, until ''{{Tommy}}'' became a success in 1969. This, and whatever "legal matters" the band went through over this behavior became a constant source of pressure for the band, and the group was very close to breaking up many times. It can easily be said, then, that any attempts by the band of, erm, "sell(ing) out", affixing a quirky pop song like "Pinball Wizard" onto ''Tommy'' to help sales, or playing Woodstock [[MoneyDearBoy for the money]] would be [[JustifiedTrope very well justified and understandable]]. The inside fold out of ''Live At Leeds'' shows bills sent to the band for their antics and instrument destruction.

** Several of the lines in "Behind Blue Eyes" about violent outbursts reflect on Roger Daltrey's own history of violence. In the early days of the band, Daltrey would often solve disputes by letting the other person talk to his fist. In one instance, he actually K.O.'d Pete and was immediately fired, only to be let back in (under the proviso that he clean up his act) when "My Generation" became a hit.