In 1965, Pete Townshend wrote the most famous line in rock and roll history, “I hope I die before I get old.” Well, he only has a week left. Next Sunday, February 7 at around 8:30 p.m., give or take a few commercial breaks, The Who will step on stage to play the Super Bowl halftime show. And at that moment, one of the most explosive, complicated, original, inspiring and dangerous bands in history will officially and permanently become appropriate viewing.

They will do a “medley of their hits,” as the promo material states. Really? That’s what you say about Neil Diamond. Not the band about which The New York Times said, “No other group has ever pushed rock so far, or asked so much from it.” Not the band that rivaled Bob Dylan as the restless voice of my youth. Not the band that made me wish I could smash my first guitar to pieces, if only it wouldn’t cause me to be grounded till I was 40.

The Who mattered. When they pounded and screamed, it was me pounding and screaming. They were serious. And they asked my questions. Why couldn’t youth be heard? Why did governments and companies lie? As the years passed, Pete wrote passionately about the values and transformative power of rock as both an art form and a platform. He railed against corporate rock and hair bands and embraced the punk movement of the 70s. When rap arrived in the mid-80s - strident, unadorned and often obscene - Pete declared it a seminal step in rock’s evolution because it was the new music of youth. He never sold his songs to advertisers. He broke up The Who when he felt they had nothing new to say, then put them back together in 2002 when, thankfully, they did. “Endless Wire,” released in 2006, was the greatest album you never heard because by then radio had turned into a wasteland.

Also, there’s this…The Who still kick ass live. If you’ve seen them recently, you know they do not show up to just play a freakin’ medley of their hits. They don’t ask you to sing along. They don’t tell little stories about the old days. It’s not a Neil Diamond show. It’s a Foo Fighters show, only you know the words to more songs. Townshend windmills as fiercely as ever. It’s not for show, it’s an attack. And Daltry still howls at the moon, still the king of pain. The Who are unquestionably still a great rock band.

So, unless they’re broke, it’s inexplicable to me why they would abandon their cultural voice and engage in the most corporate, most commercial, most un-rock and roll 12 minutes on earth. Why would they cut Baba O’Reilly in half, share the stage with plastic-ass dancers and shill for Bridgestone, a known polluter and exploiter of foreign workers? I don’t get it.

I don’t want you to die, Pete. But I never thought you’d get old.