6 Reasons The Who Is Better Than That Stupid Band You Like: my latest at PJMedia

Fight it out in the comments, guys…

I’ll fess up: I always kind of liked Abbie Hoffman.

Of all the individuals who tried to destroy American in the 1960s and 70s, the Yippie “leader” and Chicago 8 defendant was the most energetic and entertaining, a hippie Groucho Marx.

But at Woodstock, Hoffman did a really stupid thing: after dropping acid he walked on stage in the middle of The Who’s set:

[Hoffman] said: “I think this is a pile of ***t! While John Sinclair rots in prison…”.

Hoffman was protesting (…) the imprisonment of John Sinclair (leader of the White Panther Party and manager of the left-wing hard-rock band MC5) who had been convicted and sentenced to nine years of prison because of marijuana possession.

Townshend cursed repeatedly at Hoffman and — accounts differ at this point – reportedly struck him with his guitar.

Townshend didn’t approve of Sinclair’s draconian sentence any more than Hoffman did, buthe was in the middle of a high adrenaline performance in front of half a million people at five in the morning.