Remember When The Who Called It Quits for Good (Which Ended up Being Just a Few Years) in 1983?

We now view The Who as survivors, a band that has overcome all kinds of tumult and tragedy to thrill their fans for six decades. But there was a time when the future looked bleak for the British Invasion legends.

In 1983, feeling like he could no longer find a way forward with the band, Pete Townshend, the group’s songwriter, decided to leave. At that point, The Who were essentially a non-entity.

Tragedy Upon Tragedy

You could make the argument that no rock band delivered the kind of consistently brilliant work that The Who offered from the mid-60s through the mid-70s. They transcended their original “maximum R&B” style to become purveyors of powerful, penetrating songs that often were included on ambitious, concept-driven albums.

Alas, the late 70s witnessed the band’s precipitous decline from the heights. The band’s pace of recording and touring slowed a bit, in part because drummer Keith Moon’s health was deteriorating due to his substance abuse. Moon died of an overdose in September 1978, not long after the release of the album Who Are You.

The three remaining members (Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, and John Entwistle) didn’t waver, immediately insisting that they’d continue. They didn’t take long before choosing Kenney Jones, formerly of Faces, as Moon’s replacement.

Picking up the Pieces

Meanwhile, Townshend was struggling with his own issues with drugs and drink, all while his marriage was crumbling. Any attempt to regain some touring momentum was doused when 11 fans were crushed to death at a band concert in Cincinnati in December 1979. To say that The Who limped into the 80s would be a severe understatement.

As if all the traumatic events at the end of the 70s didn’t put enough pressure on Pete Townshend, he was trying to get a solo career off the ground as well. That meant that he was trying to write enough for Who records, while also keeping some material for himself.

The Who released a pair of albums with Kenney Jones in the lineup. Face Dances and It’s Hard, released in 1981 and 1982, respectively, occasionally recaptured the band’s old power and glory. But that success didn’t convince Townshend that there was a viable future for them at that point.

The Final Decision

Around this time, band members were constantly clashing about the direction of the band. Townshend didn’t want to rely on playing their old hits night after night and worried that the new material wasn’t up to snuff. Daltrey and Entwistle wondered if that was because Townshend was saving too much stuff for his solo albums. Something had to give.

The Who conducted a farewell tour of the United States and Canada in 1982. But at the end of it, there was no announcement of a band dissolution. Instead, Townshend held out hopes that they could still persist as a studio entity, even tentatively planning an album for 1983.

But as 1983 rolled on, Townshend couldn’t find the thread for a new Who LP. Behind the scenes, the members of the band met to try and figure out how to proceed. They knew that any decision to dissolve would cost them, as they’d have to give back money they’d received in advance for albums they hadn’t delivered.

Finally, in December 1983, Townshend, without advising Daltrey and Entwistle, announced he was leaving the band. The Who was done, at least at that moment. The good news is that the future would hold many reunions and retrenchments, rendering that ’83 breakup just a little bump in their long, rocking road.

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