Somebody said of the Who that they were the band you listened to when you wanted to break free. Bingo!
I've always wondered why I was drawn more, a lot more, to the Who than to their arguably more popular cohorts, the Rolling Stones. That one observation explains it. I've always paid more attention to lyrics than to melodies, and Townshend's lyrics, dealing with big themes and ideas, must have attracted me immediately. Even so, the melodies, too, were big, and soaring, and seemed to open to the sky (I'm thinking of several songs from Who's Next as I type). By comparison, the Stones were grimy honky tonkers -- not a putdown, but the best way I can express my impression of their far more R'n'B-inflected music.
Aspirational and inspirational -- that's what the Who are.
[EDIT: misspelled Townshend's name. Oops....]
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