# Pete townsend at super bowl **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 25, 2009, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554 "2009-12-25T16:36:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/61 "2009-12-30T04:26:27Z")
> [@Chicagojeff](#): > > hauling the geriatric set out time and time again after Janet J.. Come on.. we are all SUFFERING for this.. who’s on the bill next year?? The Eagles?? Heart?? come on.. Either band would still beat the crap out of Up With People. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/62 "2009-12-31T14:08:40Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Anything to the rumor that Gary Glitter will be singing the national anthem at this year’s Super Bowl? ☹ Thanks to **Jackmannii** I will, for the rest of the day, be singing: _Oh, say can you see HEY! by the dawn’s early light What so proudly we hailed HEY! at the twilight’s last gleaming?_ ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/63 "2009-12-31T18:37:40Z")
My dream set for the halftime show: Grizzly Bear Oneida Michael McDonald Schnauser Zager & Evans ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/64 "2009-12-31T18:46:28Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > Well, I hated 1999, 2000, most of 2001, most of 2003, and 2004. And I’m in my late 20s. Considering that halftime is just the break of what is hopefully an interesting football game, I’d much rather listen to an older rock group than what was generally being played from 1999 to 2004. > > Seriously, it’s a halftime show. If you aren’t interested, don’t watch it. It’s still got to be better than Up with People. Well, I was actually responding to **Odesio’s** post. > [@Odesio](#): > > Anyone who tunes into the half-time show and is surprised by all that “f@g sh\*t” hasn’t been watching half-time shows for the past decade. And he corrected my impression of what he meant. > [@Odesio](#): > > I’m not referring to the musical acts so much as I am the pageantry found in the show as a whole. The choreography and costumes wouldn’t be out of place in a musical. Put that kind of thing in the context of something besides the Super Bowl and I’m sure we’ll find someone talking about the “f@g sh!t.” I happen to like musicals myself. My point wasn’t necessarily that acts such as Aerosmith, Phil Collins, U2, etc., were interesting. My point was that, being mainstream musical acts, they wouldn’t necessarily be called “f@g sh!t” by anyone. And he stated he wasn’t referring to the acts, he was referring to the pomp and circumstance, i.e. choreography and costumes of the Super Bowl show. My point was about the acts. I missed his point and stand corrected. My point wasn’t about the interestingness of the shows, however. Maybe they could have benefited form a dose of “f@g sh!t”. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/65 "2009-12-31T20:05:02Z")
Hey Blondebear, I’m a lifelong Townshend fan as well. Thought you might enjoy this [piece](http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/pete-townshends-daughter-looks-back-on-her-extraordinary-childhood-452967.html) written a couple of years ago by his daughter. It includes this pertinent bit (but it’s got lots of other bits): > [@](#): > > My father, on the other hand, would have some oddly un-rock’n’roll musical enthusiasms. In 1975, the house was filled with the sound of Abba. “‘SOS’ is the best pop song ever written,” he will still insist. “It has all those Swedish folk elements that tap into whatever elemental musical self we have.” Another time, he came back from Tower Records with 11 boxes of records. In the boxes, there were no less than three copies of “Off the Wall”, Michael Jackson’s first solo album. Exactly why did you buy three, I asked him? “Well, it was so good! I just kept thinking I had to be sure to pick up a copy, and I was in a rush, I couldn’t remember what I had already got, but I thought, well if I get more than one, I can give it to people as a gift.” ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/66 "2009-12-31T20:16:27Z")
Ignoring the hijack, to those who argue that this is more of the same old acts I would say: when I heard this, my first thought was to agree. Then, I thought, yes, it’s the same old safe geriatric choice (and I _like_ The Who,) but at least this time they have an excuse. Where’s the Super Bowl being played? Is there a TV show with the location’s name in its title? What is the theme song to that show? Voila! Excuse! ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/67 "2009-12-31T20:26:51Z")
There’s a TV show with Opa-Locka in its title? ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/68 "2009-12-31T21:03:04Z")
[QUOTE=Ludovic] Where’s the Super Bowl being played? Is there a TV show with the location’s name in its title? What is the theme song to that show? [/QUOTE] > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > There’s a TV show with Opa-Locka in its title? [CSI: Miami](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Csi_miami) theme song [Won’t Get Fooled Again](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Won%27t_Get_Fooled_Again#Media_usage) (I had to look it up) ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/69 "2010-01-02T03:44:29Z")
> [@koufax](#): > > You know, I could almost believe that until he came out and defended Michael Jackson and claimed he was being unfairly prosecuted. > > How the fuck would he know this??? > > And if in fact he was so concerned about children, wouldn’t he keep his mouth shut unless he knew FOR A FACT that Jackson was not fooling around with teenage boys? > > To me , it looked as if he was saying, “see folks, the cops are screwing up again, just like they did with me.” > > I love Townshend’s music, but there is something fishy about a guy giving his credit card (PAYING MONEY) to this evil, getting caught, being put on a sexual predator registry, and then DEFENDING Jackson. > > Very fishy. I’m not trying to provoke **blondebear** , since she takes any speculation about pete as a personal attack, but I think that being on a sex offender list is a substantial affront to anybody that is innocent. If I had pete’s money, I would blamed well make sure that my name got off of it, if it was just a ‘technicality.’ That is something that one doesn’t put up with for the sake of convenience. I rather like Pete, myself, having grown up with him, and I think that he was the real star of the Who set on "Woodstock’. But _the whole story just doesn’t sound right_. This is said by a person who used to quite readily believed the guilty when they said that they were innocent. At least, I believed it until a few months after they were proved to be liars, and only a month or two after they themselves had admitted it. I would always make some excuse, such as the technicality defense, or were pressured into it, etc…And I usually, if not always, was disappointed to find that they had been guilty. (Won’t get fooled again, eh?) Pete’s ‘big mouth’ isn’t a good enough reason for his Jackson statement (unless, IMHO, it was a surprise question)Pete is too much of a genius to not have thought it through, if he had had the time. At any rate, for the Super Bowl, the Who is just fine. I mean, seriously, they aren’t going to chase the ball around; it’s entertainment between the halves. hh ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/70 "2010-01-02T03:55:52Z")
