The year 1970 was a roller coaster for The Who. The success of Tommy, both in record sales and in touring revenue, were making them rich. Not just doing OK, but rich. However, the year started with a real tragedy, and probably marked the beginning of the end of the band, but no one knew it at the time.
Actually, there were two events that presaged the decline, but the one on 19700104 was the actual tragedy. What I find interesting is that this event, which really happened, is not nearly as well know as the one about Moon driving the car into the swimming pool at the Holiday Inn the previous year, which as we discussed last week, never happened.