It was only last night that I discovered, through conversation with a coworker, that the Super Bowl is this Sunday. In this rather one-sided convo it became clear that the squadron representing the city of New Orleans shall engage as one of the competitors. Thankfully, the New York Times swept in and helped me maintain my “music-loving girly-man” status with this article about the evolving advertorial nature of the Super Bowl Halftime Show and how the Who fits into it this year. I officially learned that The Who will play at halftime before even knowing who the other team is. I also learned that The Who’s only compensation beyond expenses will come in the form of the exposure the event provides, in the hopes of boosting sales.

Clearly I’m not much of a sports buff; least of all for a league that routinely celebrates rapists, animal torturers, and other assorted criminals  (here’s a fascinating infographic on the subject). Nor is it by any means newsworthy that The Who are cash-hungry sell-outs, as they’ve openly been so since the ’60s and are perfectly comfortable with it. What’s interesting is how the halftime show is such a tangled knot of ad revenue, self-promotion, A&E, censorship and sports. Townshend revealed the set list in an interview…  

“We’re kinda doing a mashup of stuff,” [Pete Townshend] tells Billboard. “A bit of ‘Baba O’Riley,’ a bit of ‘Pinball Wizard,’ a bit of the close of ‘Tommy,’ a bit of ‘Who Are You,’ and a bit of ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again.’

The rest of that article is here.