hh, I’m just standing up for someone I respect and admire. And, to set the record straight, I’m not a “she”. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![koufax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@koufax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koufax)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/71 "2010-01-02T18:10:17Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > Pete’s ‘big mouth’ isn’t a good enough reason for his Jackson statement (unless, IMHO, it was a surprise question)Pete is too much of a genius to not have thought it through, if he had had the time. It WAS NOT a surprise question. It was on his blog, on his website ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2010, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/72 "2010-01-03T00:11:32Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > it’s time to stop having people play the Super Bowl who are nearly twice as old as the players on the field. The audience for the halftime show is not the players, but the people who bought tickets to the event. They are probably twice (even close to 3 times) the age of the players on the field, and quite contemporaneous with those ‘old’ halftime acts. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2010, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/73 "2010-01-03T00:22:00Z")
They had a good amount of younger artists but that stopped with the wardrobe malfunction. Since then it’s been all groups/guys from the 70s or 60s. They probably will go back to younger people eventually. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2010, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/74 "2010-01-03T02:56:57Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > The audience for the halftime show is not the players, but the people who bought tickets to the event. They are probably twice (even close to 3 times) the age of the players on the field, and quite contemporaneous with those ‘old’ halftime acts. Sad, but true. I’ll probably never attend a Super Bowl in my life, but at 52, I still listen to bands whose members are 10-15 years older than me. That easily includes, The Who, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, and Bruce Springsteen, just to name some that have or will play at the Super Bowl since 2004. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/75 "2010-01-03T14:49:17Z")
They had a mix of old and young when Britney Spears sang with Aerosmith , NSync was also there that year. They had a mix before that such as Christina Aguilera and Phill Collins and Boys II Men with Smokey Robinson. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/76 "2010-01-05T04:06:38Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > They had a good amount of younger artists but that stopped with the wardrobe malfunction. Since then it’s been all groups/guys from the 70s or 60s. They probably will go back to younger people eventually. Yeah, but Jackson weren’t no spring chicken when she dropped her top. hh ---
**Author:** ![trrish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@trrish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trrish)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/77 "2010-01-05T04:51:54Z")
“After four months of investigation by officers from Scotland Yard’s child protection group, it was established that Mr Townshend was not in possession of any downloaded child abuse images. He has fully co-operated with the investigation.” -Scotland Yard statement If it’s good enough for Scotland Yard, it should be good enough for the rest of us. Lots of info here: [http://www.petetownshendisinnocent.com](http://www.petetownshendisinnocent.com) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/78 "2010-01-05T14:26:41Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Sad, but true. I’ll probably never attend a Super Bowl in my life, but at 52, I still listen to bands whose members are 10-15 years older than me. That easily includes, The Who, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, and Bruce Springsteen, just to name some that have or will play at the Super Bowl since 2004. Hell, I can’t think of any band I like whose members are younger than me (I’m 27). I thought one or more of the members of Muse might be my age but they’re all in there thirties. > [@trrish](#): > > “After four months of investigation by officers from Scotland Yard’s child protection group, it was established that Mr Townshend was not in possession of any downloaded child abuse images. He has fully co-operated with the investigation.” > -Scotland Yard statement > > If it’s good enough for Scotland Yard, it should be good enough for the rest of us. > > Lots of info here: [http://www.petetownshendisinnocent.com](http://www.petetownshendisinnocent.com) It’s just possible that the site you linked to might not be _totally_ neutral on the issue. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/79 "2010-01-05T15:28:31Z")
The quote is from Scotland Yard, though. It is factually true that they could not find any illegal images in Townshend’s possession. He didn’t get caught with CP and then come up with a “research” excuse after the fact. He just didn’t have any CP period. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554/80 "2010-01-05T16:29:51Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > [CSI: Miami](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Csi_miami) theme song [Won’t Get Fooled Again](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Won%27t_Get_Fooled_Again#Media_usage) > > (I had to look it up) You missed the point. The Super Bowl is not technically taking place in Miami, because Land Shark Stadium (or whatever it will be called by the time the game is played) is outside the city limits. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pete-townsend-at-super-bowl/522554.md?page=3)