The Who

I watched a special about The Who last night on VH1. Pretty good retrospective. Didn't sugarcoat much, went through the band's entire history, used a significant portion of their catalogue as background music. Missing was a discussion of Pete Townshend having significant hearing loss. I remember hearing about this as much as 15 years ago, yet the band (such as it is since only two members are alive) continues to tour.
A couple of things struck me while watching this biopic. When I was growing up, The Who and The Rolling Stones shared a space in the Rock and Roll hierarchy somewhere between The Beatles (whose music I never particularly cared for) and Aerosmith. I don't think history has been as kind to The Who as the others. The Beatles would never be supplanted, Aerosmith continued to make music, but I would consider the arcs of The Who and Stones to be similar. Yet, if I polled 100 casual rock fans who were not listening to music much during their heyday (say ages of 20-35) about the "best rock bands of all time", I'm confident The Stones would be mentioned twice as often. What I don't know is why.
To me, the music holds up just as well. The opening guitar riff of "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" is cited by critics as one of the indelible pieces of rock history. For my money, no rock song moment is more iconic than Townsend's only bars in "Baba O' Riley" (Teenage Wasteland to the less initiated).
The musicianship cannot be compared, when you consider The Who's supremely talented drummer Keith Moon, and that John Entwistle is widely considered the best bassist who ever lived.
Townsend and Roger Daultry both had solo success. Unless you count Jagger's made for MTV schlock "Dancing in the Streets" with David Bowie, The Stones had none.
Keith Richards is a legendary partier and general "how has he lived this long" figure. After watching the show, I am not sure that any person in history drank or did more drugs than Moon. Maybe if Richards had died in 1978 and Moon was still doddering around, things would be different.
In any event, I think history is jobbing The Who.
On another note, I was amazed at the chip on Townshend's shoulder, as well as his inability to holster his tremendous ego. Maybe a career spent watching your better looking colleague sign songs and star in movies that were entirely your own conception will do that to you (a similar phenomena undid Oasis, no doubt). Maybe it is for all the reasons I discussed above. I know this much. When I think of Rock, the image I want is Townshend smashing his guitar or strumming it like a windmill, not Jagger shaking his hips around or pursing his ridiculous lips. Apparently that's just me.