With its ferocious blend of grungy distortion, rumbling bass and percussion, and brutish vocals, The Who Sings My Generation would influence garage rockers, metalheads and punks alike. 

 The Who expanded its musical vocabulary on A Quick One, a decent but flawed collection of experimental pop and rock. Except for one R&B cover ("Heat Wave"), the band's earlier nods to American rock & roll were diminishing. 

 The Who Sell Out is Townshend's first (and best) album-length concept piece, paving the way for the full-blown operatic sprawl of Tommy and Quadrophenia. 

 Magic Bus, with its misleading subtitle The Who on Tour (it's not a live album) and shameless rip-off of the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour vibe, is a baffling step backwards. 

 In retrospect, Tommy isn't quite the masterpiece it was hyped to be when it first appeared. There's no doubting its excellence as a narrative-based set of Who songs, but it's not nearly as much fun, or even as enlightening, as Sell Out.  

 The Who was at a turning point in 1971, straddling the transition from British Invasion pioneers to arena-rock gods. On Who's Next, the band crossed that line with power and grace. 

 Of the various Who compilations, only Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy and Ultimate Collection truly capture the scope and drama of the band's oeuvre. 

 Quadrophenia was Townshend's next stab at the rock opera, and though it is a more muscular piece of music than Tommy, its narrative–about a teenager afflicted with a four-way multiple personality disorder–is weaker. 

 By the mid-Seventies the Who was in a holding pattern, delivering slick, high-quality album-oriented rock and singer/songwriter fare but no longer pushing boundaries. The Who by Numbers is a decent album with varying mixes of great, good, and mediocre material. 

 The electronics-informed Who Are You is a decent album with varying mixes of great, good, and mediocre material. But Townshend’s heart no longer seemed to be in the songwriting, and Daltrey’s commanding voice had become a parody of itself.  

 The Kids Are Alright is a fine collection of great Who songs, mostly caught live, that captures scorching performances of "My Generation," "Magic Bus," and "A Quick One, While He's Away." 

 A passable collection of New Wave-inspired, MTV-era rock. 

 By the time of the aptly named It’s Hard, the Who had lost all inspiration. 

 Who's Last and Join Together are pointless live albums. 

 Who's Last and Join Together are pointless live albums. 

 The box set Thirty Years of Maximum R&B is poorly sequenced and includes entirely too much residue.  

 That said, the original, stripped-down Live at Leeds cannot be topped. Not only does it remain the most sonically intense document of that evening's performance, but it's also one of rock's all-time best live albums.  

 BBC Sessions is a comprehensive document of the Who's recordings for British radio from 1965 to 1973. It's not a starting point for the uninitiated, unless said uninitiated is a fan of lo-fi punk rock. 

 Live at Leeds (Deluxe Edition) is an expanded version of the remastered 1995 single-disc restoration of the original six-song classic. 

 Their debut got the deluxe treatment in 2002, which featured dramtically improved sound and a slew of b-sides, outtakes and alternate mixes. 

 Of the various Who compilations, only Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy and Ultimate Collection truly capture the scope and drama of the band's oeuvre. 

 John Entwistle died of a heart attack in 2002. Live at the Royal Albert Hall captures him and the band in 2000, with guest spots from Paul Weller and Eddie Vedder; the disc also includes four tracks from Entwistle's final gig with the Who. 

 Their debut got the deluxe treatment in 2002, which featured dramatically improved sound and a slew of b-sides, outtakes and alternate mixes. 

 Pete clearly hadn't spent the time off writing songs, and the result, Endless Wire, is an overproduced disc that's occasionally fun, though it mostly sounds like bad outtakes from Who Are You. 

 Their debut got the deluxe treatment in 2002. Similar treatment was given to Who Sell Out.