The Who by Numbers, was about survival…. Pete Townshend's concerns then were personal rather than public; he spoke for himself alone more than for the group. That record was muddled but moving. It asked the question, "What is it like not to die before you get old?"; it faced the puzzles of loyalty and love, friendship and regret. The subsequent Townshend/Lane LP, Rough Mix, seemed to mark the beginning of Townshend's mellow middle age. But Who Are You puts the emphasis back firmly on the group's rock mission: Townshend still wants to speak for his generation, still hears rock as the music of a community, still believes, in the importance of the Who as a group, as a symbolic rock community in itself.

Pete Townshend himself has two arguments. The first (most emphatic in "New Song") is aimed at the most recent generation of rock fans, at...